Wishlist for the elections

I wrote this as a facebook note. Later on I thought the better of posting this under my own name. All of these things were written 1 day before cooling off day, before the results were known.

1. That all this talk on the internet actually amounts to a real change in election results. The opposition gets a few seats. Otherwise people will realize that Gen Y does not matter at all. Just a few, not too much. Anyway if the election results are the same as 2006 then most of these points will be moot.

2. That the PAP follows through on the apology and that this would mark a change in its attitude. And more specifically they should relook some of the policies that favour the rich, and not have so many “cracks” that people can fall through. That if nothing else, they will learn how to explain their policies better and learn how to function in a democracy.

3. We haven’t talked a lot about the new PAP candidates because they have been overshadowed by the wonderful surprise that we actually now have a credible opposition. Apparently one of them is a future prime minister. My wish is that he’s a good one. The last 3 have ranged from “pretty good” to “legendary”.

4. That the advances that the opposition parties have made in these elections would not be lost. That even ppl who don’t get voted in will continue and contest in the next elections. People like
1. Nicole Seah
2. SDP’s Holland Bukit-Timah team
3. WP’s Aljunied Team
4. SPP’s Bishan Toa Payoh team except CST who should retire and not stand for the next elections.
5. Teo Soh Lung
6. George Yeo
7. All the former civil servants who got sick of their political masters and decided to run against them

5. That the aforementioned people will not betray the high hopes that people have come to foster upon them. (But I think that 1 or 2 of them will.)

6. That the GRC system is either scrapped altogether because it’s a sham, or the size is limited to 3 or 4

7. Now that Singaporeans feel able to speak more freely, we can actually talk about serious stuff like general direction for Singapore, economic policy, values system rather than petty stuff like:
1. Is the election fight fair?
2. Did you fill in your form correctly?
3. The PAP locked us up and jailed us (true but a lot of this stuff doesn’t happen anymore.)

8. The entertainment value of democratic elections (and Singapore is beginning to learn that the possibilities are endless) does not overshadow the serious business.

9. The PAP has behaved well in this elections by their (admittedly low) standards. We didn’t have gutter politics, not much anyway. Goh Chok Tong set the tone earlier on and asked everybody to behave in a civilized manner. The coverage of opposition members is much fairer than before. This is surely not an accident but the result of a deliberate policy.

10. The opposition, if they proceed to get into parliament, will not proceed to screw up and sabo themselves for another 20 years like they did in 1991-1996. That they actually have enough clout to rein in the worst excesses of the PAP, and not get pawned by them. That they dun anyhow talk cock in parliament.

11. That what we are witnessing is a dawn in gentlemanly bipartisanship / multi-partisanship.

12. The opposition seems to be made of brave and committed people who are fighting for a cause. (Many, not all from the PAP are also like that.) My wish is for this to continue, and we don’t reach a point where people on both sides are cynical opportunists who jockey for power and influence. Because this is the age of innocence for the opposition parties and the age of innocence will come to an end.

Candidates, good luck for polling day because you are going to need it.