We are just mere moments away from yet another milestone in the history of Singapore. Today marks the day The Red Dot Awakens. By the time, you are reading this, I am on my way to the Singapore consulate in Hong Kong to cast my vote.
The humble will be honoured and the arrogant shall be banished. Justice shall prevail.
Or that's what I hope.
Come 07 May 2011, we will find out if we are true blue Singaporeans with the courage to really vote who we want to represent us.Looking at the massive turnout at the opposition rallies versus that of the PAP, will the ballot results turn out as such?
Or are we just a bunch of cowards who braved the rain, jostle and mud at the opposition rallies only to meekly submit our ballot slips with a mark on the PAP box?
I look forward to finding out with baited breath.
I would like to take a moment here to respond to Sassy "Owes Me A Jug Of Beer" Jan on her blog entry above.
She rained accolades on projects and initiatives that the PAP has done like Park Connector Network, HDB upgrading, medisave, workforce development agency, caring RC members and really really nice police. I am not sure about the last one, it may just be a case of her being a "flower idiot". Again.
I am guessing that the Woodlands NPC CO is quite yan dao.
Here's my take.
I concede that there has been many good initiatives implemented over the years. However, I ask you this. Are this solely exclusive to the PAP? i.e. had it been another party running the government, all these will not happen?
If hypothetically speaking that if the Worker's Party were the ruling party today, all our HDB flats will never be upgraded?
I do not think so.
Caring RC members? I am sure the "welcome to Potong Pasir" letter (click on image on the left to enlarge), circulated all over the internet in recent days, signed by Chiam See Tong himself trumps all of them.Very very friendly police? Click on the reference link and you find our dear Sassyjan throwing brickbats about the investigating officer during that incident going missing-in-action.
Speaking of good initiatives, I have to say that the PAP has a knack for mucking things up and making what originally was a very good thing into a sour taste in everybody's mouth.
While we are on the topic of HDB upgrading, let's start with that.
Yes, upgrading is good.
Lift landings on every floor is fabulous and especially useful for the young, aged and mobility challenged.
Sheltered walkways are a blessing too.
However, to withhold upgrading just because you did not vote for the PAP is just plain wrong. People in Hougang and Potong Pasir do pay taxes as well and yet the government is withholding the money meant for them. That I say is robbery in every sense of the word. I will fall short of calling the governemnt crooks but I am not far away.
What about public transport? Our MRT network is something that I am proud to show off to my foreign friends. With the ever expanding network, I look forward to the day where cars are redundant and every corner of the island is within easy reach.
Now look at how terrible it is now? While the hardware is in tip top condition, the crowding situation during peak hours is horrendous. Couple with their horribly handled immigration policy resulting in the sudden influx of foreigner to be called our own, the rate of expansion of the public transport system lags behind the population explosion by a mile.
I understand the need to bring people in from outside when our birth ratio has dropped to an alarming 1.2 (gee, I wonder who screwed this up with the Two Is Enough campaign back in the 70s?). But why at such a furious rate where the housing supply and public transport is unable to keep up?
They keep saying that they need to raise the public transport prices to keep the company up citing all sorts of reasons. Yet they always announce healthy profits quarter after quarter, thus shooting themselves in the foot the justification of raising prices. Liars?
Housing prices at where we are is a result of demand, as a resulting of foreigner influx, out stripping supply.
So to sum up, whatever the PAP has done good, I am sure the opposition, if given the same opportunity and resources, will be able to accomplish the same.
On the same token, whatever the PAP has screwed up, I am sure the opposition, if given the same opportunity and resources, won't do the same.
Let me cite a few examples.
If the opposition were in power, they will NOT pay themselves exorbitant salaries. We have what? 30 ministers? Why do we need so many ministers? Some more quite a number of them have no portfolio i.e. they are Ministers of Chor Bor Lan and we are paying them millions of dollars per year. Let's not even go into their pensions where we continue to paying obscene amounts of money until they die.
If the opposition were in power, they will NOT withhold upgrading of HDB flats in constituencies that did not vote for them. Sure, there will be a queue where every ward gets their turn but certainly not a wait of MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS and still waiting.
If the opposition were in power, they will NOT implement the system of the GRC where the strong incumbents can smuggle in untested candidates into parliament to represent the people. If there are 87 seats, then there will be 87 SMCs where every candidate is required to earn their own way into parliament.
If the opposition were in power, they will NOT use strong-arm, high-handed mafia tactics to suppress their political opponents into submission. Need a reminder? --> Click Here.
I am not saying that if you vote for the PAP, you are wrong. You just happen to vote differently from me, that is IF I am voting for the opposition. You are free to make your own informed choice.
The important thing is that you make that vote and make it count.
Vote carefully, marked clearly. Don't spoil the vote.
Your country needs to hear from you.
Clearly.
- Voxeros
5 comments:
Ay, my kor kor, how u can be SURE if the opposition is the government, they will not do the above? It's easy to use all these to "shoot" PAP now but no one can be without flaws. So maybe they will make other blunders, implement wrong policies, if they are the gah men? I'm not saying they will, but no one can be SURE they will not.
I can agree with u on certain parts of your post but not on the SURE assumption you made PAP vs Opp. ;-)
Your sentiments were echoed by Sassyjan over at twitter which I will address together.
The ministerial salaries, GRC and strong-arm tactics will not be deployed by the opposition for the simple fact that they have already voiced these objections way before this elections.
As for deny upgrading, they have currently only 2 opposition constituencies and even if they put their own ahead before PAP's how long can they delay?
When the results come out later, they should be in the minority even if they are successful.
OK, so hypothetically that they do not keep their word after coming to power, they have only 5 years before we pull them down.
If we are hypothetically able to pull down the PAP in this election, we can surely pull down the under-performing new government.
While I cannot guarantee that they WILL NOT do what the PAP has done wrong in the past, but at the very least there is HOPE.
Had it been the PAP, then I can tell you right here right now that there is ABSOLUTELY NO HOPE.
Why? Because they are the idiots who created this in the first place!
Jaywalk: I agree with your POV. With more opposition in the cabinet, there is a hope and a chance that they might be able to make a difference.
With the incumbent, unfortunately things are more likely to continue in the same path since they have formed the government again.
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