Episode 950: Enough With The Elections Already!

Light bulb blew today, completely out of the blue. Friends recommend letting natural light into my room more. They're probably right, and to be fair, I have drawn the curtains a bit more recently, now that the weather is no longer freezing and the amount of daylight we get verges on the excessive. Anyway, that's fixed now. Finished reading Carrie Etter's The Tethers last night, which was very good, and now I'm getting through Zoë Brigley's The Secret. Incidentally, Doctor Who this week was pretty damn amazing, if you ask me. Can't wait to see how this week's plot developments fit into the series arc, and how heartbreaking was it when River realised she was never going to kiss the Doctor again? To finish off this post, since it's a week before the elections in Singapore, I thought I'd say a quick word or two, possibly the only time I'm going to comment on them here. Firstly, enough with the Nicole Seah adulation that's flooding my Facebook. Seriously. Yeah, she sounds great and poised. There was a video of her at a rally that was a bit too fire and brimstone for me, though it's clear that wherever she got her training in public speaking from, she sure knows how to have a crowd eating out of her hand. That interview she gave to a foreign journalist was a bit awkward though. Too many Obama-style references to 'change' (maybe they were deliberate?) and she sounded like she was trying to modify her accent for the foreign media. What annoys me about the Nicole fans though, is how no one's bothered to point out to them that if she gets into Parliament, she's also taking an entire GRC team in with her who've not been nearly as vocal. Isn't this the sort of 'free ride' the PAP is constantly being accused of? Yet because this is the opposition we're talking about, it's like a massive betrayal to even breath a word against anyone running on a non-PAP ticket.

I also detest people who blindly distil political debate down slogans and rhetoric, and in the process make it sound like voting for the opposition is some sort of civic duty. News flash! It isn't. Vote opposition if you want. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. Just don't do it because you've been convinced by someone's Facebook link that it's the 'right' thing to do. Like I've commented to several friends online, judging by the sort of comments netizens throw out, Singaporeans genuinely deserve the politics they've been getting over the past decades. How many of us can honestly say that we're casting a vote for the national good, as opposed to our own self-interests disguised as the national good? Look at all the issues people are so riled up about. Even when they're 'big picture', like immigration, it's always in the selfish context of 'me, me, me'. I don't want to live in an overcrowded city any more than the next Singaporean, but short of turning the island into a complete urban sprawl, I still say people should suck it up and be a bit more tolerant. Admittedly, for a party that's been around for over 40 years, the PAP definitely needs a way better PR machine. So when the men in white are back in power (because let's face it, it would be a freak result if they were kicked out, and I guarantee lots of people would actually regret it, just that the MM shouldn't have said so publicly), they need to figure out why GE 2011 nearly went so horribly wrong. I could have made this post way more cogent, but I figured it wouldn't matter. Those who agree with me probably won't see a need to speak out in solidarity against the emotional rhetoric that's overtaken any sort of rational discourse during these elections. Those who disagree with me are just going to label me a pro-PAP lackey and wouldn't have been prepared to listen to anything I had to say anyway. Everyone wins.