Good Luck Ms Tin

There's been lots of talk about Tin Pei Ling, the 27 year old upstart to get into the political scene in Singapore. Heralded publicly as the gahmen's tactic to get young Singapore more politically involved, Ms Tin's foray into the limelight has inevitably raised questions about her inexperience and ability to lead.

Pre-reveal, Ms Tin has put on cute antics on YouTube videos and had a shot of herself on her Twitter profile (@tinrina), presenting not quite the straight and narrow private image to the Internet-savvy public. Ironic for someone who wishes to reach out to Singapore's youth via new media, her Twitter account is private. It is a personal account so we may be premature in lambasting her motives, but she follows politically-aligned twitterers so it may not be so personal after all. Someone also has published photos of Ms Tin with her supposed ex-boyfriend and raised silly gossipy crap about her leaving him to be with her current works-for-the-PM hubby. Finally, some tabloid worthy political nonsense out of the little red dot.

(Something that bothered me somewhat was her response to questions about her commitment to duty if she had a kid. She replied she would keep tabs on her work during her time away. Can't mums just be mums and raise their kids while on maternity? Are we so hung up on our paycheck that we can't commit 100% to raising kids right? Well, that response pricked at me for a while. It's over now)

There is little doubt that Ms Tin will get into Parliament, mostly because she happens to ride on the coat-tails of a GRC constituency where votes for a party get all the members of that team regardless of how each member performs or has performed. The true democratic process perhaps lies in the single member constituencies which simply put is each man for himself in the eyes of the voters. Ah true democracy. (An island full of SMCs would be a quite a fun ruckus wouldn't it?)

Personally, I think the gahmen is trying to present a fresh, new face to what they believe is a less-than-mature, not-so-connected public. Not quite right there. My peers are asking why they would vote for a 27 year old. Online talk the day after Ms Tin was revealed was robust, both superficial and intellectual. Amazing I'd say. And they say Singaporeans are politically apathetic. No way, we just like to hide behind the Net.

Well good luck Ms Tin. May the public be kind to you.