After It's Been Said And Done

Over the elections are and we have the results

• 60% approval rating for current gahmen, down 6% from last election
• 6 opposition MPs in Parliament up from 2

The good bits
I think the people have come around to the general concensus that they aren't exquisitely happy with the power that be. So the overall decline in approval is a strong sign that the PAP needs to change. I also think that the 60% figure would have been smaller if not for the fact the PM said sorry a few days before the election. Vivian B also came out to say he was sorry about the comments he made about welfare payouts back in 2007 (thank god for youtube in reminding us of this parliamentary folly). Even WKS reminded us he apologized for losing Mas Selamat. So the whole theme of "don't listen to the opposition because they're dangerous and stupid, and we're smart and know what you need" became "so sorry we hurt your feelings, perhaps we sound arrogant, please vote for us". So the gahmen has got it's proverbial "slap in the face" with the lowest approval rating in a long, long time.

The other thing to be happy about is the how involved people got about politics, especially the internet generation. What apathy? Yes, people may have been attracted to the inflammatory comments spread on various websites and blogs but hey, it takes a kick sometimes to get the engine going. People started thinking more about the political situation they've lived with for decades and now, with the chance to actually cast a vote, had to put some perspective and intelligence behind the cross (or heart-shape or star or whatever) in the box of choice.

The bad bits (and there are several)
With all but one GRC being contested, only one opposition party won its way through to Parliament. The NSP which put up the most candidates sadly didn't manage to put any member through although there were a few close calls. It would have been nice if Jeanette Chong-Aruldoss got in for Mountbatten on the merit of promoting cohesion among the races and also having a fancy name in Parliament.

The joker of the gahmen bunch is still in. MBT and his housing shenanigans have not been adequately dealt with in my books, even though his constituency gave him a low win with a 11% increase in the thumbs down. He better buck up and keep housing in check. We don't care about the half-assed spiel on asset enhancement, we care about retiring with savings.

Mr Chiam took a gamble and it didn't pay off. Well what to do. Voters in Bishan-Toa Payoh didn't give him sufficient support to oust WKS and his bunch of merry men (a few ministers there too) despite the Mas Selamat saga. Sad lah. Singaporeans perhaps have put their head first before their heart when it came to possibly kicking out a long-serving, one-time folly-prone MP. Well Mr Chiam did have a good run at it, having being the dashing, smooth-talking oppostion member in the late 80s (there are many YouTube videos to peruse). His wife who stood for Potong Pasir lost out by the most narrow of margins - 100 plus votes - in a poll where there were 200 plus spoilt votes. How tragic. Anyway, the PAP have been grinding at Potong Pasir since 1984 and now with welcome arms and large purse, its residents can look forward to overhauls galore and perhaps a merge with Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC in 5 years to quell any protesting voices.

George Yeo is out. A victim of politics and the Singapore system. After all the pent up emotion resulted in a 9% swing for the Workers' Party, Aljunites and Singaporeans alike also commiserated in the loss of a good man. In one of his maniacal ravings before Election Day, Lao Goh of Marine Parade asked what George Yeo had done to deserve a potential boot out of gahmen, unlike WKS who let Mas Selamat go and MBT who created housing and transportation related issues. This statement, a vicious sellout of his own peers, nonetheless also bring to light the realities of politics here. George Yeo and his 4 other MPs are out on their bums. No more $15k a month paycheck. Isn't George also PM Lee's best friend? What's a man to do?

So we wait to see how Low Thia Kiang and his wonder team will now take on the PAP and wow us with their opinions and proposals. Viva la democracy!

Can We Vote On The Next Arab Country To Invade Please?

It's getting quite silly now. Some weeks ago, the UN led by the US and other Western allies intervened against the violence set upon civilians by Libyan forces loyal to Gaddaffi's government. To the outside world, it was apparent this set the scene for American and British revenge for the 1983 Lockerbie bombing and the farcical handover by the Scottish government of the only guy ever tried in court for the bombing back to the Libyans for compassionate reasons. The powers with the big planes came round to reassure everyone that only military targets would be, well, targeted. It hasn't been that straightforward has it? Apparently, there have been civilian causalities and sadly, this includes Gaddaffi's grandkids and his son. As a result, there's renewed anger against NATO who is leading the intervention. This reminds me of the time when NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Serbian crisis of the late 90s, killing 3 embassy staff and ensnaring the wrath of a billion. So much for laser-guided missiles and satellite imagery. Innocents still die. And the rebel forces are no closer to victory either. (Mentioning rebel forces made me think of Star Wars) This could be a protracted engagement no one except the US and UK wanted to be part of in the first place. Now the sphere of Arab uprising has spread to Syria, another US enemy. There, things have been just as brutal as we've seen or heard of in Egypt and Libya. But what is the West with their democratic idealism going to do about it in the face of the ever-growing mess they've added on to in Libya? Attack? Put it to a UN vote?

Is Yemen next? In the same vein, why haven't they done squat about Somalia, safe haven for pirates galore? And of course nothing's been done about the most famous dictatorship in the world, North Korea. Hypocrisy, maybe. Fear, quite likely.

