I sigh with disappointment over Mr Calvin Cheng's inability to read deeper into Mr P.N. Balji's inference for criticising the Nominated MP-designate over his curiosity reason in joining the Young PAP. Indeed, I had shot Mr Balji an email last week prior to Mr Cheng's reply, saying I thought Mr Balji, who is a friend of mine, was spot-on, though easy, with Mr Cheng. I added: "I would have been more hard-hitting than knuckle-rap him for naïve curiosity!"

The healthy type of curiosity a la Magellan, Einstein etc that Mr Cheng associates himself with is not the type in question here. When the phrase 'Curiosity kills the cat' was first recorded in the English playwright Ben Jonson's play Every Man in His Humour in 1598, the cat didn't die for displaying humanism (not that it could, anyway, being a feline). It died presumably for its poor judgment in thinking too highly of itself and its capabilities.

Mr Cheng would have given the impression that he displayed such opportunism when he stuck to being both a Young PAP member and an NMP aspirant at the same time, in that should the new avenue closes, he could always return to an old avenue. For if he were inactive, why didn't he quit the party the moment he aspired to be an NMP - why wait till the outcome of his NMP application? If he didn't think the link between the two would compromise his position, why did he bother to inform the Select Committee about it? More importantly, would he have quit his party membership had he failed in his NMP attempt or keep it 'inactive' (aka 'on standby'?). Thus the crucial question is not why he offered to resign so late but why didn't he resign earlier.

I am not a fan of the NMP scheme and, like many constitutional puritans, do not believe the sanctity of Parliament is a marketplace for non-elected representatives to articulate their views on behalf of citizens they did not receive their mandate from, no matter how well intentioned these contributions may be. There are always the Select Committees, Advisory Panels, the civil groups, REACH or even the opposition where one could make significant contributions to political life in Singapore.

I hope that rules on the future selection of NMPs include this in-principle clause of the exclusion of candidates with any political party affiliation unless they have first resigned their membership. If you want to be a PAP member, hope you are capable enough to be spotted by the party to be its MP nominees. Don't we have enough PAP MPs in parliament to add pseudo-PAP MPs to the list?

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