What the by-election meant to me

 
As a young man in Singapore, this by-election was a vindication more than anything else. I was happy that voters were again able to give the PAP a clear sign that the ground was very unhappy, and change was badly needed.

It is the first time I remember a PAP single-seat ward snatched away by the WP, by a margin so extensive our DPM could not hide his dark mask of disappointment from the media, as pictured. Such was the magnitude of the loss, a recount was not necessary.

Even in the historic GRC win of Aljunied in 2011, it was down to the wire. And that was due in a large part to the presence of former Minister George Yeo, who was generally a well-liked Minister in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was not an uncommon sentiment that many were sad to see him go, although they savoured the slaughter of a sacred cow. The mountain that was a opposition GRC victory was no longer insurmountable.

This time, there was no mercy afforded to the PAP. Entering the by-election as the incumbent and favourite, it was handed a rout, through and through. In fact, a post-mortem of the election results revealed that the PAP candidate had lost in every single one of the polling stations. Simply put, the PAP had not polled a majority in any part of Punggol East. This was surely unprecedented, a clear cut rejection of the PAP.

Much has been said about how Dr Koh was a new face, and about how voters were unfamiliar with him. Some of the defeat may have hinged on how Dr Koh, as a top surgeon, was cut from a different cloth from much of the electorate. Voters felt unable to relate to him, and he was unproven and untested. If there was one thing he was lacking, it was warmth, a common foible in elitist types.

And this was where Ms Lee Li Lian stood out. As a young woman with a ready smile, she had spades of warmth where Dr Koh did not. Some of the victory also hinged on how Ms Lee, as a young married woman and soon to be mother, was closer to the profile of the electorate in Punggol East. As a person with a less than stellar educational record and a career as a sales trainer, she had both the heartlander credentials and the people touch borne out of a career as a salesperson. She also had the advantage of having walked the ground much longer than Dr Koh, a last minute candidate parachuted in from their party's elite ranks. 

But more than anything else, voters were using this election to send a message. It is a message that most of my generation are already familiar with, the oft-repeated refrain that costs of living are simply too high, and voters are no longer willing to put up with it. With flats going for record prices and COE hitting the $100k mark in the open category, it has become almost impossible for the average man in the street to own a car and a flat without going into serious debt.

And the costs have other trickle down effects. Singles are struggling to raise enough money for marriage, putting it off till later. And even those who are married are struggling to raise children in this environment, where most choose to have just one child so they can maximise the limited resources at their disposal.

In such an environment, ministerial salaries are a convenient flashpoint. The average Singaporean would not begrudge their ministers a high salary simply for the sake of it. The real issue is that the average Singaporean no longer feels that his needs are being taken care of, and seeing their ministers are unaffected and slow to respond to the pertinent issues at hand, starts to wonder whether their salaries are justified.

Add that to the persistent problems with a stagnant economy and unemployment, a large influx of foreigners suddenly in our midst, and the gradual breakdown of our once much vaunted public transport system, it is clear that something here has reached breaking point.

It does not help either that this is the time where public servants are increasingly finding themselves being dragged through the media for less than savoury reasons, which is a stain on the much valued credibility of the ruling party.

Now, the PAP can no longer go to the polls and expect the electoral mandate to be simply handed back to them. With a record card that is far less than stellar, and lacking the moral high ground to back its recruitment and selection process as well as popular backing for its policies, the party is indeed in a crisis.

With the PAP being viewed as increasingly out of touch with the electorate, the voters have spoken. The party now begins the slow process of bridging that gap.  

It's that time of the year again.

In the movies, Christmases are white and snowy, yet full of warmth and love. Greetings are exchanged next to a Christmas tree ringed with bells and bright golden baubles, tipped off with a tassled star on top. And underneath it all, are pretty ribbon-wrapped boxes in all shapes and sizes, colourful little packages each carrying a promise of happiness, waiting to bestow a smile upon their recipients. Amidst the hustle and cheerful banter, are the flitting of Christmas carols, punctuated occasionally by the crackling of logs in the open fire, and the inevitable clinking of cutlery and glasses as the hosts rush about setting the table for dinner. There are splashes of red and white, off thick wooly Christmas stockings and Santa hats, and touches of green and gold, off the Christmas tree and sprigs of holly lit with a hundred tiny lights. And somehow, all of this is suffused by a warm golden glow, with a gentle blurring of faces, scenes and even conversation, a representation of it all as the everyman's home, the way Christmas is supposed to be.

