Preclude: Uncle, why you give me $30? The cab fare is $26 leh.
It was nice talking to you, just tell me who are you voting for?
_______.
Okay :) Take the change! Good luck!
Even till the very last moment, I was still debating with myself which party should I vote for.
Till the end, the only question that came up to my mind was
National interest or GRC ?
The longgggggg walk to the polling booth didn't help - it just gave my angels and demons more time to debate.
In the end? My vote and many others made a difference.
The result for my GRC at least, wasn't what I expected.
A decision that caused me to be worried, told me that I made the right choice after all.
Today and the next few, we will probably see analysts talking why this party lost and that won.
After being a newbie in this field, I have seen grew to believe what analysts said. Not all of it perhaps, but their words do hold weights.
Anyway my stand can largely be covered by a few points
- GRC is a double-edged sword. We all saw how the well-loved Mr. George Yeo lost to WP's A team and how the bimbo (this is too light a word honestly) Tin Pei Ling rose under the wings of SM Goh. I still don't know how could that happened, but one day when he dies, she better be ready.
- Redrawing of boundaries is sometimes not a good thing. Enough said on this I suppose? How would you expect WP to take it when you cut off Hougang?
- Economic and overall outlook for a GRC played a role in ensuring parties' success. While most of us would love to see that sc_____ Mah Bow Tan out of the place, we cannot deny that Tampines is a hub. It is playing out what the government envisioned the future to be - in order to soothe traffic, they hoped that residents would eventually be able to work near their home. Even as an entertainment place, Tampines has more shopping centres than other hdb areas.
- Branding of a party plays a role too. Every GRC that WP contested, the votes are higher than other opposition parties. Perhaps the other parties may want to consider how to make their parties as scandal-free as possible.
- Spoilers ought to be shot. It's in Potong Pasir that we see how every vote counts. A win after 15 years of wait certainly calls for rejoice, but a 0.36% win is nothing to be proud of. Out of everyone, Sitoh Yih Pin [or potato head as my friend affably (NOT) calls] must work triple hard.
- Never ever underestimate the power of social media, TOC or TR. The disappointing case in Malaysia has also showed us the same thing.
- We have entered another phase of politics. Just like those who have chose to stand by PAP and brought us out from Malaysia, the young people today have to take a stand to see if they wish to stand by PAP or to vote for alternatives.
I was also rather dissatisfied with how the media counted the percentages.
I was taught in school that to count percentages, the denominator represents the TOTAL number.
Now while invalid votes are, er, invalid, didn't these vote get casted by the people too?
E.g. Ali has 3 red marbles, Mary has 5 red marbles and Mutu has 2 blue marbles. What is the percentage of the marbles that Ali has ?
(Remember these classic textbook names ? LOL!)
We count 3/ (3+5+2)*100 right ?
We don't count 3/(3+5) just because Mutu's marbles are not red.
They are still marbles right ?
Same goes for invalid votes.
Anyway, being anal, I went and count out the overall percentage with invalid votes.
Obviously I didn't so for the past years since it would meant an afternoon of data entry.
And oh, axis range makes a big difference too.
I did the same with the other constituencies.
Below showed the % of votes that PAP attained for 2011 and 2006. Most weren't shown thanks to walkovers and boundary changes.
I leave these last since they made headlines today.
Just some petty angst inside me about Hougang.
SO THERE DESMOND CHOO!
THE POOR DON'T NEED YOU
I understand how the poor feels - Desmond CHOO
Still don't understand how he can call 80% of the people poor. See newspaper link here if interested:
Thank you the people of Hougang, you guys are really an amazing bunch (I am of course not talking about the people who chose to be labeled poor)
This election is a significant one not just because WP finally won a GRC. It is significant because this is the 1st time more than 60% of the citizens can vote, thanks to the oppositions' courage and commitment to serve the people regardless.
66.6% in 2006 may not mean much, since it was a walkover in most places.
The 59. 6% or 60.1% (if you still want to insist red marbles are not marbles) this time round is however a choice by the most number of Singaporeans ever. It is a strong reflection of how dissatisfied (regardless of reasons) the people are with the government. The emphasis now is on national interest and NOT how much the government is intending to spend on upgrades. Perhaps this would end the "carrot" dangling in the next election (for starters, who dangles carrots that belonged to the rabbit in the 1st place?)
Anyhow, this election was indeed touching, despite how staunch supporters of each side were busy posting things on facebook. Reading the various thank you speeches today was a touching moment (or maybe it was PMS ?). Nonetheless, words are free. It is the actions we have to look for next.
How change is going to be like depends on how WP fights and how it lays out its plans for Aljunied and the wider public. Of course it depends on if the ruling party is going to threaten the citizens and opposition parties (this is just a snide remarks).
The road towards a first parliament is still long and difficult, let's see the changes in the next 5 years before we get overly pessimistic or optimistic.
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