By noon Singapore time April 27, 2011, we will know who is standing where and how the electoral layout of the land will be. All the GerrymandeRing and self-serving attempts of the ruling party will be tested.

I’ve decided not to run in this year’s election – either as an independent, independent in a GRC or as a member of a political party. I was invited to consider joining two of them – Reform and Workers’. But I chose not to. However, if I did choose, I would have chosen the Workers’ Party.  I think both Loh Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim have changed the WP into an extremely credible one.  I have issues with political parties the way they are constituted and hence my reluctance – it’s a subject of another post. But I will be happy to help both of them – or all the others – to make sure that they sustain the momentum.  The momentum can only be good for Singapore.

If you have not already read and understood what it take to even file a nomination, it is amazingly paper intensive. See this handbook. [It is a pity that the document is not on a Creative Commons license which I think it should be.] I think the hilarious part in the handbook is the section 4.1 that says:

Local television stations will give air-time to each political party that has
fielded a minimum number of candidates in the election. The duration of
the air-time depends on the number of candidates each party has fielded.

Like we need state controlled, unfairly time-tweaked party political broadcasts to influence anyone! This is an example of where the system has been failing and failed – who watches these TV or listens to these radio broadcasts before making a decision anyway? I much prefer to get the full discussions and be a truly informed voter from the real media, not the manufactured and managed MSM. Who knows, by 2016 or 2021, it might be the PAP who, as the opposition/underdog having lost the majority party status through continued and increasing greed and incompetence after the demise of the enforcer, be shunning the broadcasts and doing everything online.

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I was reading a post (original)  about the homeless living at the West Coast Park and was featured on Al Jazeera and which Dr Vivian Balakrishnan subsequently refuted to be untrue. I have a soft spot for Vivian – he runs Linux; he has a clue about technology (I can’t say that of the others in cabinet today). So, for Vivian to make the big hoohah of “video suppression” and “hidden agenda” was really unnecessary. Add to that, we have the SPH rags headlining “Singapore’s first GAY MP” etc. I think Dr Vincent Wijeysingha is a very credible person and I particularly like the rebuttal that Dr Chee Soon Juan made to the PAPsmear attempt. I hope Vivian will find it in him to admit that he made a mistake and apologises unconditionally. Let’s keep this election clean and professional. It’s OK to make a mistake and apologize.  Singaporeans understand. We may not vote for you, but we will certainly accept the apology if sincere. Come to think of it, if Vincent wants to take the cue from LKY/GCT/LHL, he can sue Vivian and his GRC members for defamation. Wouldn’t that be interesting. But I hope he will not – but he should sue SPH instead. That’ll be fun. For the record, this is was what Vivian and his team wrote:

Dear Friends of the Media

Please find below a statement which is being sent on behalf of the PAP team contesting in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC. We would appreciate it very much if you could kindly publish the statement in full, and attribute it to the PAP team contesting in the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, led by Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

Kindly call me at [number deleted] if you have any queries or if you need any clarification.

What is his agenda?

A video has been posted on the internet showing Vincent Wijeysingha participating at a forum which discussed the promotion of the gay cause in Singapore.

The discussion at the forum also touched on sex with boys and whether the age of consent for boys should be 14 years of age.

In the video, Wijeysingha was introduced as being from the SDP.

In addition to other comments, Wijeysingha stated: ‘I think the gay community has to rally ourselves. Perhaps one outcome of today’s forum would be, for those of us who are interested, to come together to further consider how we can address the 377 issue as well as further rights issues in relation to gays and lesbians.’

We believe that candidates should be upfront about their political agenda and motives, so that voters are able to make an informed choice.

The issue is not Wijeysingha’s sexual orientation. That is a matter for him.

The video raises the question on whether Wijeysingha will now pursue this cause in the political arena and what is the SDP’s position on the matter.

Vivian Balakrishnan
Liang Eng Hwa
Christopher de Souza
Sim Ann

Read Alex’s great post on this.

Happy days are ahead of us.