Forumers point out Jarrod Luo's involvement in Sunshine Empire

Forumers have pointed out Jarrod Luo's (Honorary Secretary of Young Democrats - Youth wing of Singapore Democratic Party) involvement in the Ponzi Scheme Sunshine Empire.

Click on link below to find out more:

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?p=41238169

Forumers have found photos of Jarrod Luo with Sam Mok, who is the Managing Director of Sunshine Empire.

In one photo, Jarrod Luo is pictured side by side Sam Mok, and wearing a tag, with a Forwin88.com image in the background. Forwin88.com is believed to be a splinter of Sunshine Empire.

About Sunshine Empire

Sunshine Empire is a defunct company, with all assets frozen by the Singapore Government. The Founder and CEO are currently on trial for running fraudulent trades and investment schemes.

It was set up in 2006 as a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) company, based Singapore.

The company is listed by the Singapore Government's Monetary Authority in its Investor's Alert List, for possibly running investment schemes without authority.

Following months of investigation by the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police, Sunshine Empire's Directors will appear on trial at Singapore's Subordinate Courts in March 2009 for falsifying accounts, making false capital declarations and running a fraudulent trade.

The company had gathered up to S$189 million in funds through investment schemes, alleged to have never materialised and in fact a Ponzi scheme. Initial trial revealed that over S$115m were paid out as 'investment returns', while another S$40m were transferred to associates as 'interest free loans' and the remaining believed to have been expended or paid out to directors as fees.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Empire

It is not known if Jarrod Luo had been an active multilevel marketer at Sunshine Empire. Jarrod Luo is estimated to have joined the SDP after Sunshine Empire is investigated by the authorities. Could his SDP membership be a result of his discontent with how the authorities clamped down on Sunshine Empire?

We believe that Jarrod Luo had a name change or rather adopted an English name after Sunshine Empire got into trouble.

Repeated attempts of contacting Jarrod Luo have not been successful. At least Sheng Siong responded with a rejection. Jarrod Luo didn't even reply.

Naked SDP has no clothes to wear

In a latest blooper by the most irrelevant political party in Singapore*, the SDP mistook someone else for MM Lee!

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was speaking to students at the University Cultural Centre of National University of Singapore on 19 October 2009, Monday. However, in its article, the SDP mentioned criticised the MM Lee that spoke on "Sunday night".

SDP mentioned that MM Lee disregards the Gini coefficient. But that's not true! MM Lee Kuan Yew was answering to a student's question "Short of a Minimum Wage policy, what are the other ways we can help low-income Singaporeans other than CPF Life, ComCare, SPUR, Workfare, etc". As such, the SDP is skewing the facts and painting a wrong image.

As Singaporeans, we feel disturbed that SDP, as a political organisation, adopts such a negative writing style when penning about Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's very own founding father. Without MM Lee's leadership, the SDP might not even exist.

But the SDP's views do not matter. Channel NewsAsia reported that "The minister mentor will deliver a speech and receive the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the US-ASEAN Business Council during its 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner in Washington on October 27."

At the end of the day, the one that has no clothes to wear is the SDP

* based on a research by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS)

Indiscriminate recruitment for Young Democrats

As the SDP rejoice the growing [based on assumption] numbers of its Young Democrats, its elites should begin to worry. Quantity does not mean quality, and especially in the Young Democrats, the quality seems to drop with every increase in its quantity.

Just look at the Honorary Secretary of the Young Democrats, Jarrod Luo. As a young graduate, he is now involved in an online gambling business called Forwin88.com, a business linked to Grand Elitia. Upon our research on Grand Elitia, we found it linked to a fraudulent company. We have sent a private message to Jarrod Luo to ask him if he was involved there too. Online gambling is illegal in many countries including Singapore. Read more about Jarrod Luo in our article: "Who's Jarrod Luo?"

In contrast to the claim by the SDP that "the Young Democrats have also been doing their homework in raising discussions that interest young people in Singapore", a quick glance at the Young Democrats facebook page will very quickly turn you off. Other than members of the Young Democrats, no one else are contributing to the page.

An encounter with the Young Democrats in their facebook group has also been disappointing. Read the following articles to find out more:

Young Democrats not open to alternative views: http://notmysdp.blogspot.com/2009/10/young-democrats-not-open-to-alternative.html
Young Democrats lift ban on Corns upon reading NOTMYSDP: http://notmysdp.blogspot.com/2009/10/young-democrats-lift-ban-on-corns-upon.html
Anonymous reader returns with loopholes: http://notmysdp.blogspot.com/2009/10/anonymous-reader-returns-with-loopholes.html

Has the SDP broken the Law?

