Biased Observer

If I had a stronger stomach, I'd actually read the articles in ST properly before commenting. But I don't, just skimming the headlines and forum letters is enough to make me feel absolutely nauseous. So unlike Mr. Wang, who does his homework so that we can benefit from his incisive commentary, you'll have to put up with my half-assed biased opinions. But then, I never promised any more did I?

Maybe we can blame all this on the opposition. Actually, let's do just that. Because if we can't use them as kicking posts, what good are they?

In 1991, the general elections saw PAP lose 4 seats to the opposition, winning only 61% of the popular vote - their worst showing since 1968. It was considered quite a blow to the new prime minister, rumblings abound that he could not sustain the power of the party that his predecessor left for him. The opposition managed to make such inroads by changing their approach - instead of contesting every single seat, they changed gears and contested fewer than half the seats. The strategy was to guarantee PAP's return to power, in hopes that this would encourage and enbolden voters to cast a ballot for the opposition. It worked brilliantly well, so much so that this has been pretty much standard operating procedure ever since.

The consequence is that a good majority of adult Singaporeans have never ever voted. And it would seem that many have forgotten the whole point of voting. Because seriously? I can't find any other explanation for the calls to return the incumbent president to office without contest. What's worse is how many have prejudged the competition as not 'worthy' and are calling for the certificates of eligibility not to be issued.

What happened to the power of the vote? The whole point of elections is for citizens to look at the candidates and judge for themselves who is most qualified for the job by casting a vote. Instead we have citizens calling for elections by proxy. He cannot make it lah, don't even give him COE! It's sad the number of people lamenting a wasted Saturday if elections were to go ahead no thanks to a bunch of inconsiderate (or is it deluded) egoists. Aiyoh so mafan one, must go and vote, if not got public holiday leh!

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. Because after all, as with any corporate AGM, there is a proxy form that shareholders can use to authorise a designated representative to cast ballots on their behalf. Except we've gone the extra step of having the all powerful representative decide our ballot. Power, okay! No need to worry our little heads over making a decision.

Anyway, this has triggered some fond memories of the exciting elections of yore, especially 1988 when Chiam See Tong first won in Potong Pasir and the Worker's Party came oh so close to winning Eunos GRC. I think that's what drove the 1991 strategy. Focus and win the fight, one seat at a time. Maybe one of these days I'll blog about those heady days when Singaporeans actually cared enough about getting out the vote.