Category: News

What we learnt from a historical election

  1. WP should call the shots in the opposition now, because it’s clear they’re the only ones that can push the PAP into the 50+ percentiles consistently. They also fulfilled their strategic objective of capturing a GRC, so assuming they can hold it in the next election, that’s the thin end of the wedge for the forthcoming two-party system. As much as I want a strong third party and seeing how ossified the cozy 2 party structure in the US and Britain have become (granted, those are ACTUAL mature democracies, so rot has set in after so much time), Singapore is simply too small to support more than 2 parties of significant size.
  2. I don’t know what is it with my Teochew demographic, but I find it hilarious we’re the bastion of Singaporean opposition these days and simply refuse to be dislodged. Ah well, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, quite the contrary.
  3. I hope someone wasn’t pulling my rock-hard leg when he said an East Coast MP had mentioned on the record during a post-election interview that George Yeo should be president. Even by the PAP’s usual obliviousness to reality, they shouldn’t be stupid enough to hand priceless political hay over to the opposition (and if I was running things in the white camp, that person would never advance further in politics again). It’s also against the normal SOP of the party, as it usually discards fallen politicians like worthless scrap without fail. NO TIME FOR LOSERS eh, Harry?
  4. Seriously Mediacorp? How Pravda-ish can you get? Granted, I only observed the Channel 8 coverage, but there was barely anything spoken on Aljunied all night as they could possibly get away with, and then some up until the actual result. Then they covered Low’s victory speech but subsequently drowned us with the usual drivel from the PAP’s successfully elected new candidates. That’s as eyerolling as it gets, but OF COURSE they then had to reserve the Potong Pasir loss right to the very end to spike the WP victory narrative. Local media, as predictable as it gets. It’s a pity we’re so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, because our elections badly require some third party coverage. Maybe by a respectable network such as Al Jazeera….oh wait, dumped out of SG because CNA would wither before any actual competition. Me bad.
  5. Badly grimacing Dragon Prince is like balm on my black heart.
  6. The Chiam era is over. The writing was on the wall though, since he barely held on last time round and is now weakened post-stroke. Even his last sympathy visit to his old haunting grounds this week failed to have much significant effect. It probably WAS over when the SDP fiasco occured, since that robbed him of his old power base and forced him to start all over again, and unlike many of his opposition peers, he just isn’t that great at the most crucial aspect of being an opposition lynchpin now, recruitment of the ranks. I guess it’s poignant that on the day that the opposition made electoral history, the curtain should fall on a fixture of the old order.
  7. Oh dear, Mr Nett Happiness. Things didn’t turn out too well for a SM tonight eh? A pity Tin made it in, but I suspect Goh won’t have to worry much about a power base anymore in his party, assuming he still had a significant one before Sat. He did win though, so that is still a nett plus in the happy column, right? Consider the alternative of drowning sorrows together with a former foreign affairs minister.