According to the SDP article, "a 15-year-old student joined us for a walkabout and sales of The New Democrat". The law states that political parties must not recruit students (less tertiary ones) and that students should not be engaged in political activities.

Is the SDP desperate for young members that it indiscriminately recruits teens into Young Democrats? Do the teens even understand what is politics in the first place.

The answer lies here in our article, "Sell The New Democrat for Commission", http://notmysdp.blogspot.com/2009/10/sell-new-democrat-for-commission.html . Are these underage students selling the SDP newspapers to earn a living?

SDP first to start youth wing but now has the weakest youth wing

SDP proudly proclaims to be the first political party to start a youth wing. It was started by Mr Chiam See Tong, which was ousted by Dr Chee Soon Juan. The current leadership has changed 360 degrees after Chiam's departure. However, Dr Chee and other SDP leaders still shamelessly claim Chiam's work as their own pride.

In fact, the Young Democrats cannot be compared to the youth wings of Workers' Party and the PAP. Even the youth wing of Reform Party is recruiting more youths than the SDP.

All in all, SDP has yet again been boastful about tiny achievements and show us that humility has no place in its value system.

SDP wants to fight PAP on all fronts except...

Capitalising on the AGC appeal on the acquittal of the TBT gang and the sale of HDB wet markets to Sheng Siong, Dr Chee Soon Juan is quick to exploit the situation and gain some political points for the SDP.

In his latest article, he outright declared that his party wants to fight the ruling party - PAP - on all fronts. The title appeared demeaning BUT after reading it, we found that his title was misleading. The title should instead be:

SDP wants to fight PAP on all fronts except winning the people's hearts

These are the actual fronts that the SDP want to fight:

1. Contesting Elections
2. "campaign for the rights of our freedoms of speech and assembly to be restored"

Point 1 -- Elections. Acceptable.

Point 2 -- Campaigning for rights

Read this: "The nonviolent action campaign conducted by my colleagues and I is not borne out of impulsive passion or angry desperation. They are a result of a careful review of what strategy works and what doesn't."

The SDP simply has no way to turn back. After numerous suits against Dr Chee and jail terms, Dr Chee has many reasons to fight for "rights". He fights for such "rights" so that he can clear his tainted name. The day he achieves the "rights" to strike and protest and demonstrate, he would be placed on the altar for his disobedient activities.

What about winning people's hearts?

SDP says interacting with people is "backbreaking work". The only interaction that SDP had till now was Tak Boleh Tahan (no updates for a long time), selling newspapers and walking the wet markets ONLY WHEN HDB wants to sell them. And yet, that's "backbreaking".

Walking the ground to the PAP, WP, and SDA means regular house visits to gather feedback from residents, not only during opportunities like sale of wet markets.

Fighting alone

To fight the hegemon PAP, SDP is going alone. Dr Chee did not mention, in any sense, that SDP would be working with other parties. It's been well-known that SDP has never respected WP as the leader of the Opposition.

As the least relevant party perceived by Singaporeans, it'd be definitely an uphill task for SDP.

民主党没做好功课就乱下指责

张俰宾：民主党没做好功课就乱下指责。

武吉班让区议员张俰宾博士昨天受访时，证实收到民主党的公开信，也知道民主党成员到他的选区分传单，但没见过传单内容。

张俰宾说：“民主党不知道这个湿巴刹是我在1996年代表居民向建屋局申请兴建的，因为居民都倾向于在区内设立湿巴刹。民主党说我没为居民追究（收购）事件，其实我最近经常和居民、巴刹的摊贩和基层领袖们会面，他们都希望保留湿巴刹，我最后也向当局传达了居民的意愿。他们（指民主党）想说什么都行，因为他们没做好功课，不了解个中情况。”

《联合晚报》 12/10/2009
http://news.omy.sg/News/Local%2BNews/Story/OMYStory200910121455-97303.html

No One Bothers

A picture says a thousand words about the attitude of Singaporeans toward Singaporeans. Now we know why they have to offer commission for the sale of party newspapers.

Sell The New Democrat for COMMISSION

Looking for a new job?

Help SDP sell its party newspaper for commission.

SDP's sad or happy day?

