Loh Kai Herng
Experts say that social media has already changed the way the election is being fought this time. Many of us are bypassing traditional media, voraciously devouring election news online, and posting blow-by-blow status updates on Facebook.
But is that enough? My fellow Singaporeans, I have a challenge for you.
I’d like you to go beyond Facebook, and venture one step further. Regardless of which party you support, doing things like “liking” Nicole Seah’s Facebook page isn’t sufficient. Sure, it’s important, and anything that gets on social media can be scarily viral nowadays, but you can definitely do more than clicking. Surely you can get more involved yourself.
Don’t only “like” and comment on articles. Do more. Continue participating in discussions on Facebook, but most importantly, talk to your family, friends, classmates and colleagues. Engage them in meaningful discussion about the issues of the day – you don’t really have many chances to do so any other time; in fact, most people are probably only going to want to talk to you about politics during a general election. Make the politically apathetic realize just how important this election is, and how important their votes are. Let them sit up and take notice.
Or you could do what I’m currently doing, writing about issues you care about and sending it to local newspapers or websites committed to providing alternative points of view such as this one. Stand behind your viewpoint, and sign off with your name. Add your perspective to the national debate; make sure your opinions are heard.
Or maybe you could let your creative license run wild – vent your frustrations and express your hopes by spoofing politicians on YouTube, or creating podcasts and videos. Poke fun at our political process, generate some laughs, and force us to take a step back and re-examine the issues at stake, from different angles.
Even better, consider volunteering for a political party. If a 20 year old student can do it, so can you (http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/it-all-begins-with-political-apathy/#more-4029). Email or call them and ask how you can help. Spend a meaningful morning helping your candidate engage voters at a walkabout, or volunteer to help guide people at a rally. You will be far richer for the experience.
The point I want to make is, we can complain all we want about how politically apathetic our other fellow citizens are but it’s time to look at ourselves in the mirror. Why are we so terribly reluctant to get involved in our very own political process? We say that we are scared of this, or that we are afraid of that. But what exactly are we worried about?
The truth is, we are self-censoring ourselves. There are many reasons why Singaporeans are apathetic, but the chief reason is that we don’t want to speak up. What we don’t know is how powerful our voices are, if only we dare to use them. It’s time we talk to the politicians instead of them talking to us.
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May 3, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Thank you TOC for your unbiased coverage. Your website has indeed make this election a TRUE SINGAPORE GE FOR ALL CITIZENS! I deeply appreciate the effort & hardwork that your team has put in. Keep it up!
May 4, 2011 at 10:20 am
Whenever I walk around these few days, especially near-by the banks like POSB, OCBC, UOB, I can see many Singaporean are queueing up to receive G&S package. From this incident, I ask myself why is that so ? Why are they so desperate to use the money ? I do a survey and realised that every bank that I went, at least got 20 people queueing. I also walked near to the crowd and heard an anuty talked to an uncle in hokkien yesterday, allow me to use singlish to translate hor. She said, “not bad hor, government give us money leh, so nice. The government knows we need the money so much!” Then the uncle replied, “Ya loh, money not enough mah, before every election always like that one, my son told me to vote for opposition, aiya, what is the point, they always win want nah! No use want, if we choose oppositions so what can they do, end of the day, back to normal. Don’t waste your time, no use want.” The aunty seemed agreed with him and continued said, “Ya loh, you got read the newspaper bo, our government felt sorry already mah, he has changed liao.” The uncle also told the aunty “xiang ho shi mai chak, mian chak, bo ai chak!” (can’t be bothered)
When I heard it, my heart sinks down. This is the attitude that most Singaporean have the mindset for politics awareness.
My dear fellow citizens,
Please focus and time is running short, if you have elderly to cast the vote, remind them to be fearless and every vote counts.
Tell your friends,colleagues, neighbours, relatives, aunties & uncles, nephews & nieces, all the love ones, we need the vote preciously. Vote for a change!!! P L E A S E !!!
May 4, 2011 at 11:32 am
I agree in toto. Let’s all do something practical and leave an invaluable legacy to future generations.
May 4, 2011 at 3:08 pm
And last but not least, vote with your mind, heart and with courage!
May 4, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Well, here’s what I do. I attended the rallies of all the opposition parties I supported. Each time I attend, I will go to their sales booth and purchase some flags or newsletter and deposit either $50 or $10 depending on how well I like that party.
This is what readers should do. Attend the rallies and also donate by purchasing their items. This is the best support you can give, even if you cannot vote for them for whatever reasons.
May 5, 2011 at 3:49 pm
btan, I solute you.
May 4, 2011 at 6:14 pm
NSP Jeanette Chong of NSP said that HDB should go back to basic. Suppossedly basic shelter not for any other purpose. Most of us are HDB dwellers, thus it seems that most of our asset are not suppose to appreciated and watch the private property owners prosper.