The right thing to do is sometimes very painful and many are asking if military might was the right course of action here. I guess we can't always do the right thing and sometimes change has to come from within. It always gets tricky when someone else helps out. How messy can it get? Will the help try to take control? What level of gratitude is considered enough when it works out fine? What if it doesn't work out fine, who's to blame?There are quite a few examples of US intervention that hasn't quite gone to plan, most famously the Iraq war. So many soldiers have died, the place is still in a shambles and no one seems to really care any more.

I'm wondering if the parents of these kids flying about in their NATO fighter aircraft worried that their precious little ones (they always are in parents' eyes) are gonna lose their lives for people who may not even care. It's possibly debilitating-ly scary for them.

Not sure if we picked the right fight here. Although I used 'we', I am not sure how the SG rep at the UN voted.

The Internet Will Change How Singaporeans Vote

Ask most Singaporeans if they have had the chance to vote and you'll likely get a no. We've been somewhat numbed into the PAP election banter of 'thanks for the walkovers and we'll now deal with the small noisy eddies of faux contest'. Lulled into apathy more like it, perhaps.

As spans of 5 years went by, the Internet came along and blossomed. Nay, it burst into our lives as we welcomed broadband with open arms and mouseclicks. With the Internet came information and lots of it. Mostly entertainment and some facts. So people could read listen and learn at almost whim and fancy. The Internet also brought rapid one-to-many connectivity. One can today send a tweet or Facebook posting to oh so many people at once, a means of proliferation previously impossible or at least not available to the common man, perhaps only to the rich through TV. Login, post and you're done but more significantly thoughts have been seeded in others. The advent of smaller, more advanced mobile devices also added to this convenience. Info on-the-go, info in and info out, everyone in touch.

This is how the Internet is going to determine how the Singapore election will play out with a generation who has not known conventional politics or even dared form an opinion about the gahmen. Their source of information is quite simply going to be the Internet. We're practically the most wired country on Earth and there's more mobile phone per capita here than anywhere else. All this connectivity already changing the way we find and get information, sometimes whether we like it or not. I can't help it if my Facebook friend goes profane on a post, I see it too. On-the-fly alerts to our mobile devices let us know which friend has checked in where - information we perhaps didn't even need to know but we accept and raise an eyebrow at anyway. So everyone's going to learn and hear about SG politics and all that goes on in the same way, from our beloved instantaneous sources.

Admittedly, most of the news out there is anti-PAP. The links I click on and retweet mostly lead to information on how the PAP has screwed various aspects of Singaporeans' lives. I can't recall a pro-PAP tweet. By nature, we are drawn to bad news, that of scandal, impropriety and wrongdoings - the same way we are drawn to gossip and melodrama. So with bad news about the PAP gushing from the Internet, we are inescapably drawn into the whirlpool of anti-gahmen sentiment as slurp up the videos, posts, articles, tweets, bleats and images.

I suppose the PAP has it's own self to blame. With the policy of unequal political representation which spurred the general apathy, we didn't care and remained clueless because we didn't need to know who was in charge just as long life went on status quo. Now that the bull's been released from the stifling pen, hordes of first time, tech-savvy voters will inevitably turn to instant media to learn about their options just as they do with everything else, and get sucked into the Internet-based anti-gahmen sensationalism, truthful or otherwise.

The bubble's burst, finally, with little hope of reining in the flow. How wonderful.

#sgelections

Wanna Mess With Baked Regularity? Sure

Singapore is not a country of second chances. The meritocratic system we grew up with doesn't applaud failures and wishes them the best. So unfortunately our size and miniscule population doesn't allow for avenues for experimentation, so kids aim for tertiary education at the staunch behest of their parents so that they get a great job and make big money. (The pursuit of material validation for one's successes is an inevitable result of meritocracy, else why would we go through with it? So kids get PSPs when they pass exams and adults hope for big bonuses) If one doesn't comply somewhere along the way, one's options become limited by a fairly large degree. And you get stuck and make do. In the general scheme of things, everyone seems to have their place and do so for the greater good of seeing Singapore succeed. Sticking with the plan should get you the best result, generally. If you want to step out of the conformity, you better be darn sure you have a plan or tons of money or want to endure hunger, homelessness and ridicule (well, at the extreme I guess). No second chances.

So what's wrong with voting the Opposition for the sake of having a different voice in Parliament? Ah-hah. Doesn't seem part of the plan eh? Not really sure of what such an ingredient would do to the grand, seemingly fine, concoction of a regularity we got baking these past decades? Like in cooking, you'd never know if you didn't try. I also mean you wouldn't add curry powder to an apple pie, but a dash of a curry spice like star anise could help with a complimentary sensory accent. Clever additions, not wild experimentation.

We're smart enough to judge if we're listening to crap from the Opposition. More importantly, this is also a time to realise if the incumbents have been spewing crap within the baked regularity we've been used to, and have they burned the pie? I hope we're smart to also realise that sometimes rocking the boat makes the captain run his ship with greater care for the passengers. Remember, the folks in the Opposition are mostly the product of the Singapore system too, and hope to make a valuable difference to our tiny country. Like you and me, they would like to be heard. Please listen. Then, with conviction make a choice on May 7.