The following is a comment made by BryanT on the article about SDP members' acquittal.

SDP members and supporters won't know whether to laugh or cry over this acquittal.

Obviously, SDP should be euphoric that the acquittal vindicates what they have done in Sep 07. They could also rejoice that the judge has been amicable enough to interpret the law in their favour.

But I would like to remind SDP that it was let off on what seems like a technicality - the lack of a clear legal definition of "progression". Hence the judge has had to rely on a “natural and ordinary” meaning of the word.

SDP should note that this oversight (ie. lack of definition) can be easily corrected by parliament in future, although personally I think we should let it be, besides the fact it would make the government seem retributive to make the amendment at this stage.

On the other hand, SDP has reasons to be sad because the acquittal DEBUNKS their long-held and oft-repeated insinuation that the judiciary is at the beck-and-call of the ruling party. Here was a case whereby the judge has given SDP the benefit of doubt with regards to the law.

Based on its mindset, whenever judgments were proffered that were not favourable to the SDP, it would make accusations of judges being biased and beholden to the government. This mindset is embodied recent accusations made by its supporters of the type as follows:

- Shame on those lap dogs - the judges, ministers, technocrats, etc who are so educated yet have to suck up to one old
peesai miserable man.

- the ruling party has used the whole civil system like the police, army, media and justice to perpetrate the manipulation and suppression on the people

- Everyone knows kangaroos run our courts!

Now that a judge has shown clear and balanced legal mind to acquit these SDP members, the party and its supporter can no longer lay claims to persistent legal suppression. SDP can no longer deliberately breach laws and then attribute their incarceration to miscarriage of justice.

A principled judiciary is not helpful to SDP's cause since it has essentially lost one of its raison d'être to overhaul the Singapore system.

I know a sparrow does not summer make, but overall it's a sad autumn day for SDP.

Opportunistic SDP exploiting closure of wet markets

SDP showed off its opportunistic side when it objected to the closure of wet markets.

SDP stated its objective: "The SDP will take the case to Singaporeans especially the residents at the Bukit Panjang constituency where we contested in the last general elections." & "We will ask the residents to oppose the sale of the wet market at Fajar Road".

Isn't it ironic that when SDP economic policies are to encourage local companies to blossom with the elimination of GLCs, SDP is fighting against the expansion of local company Sheng Shiong?

Would it be wise for the SDP to capitalise on this issue and turn it into a political equation? It's your take.

SDP needs to reconsider its electoral weaknesses

In the last few days, SDP Assistant Secretary General, John Tan (the TBT person who treated the court like a circus) attended a forum in Seoul, Korea and "urged the international community to send monitors to Singapore during its next election".

In writing that the SDP are continuing the sale of its party newspapers, SDP highlighted several obstacles that lay in front of it, namely, "fear" of Singaporeans to vote against the PAP, and the "manipulation of the electoral process".

We believe that SDP is suffering from myopia and it needs to reconsider its electoral weaknesses in order for them to be ready for the next General Elections. There is really no point in dwelling at pointless accusations and external factors that the SDP cannot control.

These are our groups' observations and analysis on the SDP's electoral weaknesses.

1. Lack of grassroots appeal
   
   While PAP, WP and SDA members conduct regular walkabouts at their constituencies and their "target constituencies", the SDP just sells newspapers. What SDP needs to do is to do more than just generating income from the sale of its newspapers. SDP should embark on house-to-house surveying and attempt to help locals directly.
   
   
2. Seen to be anti-everything-under-the-sun
   
   SDP is well-known to be against every government policies and everything espoused by the ruling party. We can applaud SDP's effectiveness of transmitting such grievances and complaints. However, this has become a double-edged sword. On the other end, Singaporeans become disillusioned with SDP because SDP becomes a party with no useful outputs other than complaints.
   
   
3. Cannot shed its criminal image
   
   With the numerous libel suits against SDP leaders, Singaporeans would be wary of voting the leaders who brushed with the law. In a society where locals are still not as forgetting and forgiving, SDP leaders might be shooting their feet if they continue to disregard the law.
   
   
4. Unable to differentiate itself from other parties
   
   With the rising popularity of the Reform Party (since the death of JBJ and the coming of JBJ's son), the lines that differentiate SDP from the other parties become blurred. We know SDP claims it fights for democracy and human rights. Reform Party believes in that too. So does SDA and WP. So why vote for SDP?
   
