mutiny in RP CLAN and LLHV infection

Feb 24, 2011
Jeyaretnam hits back at former members
He accuses them of staging mass walkout for publicity and to damage Reform Party
By Kor Kian Beng

Reform Party chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam (second from left) with former CEC members (from left) Tony Tan Lay Thiam, James Teo and Justin Ong in 2009. At least nine, and by some accounts 'close to 20', members have quit the party. -- ST FILE PHOTO

REFORM Party (RP) chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam yesterday hit back at a group of former members who resigned recently, accusing them of staging the mass walkout to inflict 'maximum damage' on the party and to gain 'maximum publicity' for their own political careers.

He also refuted the reasons given by the breakaway group - that they had quit the party because of personal differences with him, and that they had found it difficult to work with him.

If that was the case, he said, they should have sought mediation with him before quitting.

'The timing of this departure, its highly coordinated and planned manner and the way the individuals then went to the press, hardly seems an appropriate response to personal incompatibility,' he said in a press statement.

The statement came a day after a mass resignation involving at least nine, and by some accounts 'close to 20', members.

They included five members of the party's nine-member central executive committee (CEC): treasurer James Teo, 51; organising secretary Jeisilan Sivalingam, 41; youth wing chief Justin Ong, 25; and CEC members Jeannette Aruldoss, 46, and Tony Tan Lay Thiam, 41, a former government scholarship holder.

Others included Mr Tan's wife, Ms Hazel Poa, 41; freelance writer Samantha De Silva, 27; dentist Gan Theng Wei, 35; advertising executive Nicole Seah, 24; and career counsellor Gilbert Goh, 48.

Mr Goh had joined the party just two weeks ago.

Ms Poa, appointed the spokesman for the group, confirmed the resignations on Monday after she was contacted by The Straits Times.

Going by interviews with Mr Jeyaretnam and other party sources, the resignations came in the wake of a CEC meeting on Feb 10. Several non-CEC members who were prospective election candidates were also at the meeting.

Mr Jeyaretnam's explanation for the resignations is that he called for an inquiry into the conduct of four members who were at the meeting, which he himself had not attended.

He said he had received a complaint from two members at the meeting who said they saw two other members - who were prospective candidates - giving hongbao (red packets) to one of the CEC members.

The CEC member who received the money cast a vote that resulted in the two members who complained being barred from entering the meeting.

'There is no suggestion here that there was any causal connection between the money given and the resulting vote,' Mr Jeyaretnam said, but he added that the complaint was legitimate.

Apart from Mr Jeyaretnam who is the secretary-general, the remaining three CEC members are chairman Tan Tee Seng, and members Mohammed Affendy Abdul Rahim and Andy Zhu.

Other sources close to the party, however, say that the resignations stemmed from interpersonal conflicts caused by Mr Jeyaretnam's leadership style and personality.

He was said to have criticised members openly at meetings, behaviour which several former RP members said they found offensive.

The internal strife nearly boiled over last year when several members threatened to quit. Last-ditch peace talks prevented the exodus then - until this week.

But Mr Jeyaretnam yesterday rejected allegations of him being a 'personally intractable' leader.

He said he had offered to step down as secretary-general and to 'give Mr Tony Tan or whoever wanted it, my full support in that role'.

Other party sources, however, said neither Mr Tan nor anyone else wanted the post. Mr Tan himself declined comment.

Ms Poa said yesterday that the hongbao given to the unnamed CEC member came from her and her husband Tony, but 'there was absolutely no bribery involved'.

She said the hongbao was meant for the children of the CEC member who was often unemployed and that this was the second year they had given him hongbao.

'We give out a lot of hongbao during Chinese New Year and had not thought this was something that needed explaining,' she said.

Ms Poa also said the breakaway group does not want to comment further on what had happened as it wants to minimise damage to the party arising from their departure.

She added: 'In the one year that we have been in the party, although we have our disagreements, we have also seen Mr Jeyaretnam's drive and dedication.

'Since we cannot achieve agreement, we do not wish to be in his way. The party has an election to prepare for, and further speculations are not constructive.'

it happened before. it's happening again now.

MUTINY IN RP CLAN!

how could that have happened? was it the fault of RP's chiefy KJ or the RP mutineers? 5 senior disciples of RP CLAN quit over some "ängpows". what ang pows?

it was a conspiracy!

in the end, would the RP mutineers hop themselves into SDP like that last time where JJ led some RPpies into SDP? The whole martial arts saga was a real joke! while the paps were busy formulating their strategies to usurp the entire peesailand, opp clans on the other hand were all fighting among themselves. they had been doing that and IS still continuing doing just that. what a shame!

KJ on the other hand were alleged to be too obssessed with lime. and he loved it light. the new highly skilful RP disciples also loved lime and loved it light. too much limelight and too little to share among themselves? in the end, most of them were seriously and critically being infected by the deadly virus called LLHV or LimeLightHoggingVirus.

it was cool season now and viruses ruled. besides having to deal with the deadly H1N1 bird flu, opp parties were contaminated by LLHV. symptoms of this deadly infection were: everyone sees every other one no up. they only thought they were the centre of attention. they loved lime and they loved light but in the end they were pissed cos they just couldn't get enough of those lime light. they wanna hog the limelight but KJ seemed not sharing enough lime and light with all his skilful disciples. so now they callled it quit.

the conspiracy theory could be that these RP quitters might be victims of other opp clans'instigation and secret discords sowing particularly notorious from the SDP clan. most of these RP quitters were rated as creme de cream materials in the political kungfu arena. most were bestowed with deadly political martial arts skills that might enhance the winning of a province in the next GE contest which was drawing nearer.

now how?

SHUDDUP AND FISH!! that was what most of the opp clans were now eyeing and engaging. rod, hook and sinker all standby to fish in the runaway RPpies. even if the ex-RPpies were to land with the other clans, there was no guarantee taht there wouldn't be repeated upheavals.

most of them appeared to very egoistic and individualistic. they were seriously infected by LLHV - LimeLightHoggingVirus. it was contagious. it spreaded rapidly and fierefully,

the grand conspiracy: could those rp mutineers prior being RPpies already disguised themselves as TROJAN HORSE virus skilfully trained and dispatched by the paps? ah.....that would be another interesting theory to start cracking with.

for now, let's await to see which opp clans fish and hook the most of those RP runaway fishes.