This video is underappreciated!
Presidential elections tomorrow – I hope Dr Tony Tan/Tan Cheng Bock wins! Dr Tan’s Chinese is incomprehensible, but I find it admirable that he actually made the effort to try. He could just have taken the easy way out and opted to have his speech dubbed, like Tan Cheng Bock.
# Here lay a long unwieldy paragraph on the Presidential election that was deleted for viewing pleasure#
I am highly disturbed by the rampant misuse of the word ‘la’ in informal writing. Wikipedia, which as we all know is a very reliable source, states that’la’ should be used to indicate annoyance, negativity, emphasis or reassurance. Hence, sentences like ‘I would have ponned the prom, but person X persuaded me not to la’ are semantic nonsense and should be outlawed. OUTLAWED!
Also, reading the Wikipedia article on Singlish is at once embarrassing, enlightening and amusing. It contains such gems as:
Lah is sometimes use to curse people
* Go and Die lah!.
I was utterly disappointed when SM could not stop himself from launching a personal attack on Tan Jee Say. In Steph Chew’s words, that was a low blow.
Then we had MM telling us Aljunied voters that we would ‘have five years to live and repent‘. Make of that what you will. What was really a pity, though, was that his message seemed to be antithetical to George Yeo’s conciliation at the previous night’s rally.
In fact, when Mr Yeo stated that it was not about him vs. Low Thia Kiang, and condemned the histrionics of the WP in portraying the fight as a dichotomy between the two leading men, I thought to myself ‘IAMIMPRESS’ and was all ready to inch out of the ambivalent zone towards the PAP camp. I’m afraid my enthusiasm in this respect has waned.
Having said that, one also wonders why the impressive number of gaffes made by the opposition parties has gone largely unnoticed by enthusiastic PAP bashers. The double standards are evident. Without doubt, Ms Tin Pei Ling is sorely in need of more experience and media smarts. Largely unimpressed, the crowd has turned to The Altenative Avatar of the working classes, Ms Nicole Seah.
However while Nicole (whom I am a fan of on Facebook) had a promising start, she seems to have regressed into yet another populist opposition candidate who questions relentlessly but offers no solutions. I admire her spunk, but I was hoping she’d rise above her fellow candidates to give us the incisive analysis of national issues we all demand.
Let me quote the national darling on the GST increase:
1.9 billion dollars was generated from the increase (in GST). But only 0.4 billion dollars was distributed to the poor! WHERE DID THE REST OF THE MONEY GO?
Valid point, Nicole, but surely you must have done some research and found out where the rest of the money went? I’m sure we’d all like to know, and because it is possible that much of it went into the national reserves, which would be a good use of the money too, you could have told us how you thought it would have been better spent.
Next she talks about public housing prices that have shot up because they were subject to the vagaries of free market forces. Again, thank you for bringing up something that we are all deeply unhappy about, but this is definitely not a new issue, and it’d have been nice if she had offered a new, constructive take rather than the usual accusatory vitriol.
Let’s talk about the WP now. I admire their guts for standing in a GRC. But they seem to expect us to vote them in simply for the purpose of having an opposition in parliament – they haven’t even so much as suggested what might be done to improve the estate.
If I were the opposition, I’d feel that it would be a worthwhile investment of my time to draw up some plans. Not doing so only lends credibility to Mr Yeo’s accusation that they are merely using the voters as tools, no?! It makes it painfully clear that they are only running in Aljunied because they think that they stand the best chance here of being elected into parliament, and not because they understand or can address our municipal needs.
WP, I think what you really need now is to win over the critical mass of ‘swing’ voters who are looking for a reason to vote you in, but remain cognizant of all that the PAP has done in the GRC and would like to see your take on that. Please do not presume that all of us are already allied to your cause and would vote you in whether or not you can make a difference on the municipal level.
