Smear-and-fear politics: PAP & TNP sinking to a new low

So things took a turn for the worse way earlier this time. At least in GE2006, taking cheap shots and smear campaigns did not occur until nomination day ended.

This year, the ruling party, People's Action Party (PAP), seem to have started the smear campaign of the opposition candidates way earlier. I had hope that the PAP candidates will take the lead of SM Goh when he called for 'a clean fight'.

Sadly, that isn't the case. I can tolerate it better if the new candidates started throwing around personal attacks and stuff, but never did I expect a cabinet minster to get involved. Yes, I am talking about non-other than my own MP, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan.

He, for some reason, decided to play the gay card. I was more than disappointed.

I read in the Straits Times today that the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC has not been contested in more than 20 years. Having lived in Bukit Panjang (almost) all my life, I had no qualms about that as the MPs in my constituencies seemed to be doing a decent job. As a matter of fact, we recently had a new carpark and sports field (conveniently timed to open this year) not long ago.

I never had a negative impression of Dr. V, until now. I seriously expected more, especially an experienced MP such as Dr. V to be open and able to engage the opposition on the issues facing Singapore for the next 5 years, instead utilising smear-and-fear campaigns to distract voters from the real issues.

I am pretty liberal when it comes to gays and lesbians rights, and I think that should be the direction Singapore should head towards if it wants to be a global, cosmopolitan and inclusive nation.

CAP 224, Section 377A continues to be a touchy issue, especially among conservative Singaporeans. But I certainly voters do not decide their votes based solely on just this one issue. What we really need is for people to openly discuss such issues instead of sinking to personal attacks.

You thought Dr. V. sank low? Well, it seems like The New Paper (TNP) decided that it can do one up (or rather, down) when it ran this headline:

I completely agree with miyagi when he tweeted, "Calling The New Paper gutter press is being mean to the gutters."

Quite a number of readers wrote in to express their anger and disappointment in running such a headline and the editor has since responded to such criticisms. It is true that TNP is a tabloid-ish paper and having attention grabbing headlines is its business, I think it instead made me NOT want to read the story.

Bending the rules?

Okay, I know this is one of the many Childcare centers (CCC) PAP runs. But are they allowed to openly display their party flags outside the CCC before nomination day?

Apparently, I'm not the only one who spotted this and think it is against the Parliamentary Act. But I think they will probably get away with it.

In other news, mrbrown asked a very interesting question: How many ministers and MPs does it take to open a (temporary) carpark? Well, from the looks of the screen shot, at least 7.

How come the carpark downstairs near my block never had such a grand opening ceremony arh? Our new carpark is permanent one leh. Is it because they are confused whether we are under Bukit Panjang SMC or the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC and dunno who to send down?

Singapore votes, but who really cares?

So, Singaporeans goes to the polls on 7th May 2011. But who actually care?

Thinking back to the last GE in 2006 (where I was first eligible to vote), no one around the world seemed to care. I remember vaguely that the BBC World Service (FM88.9 in Singapore) and BBC News on cable barely reported it. When they did, the correspondents all expected the People's Action Party (PAP) to have no trouble forming the government. And they were right, the PAP led a almost clean sweep, capturing all but 2 of the seats in parliament. That was the year when I first really became interested in politics.

It wasn't until last year when I took a political science module in LSE when I realise that Singapore isn't really an unknown overseas, at least in the political science arena. I was surprised at the extreme (both ends) perceptions foreigners have on the Singapore political system. One common view is that Singapore isn't democratic, while the other group will argue that it still have elements of democracy. Many heated discussions and theories were thrown around in class, but at the end of the day, who really cares?

We, as Singaporeans, should care. Sadly, I can't say this is the case for a lot of my peers. Even those who care, only seem to be interested when the elections are near for the wrong reasons. Their interest can be easily attributed to 2 broad reasons:

1. Many of my peers are first time voters, and are simply upset with the PAP government. But when quizzed on the why they are so full of angst, almost none could explain why.

2. There are also those who support the ruling party, and their reasons for doing so are even more disappointing: Because the government is giving us money (the Grow-and-share package is aptly timed to be disbursed on 1 May 2011).

There are also many other similar reasons.

My point is, many young Singaporeans do not fully understand (or bother about) the state of the country before taking a side. Some of my peers do not even know what constituency they belong to and whether they are required to vote! Such voters should not even be allowed to vote because they do not even know the implications and reasons for casting their vote.

Many youths, in my opinion, are getting involved in the discussion only because everyone else seems to be talking about it. Singaporeans like to complain, it seems to be an unspoken element of the Singaporean culture. But many do not stop and think why they are criticizing the politicians or why they are taking sides with the opposition parties. How many actually bother to read the party manifestos, think and analyse what the parties are actually saying?

Politicians should not be excused either. Instead of focusing on explaining how they intend to carry our their vision of Singapore over the next 5 years, it has quickly disintegrated into a series of claims and counter-claims, accusations and more accusations. As much as I love to see all this modern day, political bitch-slapping between grown adults, it really distracts voters and the critical issues facing Singapore today.

Personally, I think it is up to Singaporeans to decide for themselves what is the best approach to take Singapore forward and what is the best team to take us forward. Politicians should (ideally, at least) give us the space to think (and stop treating us as idiots) instead of participating in the mud-slinging that is happening today.

It is not just the ruling party that is guilty of this, the opposition candidates are also participating in this zero-sum game. What's sad is that the moment one party says something, the other party will have to come out to defend or rebuke for fear of being hammered (pardon the pun) by the other.

For all the heated debate and discussions we now have against the ruling party, I honestly think all these anger will ultimately not translate into votes against the PAP. As mrbrown pointed out, "What Singaporeans say and complain about the government and ruling party doesn't necessarily translate into votes against them," he said. "It's always nice to have an opposition, but not in my backyard."

In their attempt to connect with the youth, both the ruling party (with much criticism) and the opposition parties (with pretty good reception) introduced relatively young candidates for this coming GE.

Can young Singaporeans take responsibility for their votes? Let's hope so.

Edit: Good to see posts such as this, from one of my peers. Shows that there are at least some Singaporeans rational enough to put things in perspective and think things through before putting pen to paper.

2011 NTU Open House

So the open house is finally over. At the end of it, I couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment of 6 months of hard work. Though 6 months is not the longest project I've worked on, but the memories I take away from this project will stay with me for some time to come.

Events management and planning is nothing new to me, having spent the majority of my poly life running events for the School of Business and Accountancy and representing the school itself. But every event is different. And at the end of every event, there always is a sense of 'wanting more', wondering what else could have been done to make it better, hence, fueling the urge to participate in even more events.

Sadly, as the end of my undergraduate life draws to a close, I won't be able to participate in the 2012 NTU Open House. That said, I am glad that I took the opportunity to chair the NTUSU committee, and the process of putting together the next team is under way. So I'll be watching future OHs from the sidelines, knowing that I was once part of something special.

There are so many people I'd like to thank but I'm afraid of doing so for fear of forgetting somebody. So I shall thank them through a card via post. But everyone on the committee deserved thanks and I decided to thank them in the form of a very simple video that was mixed over two nights.