   

Anonymous reader returns with loopholes

This comment is real interesting.

we tend not to reply comments to this blog, so this might be one major exception since this exposes the SDP.

Take sometime to read it... cuz' Corns is no facebook idiot...

Are you ready?

Loopholes

1) "Click members and u can see all sorts of things" --> only Admins would see the ban list, therefore Anonymous must be admin.

2) Anonymous mentioned earlier (read below) on that he/she checked the Corns'd a secure facebook account and cannot be located from the member list by normal members --> Anonymous must be admin.

Thank you, Anonymous 4 all the entertaining performance!!!

Who's Jarrod Luo?

Jarrod Luo is the Honorary Secretary of Young Democrats.

Excerpts from his facebook:

"... I'm currently working at a friend's company, training to be an assistant manager, as well as running some business on the sidelines..."

Businessman! Young Entrepreneur. Then I saw these photos:

Club Forwin website (http://www.forwin88.com/) shows that it's an online gambling site.

This is further confirmed by this forum --> http://www.onlinegamblingforum.org/showthread.php?t=6120

Online gambling is illegal in Singapore & in some other countries such as the United Kingdom. Is this why SDP hasnt been championing against the opening of the IR casinoes, unlike WP and SDA?

This adds questions to the way SDP picks its "talents". Do they screen their candidates?

As a key office holder, Jarrod Luo stands a chance to be put up by the party for elections. Is this your party, your voice?

Young Democrats lift ban on Corns upon reading NOTMYSDP

cheers! Young SDP lifted ban after reading our blog! hurray yay :)

Allow me to now expose the "behind-the-scenes" actions by the SDP youths.

At 11:22pm, Young SDP Honorary Sec. Jarrod Luo started responding to a question Corns posed earlier on to Muhd Khalis Rifhan.

At 12:04am, an Anonymous reader posted a comment saying that he/she "just checked the ban list and its clean with no names on it". --> Must be an administrator of the facebook page.



At 12.11am, the Anonymous struck again, asking why we censored Jarrod's reply. Note: Jarrod replied at 11:22pm.

At 12:21am, Jarrod Luo told Corns that her links have been cleared (???) by the admin. He said they 'look forward to engaging with more opinionated individuals like you (Corns)'.

How hypocritical

Let's relook at who's the Admins for the facebook page.

• Priveen Suraj (President of Young Democrats)
• Jufri Salim (Vice-President of Young Democrats)
• Jarrod Luo (Honorary Secretary of Young Democrats)
• Muhd Khalis Rifhan
  

At the point of time of incident, Jarrod Luo's online. Could Jarrod Luo be the Anonymous poster? And after reading our complaints that Corns got banned, Jarrod then quickly went to lift the ban on Corns?

This mystery will only reflect the SDP's integrity. Did the youths learn from their SDP leaders?

Young Democrats not open to alternative ideas

I laugh when I read this from the Young Democrats page : Come into our Facebook page and be a part of a lively discussion about the need for political change in Singapore!

A few days ago, Corns (our teammate) joined the Young Democrats Facebook group and started to post her views. My initial post was removed by the Young Democrats, leaving behind a response from Muhd Khalis Rifhan to her initial post.

Next, the Honorary Secretary of Young Democrats, Jarrod Luo, responded in kind asking Corns to use the discussion board.

Since Jarrod wanted dirt to be swept under carpet, Corns decided to leave just her final question that Muhd Khalis Rifhan had not answered to her earlier on, before going under the carpet.

Well, Muhd Khalis Rifhan still did not answer to Corns' question, sadly.

At the discussion board, Corns posted this popular sentiment about the SDP -->

Seelan Palay was the last person to comment on my posting. Then when Corns logged in today, she found herself banned from the group!

Who could have banned Corns Tan?

The answer lies in 1 of the Admins.

• Priveen Suraj (President of Young Democrats)
• Jufri Salim (Vice-President of Young Democrats)
• Jarrod Luo (Honorary Secretary of Young Democrats)
• Muhd Khalis Rifhan (the Gentleman that did not answer my question)
  

1 of the reasons stated by the SDP as to why join Young Democrats is "The Young Democrats is a vehicle to express your opinions without constraints." link

MY FOOT!

Recall the days when SDP's website allowed anonymous comments? SDP was attacked and assaulted and that led SDP to restrict comments only to those who register. With yet another such episode in censoring alternative views, SDP has exposed its timidity and fearfulness of what they really stand for -- personal gains rather than for country.