It doesn't matter which party you are rooting for, or which party are you against with. All I know is, we all set out, wanting the very best for Singapore. As a Singaporean myself, I love Singapore and I am thus deeply concern in which direction this country is heading to. If the past 5 years has been satisfactory or good to you, it's okay to still support fully with the government's policies and whatnot. However, if the past 5 years, you have seen yourself struggling to make ends meet, seen yourself feeling uncomfortable with lots of non-singaporeans in our daily transport, seen alot of foreign talents competing for your job, seen your children struggling so hard to pay for for their basic HDB flats, due to the skyrocketing prices, seen you and your children having to pay so much more for their medical bills, as well as comparing your income to the rates of inflation and feeling uncomfortable with it, of course, taking a look at the ultra-high ministers' pay, then something must have been very wrong with where the country is heading isn't it?
I'm 21 this year but I was not allowed to vote, to my disappointment because my birthday falls after 1 Jan 2011. However, since I'm at this age, at the right age to vote, I thought I should really see myself as a responsible voter, analyse whatever things that were going on for the elections and make a conclusion myself, even though I was not allowed to vote.
Beginning of April, the government starts to unveil a series of upgrading plans, which is kind of expected because this has been the practice before every elections. Of course, the series of upgrading plans also comes with our Grow & Share package, where money is distributed from the government depending on where you stay. I'm not saying if this is a good practice, but it comes very timely. Well, I believe the ruling party does have an advantage over all the other parties because they have their means to these resources and thus, can use them as one of their campaign tactics, serving as carrots to the citizens. I did not have much discontent about it even though I thought elections should have been fairer.
Nomination day came, on 27 April, I was kind of excited because GE2011 was the largest scale and the most competitive elections ever, and I'm so curious to see which parties are contesting which wards, and what are they going to offer. The biggest news that day should be the fiery competition for Aljunied GRC, which also refers to Group Representation Constituency. This particular GRC, incumbant party People's Action Party, won the Workers' Party in 2006, with a slight margin, not that slight actually, it was 56% PAP and 44% WP. It was seen as the most competitive GRC in GE2006 because it was the only GRC which fell below 60% of the votes for the PAP. This time around, the Workers' Party continued to put their stakes on this special ward, and they up the stakes. After serving Hougang SMC for 20 years, the Secretary General Mr Low Thia Khiang decided to step out of his comfort zone, and puts his focus on this special ward, Aljunied GRC. I believe this move has caught the incumbant party unprepared. It has then seen as the fiercest fight ever in Singapore's General Elections history, because WP has sent in all the best people into this GRC, which includes Mr Low, NCMP Ms Sylvia Lim, top-rated lawyer Mr Chen Show Mao and two other impressive candidates. PAP retained George Yeo and their team with a new candidate to compete with this 'A' team from WP. That's cool, now I am so interested to see what both parties have to offer in the series of 9 days of rallies. I knew the end result will have heavy casualties, for PAP, they are gonna lose 2 Ministers, and a Minister-to-be, and for the WP, they are going to lose the long term serving opposition candidate Mr Low, and an NCMP Ms Sylvia Lim, should either party lose this GRC in this elections. Despite much reluctance to see any of them leave, the game had to go on.
On the nomination day itself, 82/87 seats were contested. It should have been 87/87 seats contested if not for the 35 seconds late submission of application form of the opposition party. Many felt unfair, many thought it was fair. To me, I believe, if you want to serve the country, it is only right you have to be on time. Thus, that team being disqualified were justified.
Next, the rallies. I wouldn't weigh the results by looking at the turnout of the rallies for the respective parties. I thought there wasn't a need to attend the PAP's rally because everything they mentioned will definitely be on the news, I thought WP's rally should be more exciting and can provide me with better information and views. Thus, my dad and I went to the first WP's rally at hougang.
I wouldn't want to mention how many people were there and whatnot, because you can see it for yourself from the pictures all over the internet. I merely want to know more about what WP can offer and also their candidates calibre. To be honest, I was very impressed with their candidates and their party. Very well organised, all with the same goal in mind. I found their analogy to have a co-driver beside the driver so that the co-driver can slap the driver if needed very interesting. There is an underlying message in it, which I think was very logical. A parliament should have different voices so that every policy in placed can have the best evaluation. I also like the party's slogan "Towards a first world parliament". As compared, PAP's speeches didn't really impress me but was rather disappointing.
To be fair, I also went to the other opposition NSP's rally, to listen to what they have to say. I wasn't impressed with them and disagree with some of the policies they propose as well. That's besides the point. I made use of the social media to find out more about the elections and within that few days I found myself getting the knowledge of so many information. I have learnt how to differentiate and come to my own conclusion myself.
To cut short, elections came. As expected, Aljunied GRC lost to WP, and thus we have lost 2 Ministers, George Yeo and Ms Lee Hwee Hwa.
It is a pity that George Yeo have to leave. I wouldn't blame the WP because they did what they did just to prove a point. The GRC system is flawed and can make us lose good ministers overnight, also we can just get not-up-to-mark candidates into the parliament through the GRC system, really "I don't know what to say lah!".
GE2006, only 1 GRC was below 60% for the PAP. GE2011, there are a total of 6 GRCS fall below 60%, including the lost Aljunied GRC. Public discontent with the PAP? I think so.
All in all, I still appreciate what the PAP has done for us but I really hope there were more voices in the parliament. What we citizens want, perhaps is really for the government to listen to what we have to say, and not putting all their focus on economical success. The elections has come to and end, with PAP winning 81 seats and WP winning 6 seats. I seriously hope for the best in Singapore and PAP can really understand what the citizens are going through and make better policies. I believe they can really do better. WP, as well, I hope they can really carry out whatever they have promised and don't disappoint us.
No comments:
Post a Comment