What does that means, dividing the country into HDB against private property owners (60% vs 20%0
This is so dangerous for the opposition to sow the seed of a class warfare.
VOTERS WE ARE ALL AFFECTED
May 5, 2011 at 1:02 am
@ELITE opposition:
What is the purpose of asset appreciation? It does not seem to benefit everyone. For instance, if your HDB flat appreciates in value, and you wish to take advantage of it and have some cash in hand, you would have to sell it. But since you need a house to live in as well, you’d spend most of it on buying another flat/private development.
As it stands, HDB flat owners are only allowed to own a single property. Thus, unlike private property owners, they are unable to benefit from owning a single unit and turning over other property to make money.
Secondly, this cycle of asset appreciation can only go on as long as people are willing to pay the increased price. This has been addressed elsewhere (e.g. yawningbread’s $270b bailout scenario being possibly the worst case scenario), but at some point this increase has to stop. And then what?
Although yes, were HDB prices to stagnate while private property prices go up I do concede that that’s not a particularly ideal situation either…
May 5, 2011 at 12:00 pm
You are correct on all counts. FOR YEARS, all the unhappiness was hushed within ‘coffee shop’ talks. People feared getting arrested for voicing their opinion lest they get slammed with a defamation suit.
AND WE WONDER, why our children are not creative enough – because our society today, doesn’t allow anyone to be different. Everyone must be uniform in thought, word, deed.
Trouble is, do we not respect ourselves enough to trust that our opinion is not baseless as we have been ‘told’.
Public housing should remain as public housing; it should be affordable for the many singaporeans who do not have fat bank accounts. I am not for appreciation of public housing units, because it’s a basic need and we should just think about the many, who live simple lives. The numbers are getting larger. Those who can afford, should think about those who really cannot manage. Our public housing is well maintained, but inside, who really knows how the family struggles. Very very few.
May 5, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Once a Minister takes a salary that is so large that it looks like a heist in comparison with similar jobs in government across the Globe, he breaks the compact with the citizenry. His job becomes a commercial contract and should be gauged in a strictly commercial manner. There are standard methodologies for valuing jobs and the job of being Ministers is no exception. I suggest that if a substantial opposition gets elected in Parliament, it moves the motion to revalue the jobs done by the various Ministers. The parameters involved in such a valuation exercise includes estimating that portion of the GNP attributable to the Minister whose job is under appraisal. It also includes estimating a discount rate which consists of a risk free rate and a risk premium. Intuitively without doing the calculations now, you can see that the portion of attributable GNP is very different from the GNP itself. It has been touted by the PAP that they created the whole GNP, which is not correct because patently commercial, industrial and financial enterprises are the engines which brought the process of creating the GNP to completion. For instance the ministers do not operate, the finance houses, factories and every enterprise in the country. The share of the GNP created by each Minister is a sliver of the country’s GNP.
This sliver of GNP is then operated on by the discount rate to arrive at a figure of value of the job of each Minister..The risk premium ( which as mentioned above is a component of the discount rate) would be entirely absent in Ministerial jobs so that what remains is the risk free rate which name itself reveals the nature of Ministerial jobs- essentially risk free! You should find that the resulting figure of value of the job should bear comparison with figures of actual remunerations of the Parliamentarians in the first world countries, as Singapore prides itself to be first world. You will then see the utter absurdity of claiming that a Ministerial salary in Singapore is to be 6 to 10 times more than its comparable in the first world governments. Thus the present salaries of our Ministers would be found to be grossly wrong in fact. Whether they are also wrong in Law has to be investigated, given the fact that these Ministers in this one party Government of Singapore in effect drew up their own salaries scales and paid themselves from that self- serving blueprint..They are judges in their own cause. Moreover they went to war with the oppositions for 50 years using the legal apparatus of the State, destroying them and in the process remain the Ruling Party for all of 50 years and eradicating the concepts of Human Rights by unprincipled use of defamation Laws, ISD arrests etc.The next question is whether they should be asked to return the excess payment to the State, as many bankers and CEOs were asked to do so when it was found that they did not deserve such remunerations or such remunerations were extracted by false representations..
As citizens we should break up the nonsense of Million dollar salaries to Ministers on spurious claims of uniqueness.Singapore is on the same planet as New York, London, Beijing, Tokyo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Amman. None of the office holders in these countries demand such grotesque salaries. Not only do we support a big heist but we also engender a colossal greed in these supposedly exceptionally noble people. One of the most ludicrous deeds instigated by such salaries is the pump priming of the economy by overwhelming the country with foreign labour. We will be sitting ducks for the next get rich quick scheme.
May 5, 2011 at 1:27 pm
My dear fellow citizens,
If you want to cast a vote for President, then you have to vote opposition on Sat, May07.
If not, the coming election for President will be walk over again or assigned by the OMO. (one man operation)
So tell me do you or I got a say then. Just think for the last president election, what had happened ? Can you recall ?