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Former People's Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament, and presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock has called for "clarity and transparency" in the dealings of the PAP-owned company, Action Information Management (AIM) and the town councils. In a Facebook post, Mr Tan said, "As TCs [town councils] are public institutions, citizens are certainly uncomfortable with political party owned companies transacting with the TCs."

Here is Mr Tan's Facebook post in full:

By Kamal Mamat

I came back to Singapore recently for my end-of-year break and decided to pay former colleagues a visit.

That morning, I woke up and reached for The Straits Times, as always. The front page featured the increased cost of living in Singapore and blamed it on the car and housing prices. Everything else was steady, it asserted. A politician opined that as long as we are not buying a house or a car, we would not be affected much by the increases. Another article provided a summary of the different sex scandals which happened in 2012. With all these carnal pleasures, I wondered why our fertility rates remain stubbornly low.

I got ready and headed to the bus stop. In the lift I heard Korean spoken between a mother and her son. I imagined them dancing to Gangnam Style at my void deck. Reached the bus stop and I waited for bus 132 to bring me to town. 18 minutes past and the bus finally appeared. Another 132 swiftly appeared behind and I decided to hop onto it instead. The driver, all of 25 I guessed, greeted me with a pleasant “ni hao” – “how do you do?” in Chinese. I proffered a hello in return.

By Lisa Li / Additional translation by Yam Siow Ling

The jungle at Jalan Bahar is disappearing fast, careening towards a future of CleanTech industrial parks and other developments—but if you pause, look beyond the construction, and follow the winding paths deeper into the forest, there you will still find the hidden treasures of the last two dragons in Singapore, and the ceramists who are stoking the flames, keeping the stories alive.

Dragon kilns (龙窑) originated in China about 2,000 years ago, and were named for their elongated shape (sometimes up to 100m long) with 'scales' of bricks, a fire-breathing 'mouth' fed with wood chunks and air, and smoke emitted at the other end. In the belly of the dragon, the clay pieces would be fired, finally emerging as glazed ceramic objects.

Press release from the Singapore Democratic Party:

The Prime Minister cannot avoid calling for a by-election in Punggol East SMC without inflicting severe damage to his and his party's political and moral standing.

Mr Michael Palmer resigned not just as a Member of Parliament but also as Speaker. His stepping down has left a gaping hole in the legislature that cannot be ignored or papered over. More importantly, voters of Punggol East have been badly let down and they deserve the opportunity to elect another representative.

For these reasons, PM Lee Hsien Loong must call an election in the constituency and soon.