More than twenty years ago, I was featured in the Chinese newspapers being carried by my father and casting a vote for the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Twenty years later, today, I wave at the same man from my flat, awed by his presence, as he drives by with a loudhailer transmitting a pre-recorded message in English, then Mandarin, then Hokkien, then Malay, then Tamil, then all over again:
"Thank you for your support for the PAP."
I am a little surprised at my interest in politics. There are so many things I want to say now that it is over, but I don't know how to organise it all, so I'm going to give it in a list:
- James Gomez has been detained. Why? The PM says "the young has misunderstood the Gomez affair". That would be me.
- The Worker's Party won 33% of the votes in PM Lee Hsien Loong's ward.
- Across the constituencies, PAP garnered 66.6% of all the votes. The opposition won 2 seats out of 84, Hougang and Potong Pasir, keeping the status quo.
- PM Lee actually said the words: "fix the opposition" at a lunch-time rally.
- Kopitiams are the bastion of the opposition. It gives me a heady feeling to watch them toast with beer and chant: "Worker's Party Worker's Party" and/or "Chiam See Tong Chiam See Tong".
- I stayed up till 2am to watch the election results live.
- PAP should be gracious and offer to Hougang and Potong Pasir as much as they are offering the other constituencies because it is the taxpayer's money anyway. After all, who was it who said, "Whoever we voted for, let's put it behind us, and work towards a better future for Singapore together"?
- People vote on a very gut level.
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5 comments:
nice blog :) visit mine http://may2u.blogspot.com/
ah... youth and idealism... that's why you won't understand the gomez issue...
if you have enough grey hair and eaten enough salt, you too will appreciate why he had to be nipped... fixed... or whatever euphemisms you may care to use... as have all the many others before him...
trifle not with the powers that be, or do it at your own substantial risk...
one who's bumbling fool (think Chiam) is most welcome, one who plays the fool (think Steve) is not, and those who dare make the powers that be appear the fool are condemned - ever so utterly...
Hi May, thanks for stopping by.
Colin, do you think the Gomez affair will alienate the young people? They have yet to convince me of the severity of his crime. Defamatory remarks I understand.. but this? It is over my head.
I don't suppose he stands a chance..
it might turn off people of all ages, but the message had to be, and was, sent clearly and unequivocably...
i don't really think it matters whether or not there's any alienation... after all, what are your options? or of those your age?
also, alienation suggests an alternative, how can you be alienated from an entity so pervasive, it is the very firmament we walk on, the very air we breath... the thing that sustains life as we know it?
convince? which GOD would deign to explain and convince its creation of ITS actions?
and finally, you're right... not an iota of a chance...
i don't really think it matters whether or not there's any alienation... after all, what are your options? or of those your age?
also, alienation suggests an alternative, how can you be alienated from an entity so pervasive, it is the very firmament we walk on, the very air we breath... the thing that sustains life as we know it?
Whoa. That's enlightening in a very painful way...
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