Monday 28 September 2015

Post General Election Blues

The GE has been over for about 2 weeks now and all the noise has subsided, replaced by an even bigger national calamity, the haze. 

You may infer from the last statement that I wasn't too happy with the outcome. I felt fooled. Maybe by the people and the promise. 

There was Chee Soon Juan with his born-again persona, the calm speeches that spoke to our hearts, with rationality that appealed to our heads and a simplicity that transcended society, like a wave sweeping and washing us clean. I was among the thousands who went to see him speak at UOB Plaza. He turned it on and turned it on well. 

There was the embattled WP. Desperate to fend off claims of mismanagement and impropriety, they spoke of teething problems and how they had to cope to with change, processes and policies they weren't in charge of. Yet the 50,000 people whom I jostled with in Hougang cheered as though we were at a pop concert. Nothing felt amiss. Nothing felt like the status quo was caving in for those who bled blue. 

And East Coast GRC looked ripe for switching allegiances too. 

I let myself be fooled by the hype and noise, comfortably collapsed into the rally rhetoric and online hullabaloo. 

It was a terrible showing for the WP. Losing Punggol East must have been heartbreaking for Li Lian. She had risen to the challenge against a doctor son of Punggol, in a by-election but apparently it wasn't enough to edge out an old timer with a big smile. It was tthe same in Hougang, where the PAP made the tide turn against the WP rather significantly, what is now a tantaliser for the men in white to go all out to woo over completely the opposition stalwarts in five years' time. And of course the Aljunied contest was a near bloody disaster. So close the numbers were, the PAP must have been reeling and squealing in delight. And it was the last result to be announced. A nail-biting finish no less. A less than a 1 measly percent win for the incumbent must have been demoralising for the team that won over residents with sincerity and resolutions just the term earlier. What will the WP do now? Have they drowned in their tears of shame? 

On a brighter note, we know a third of the people in Bukit Timah don't like the PAP. And 9% of the people in Tanjong Pagar are actually willing to throw a political novice into government. LKY must have been squirming in the afterlife over that mutinous poke in the ribs in his own backyard. 

Yes I was hoping for more opposition representation in Parliament, clearly. And clearly the rest of the population was worried about the bedlam, mayhem and Armageddon that would ensue if we didn't vote in the people who had been running the show for the last half century. 

Those who are able to "own self check own self", those who would build bus interchanges only if voted in, those who started CPF reform only after suing the young man who raised his voice about our retirement concerns at Hong Lim Park.

I guess I'm pissed that nothing's changed. (I still don't have a coffeeshop in my neighbourhood.) We somehow fell victim to the SG50 spirit, LKY's passing, the nostalgia of how far the country has come, how bright our future seems to be. All the emotions associated with transforming a fishing village into a gleaming powerhouse of commerce and industry in two generations. We had put faith in leaders who have taken us this far and we have voted them in again because of the promise that they can take us and our children to SG100 without problems and issues. Are we afraid of what comes next? Why? 

Do we fear untested madmen ruining this country? Do we inherently not give anyone else a chance? Are we this unsure of the unknown? Did the last 50 years of the same government rob us of believing in anything new? This is our lack of creativity spilling into the political arena? So dull are we that we can't imagine new faces as leaders? 

I'm reminded of how some people I've met, albeit older and some SPGs, who believe that the white man is superior. The colonial master came and conquered our lands for a long time and for a long time all we knew was his word and sword. Somehow, although now liberated and democratic, I feel we continue to succumb to trusting those we are used to having in power. From white man to men in white. Let's keep the dynasty going why not? Why rock the boat when all is good yeah? I'm wondering what will happen the cracks begin to appear. How will we find the glue to hold us together? Will the glue be handed down to us instead? What sticky mess will we be asked to handle? 

When Kenneth Jeyaratnam snatched the mic from the live report presenter and said "Singaporeans get the government they deserve" I laughed. Because it's true. We can't handle democracy. We fear change because we have few options. If you have money, you can leave. If you don't, then the fear of a shitty life threatens us constantly. The fact that elderly persons wipe tables and clear cutlery at hawker centers for a living rubs in the salt of fear. We then complain about our government. The very next day after polling in fact a taxi driver expressed his dismay. I didn't ask him whom he voted for. This is the way we are. 

Maybe I have been blind or blinded, foolish or fooled. Regardless, our duties as Singaporeans now is to keep an eye on things, to keep a finger on the pulse, to open our mouths when we are uncertain or afraid, and to march on two firm feet if the time comes.