All of this could not be further from my reality. My family doesn't celebrate Christmas. On Christmas Day, my house looks exactly like any other day, maybe cleaner, because I actually have the time to sweep it, and nobody is coming around to mess it up.

Today, that might be unthinkable. But to my parents, and my extended family, celebrating it is unthinkable, because they never celebrated it growing up, and they don't identify with it. To my family, Christmas is really just a day of rest from work, no different from any other holiday. Any attempts to make it more than what it is are construed as a waste of money, and met with disdain and disapproval.

I already know how this Christmas will be spent, because it is the same every year. I sit at home, and wait for it to end. Maybe I play a game, or I read a book. There really isn't anywhere to go, because the shops are closed, and all my friends are at their own family parties. If it sounds boring, it is. I would be lying if I said I didn't wish that sometimes it would be different. But you come to accept some things.

In a sense, I understand why all this is so. I don't identify with the supposed religious significance of Christmas. If anything, I would rationally challenge that Christmas is a pagan festival. But in the modern context, Christmas is not solely about religion and what it means to be a good Christian. The real reason why Christmas is important now is far less complicated than that. It is the same reason why the festival gaining popularity, and catching on with people of all faiths and cultures.

Christmas is a festival where it is okay to be commercialised, materialistic, and superficial, as long as you are happy, and as long as you make others happy. It is a time where the state of being happy and spreading love is not judged, because it is what you are expected to be. That in itself is something very precious, and for all those who would argue against the evils of Christmas and the inevitable shopping that comes with it, I would simply put it to them that maybe, we all just need that one day to just be happy and not have all that baggage that comes from doing so.

It seems almost silly, that in this age we have to be "allowed" to be happy. But the nature of life today rarely affords us time to be. If we are not working we are studying. And it is difficult to escape how busy we can become, if we allow ourselves to get caught up in everything we are expected to be involved in. There are those who would also argue that you can be happy just going about your daily life. That is perfectly true, but the interest of a capitalist world is in promoting a state of non-satiation, so you are constantly told that you cannot be happy unless you have more. Without doing so, economies would run into a standstill, because the production line never stops, and someone has to consume all those goods.

If you are wondering why happiness may be fleeting or superficial, it may well be because the pursuit of happiness has become the pursuit of material goods. You can't be happy unless you have the biggest car, the nicest house, and go on the most extravagant and ridiculously protracted holidays, buying up a storm wherever you go. You are constantly looking over your shoulder at others who seem to have more than you do, so much that you can't look at your own situation, and just accept what it is. It takes a very strong human being to tell himself the pursuit of material riches is not for him, because materialism is supposedly wrong. So you are being sent mixed signals. On one hand, you are told to buy all you can, and on the other, you are judged for doing so. Is it any wonder we need a license to be happy these days?

Today, I experimented with being a materialistic person. I threw all my conceptions of money out of the window, and just walked around Orchard Road buying presents. I shopped up quite a storm, and I have a buttload of receipts to prove it. All I can say is, it felt damn fucking good. All my life, I'd been telling myself I shouldn't spend money, that I should save it for a rainy day. But maybe, just maybe, I had forgotten that sometimes, just spending it occasionally is okay.

We all deserve to be happy, and life is too short to think otherwise. But more than anything else, I realised that I was happy because I was buying these gifts to deliver happiness to other people. Money by itself is hollow. Buying gifts by itself is also hollow, which is why you derive no happiness in buying a gift for someone you could not give a rat's ass about. It is the symbolism behind the gift, that you care about someone else, that you care about yourself enough to make that effort to deliver that extra little bit of happiness, that really matters. And it was a relief to finally take a break from judging how I used money for one day, within reasonable limits.

All this being said, I would still like to have that house in the picture. It does seem so nice, doesn't it?

Monkeys refuse unequal pay

This strike by SMRT bus drivers has been hogging all the news headlines recently. There is no point commenting on whether they have a right to strike, or whether they are right to do so. That certainly didn't bother them, and it's not going to stop them either.

In fact, I'm really interested in seeing how this unfolds, as this is a good case scenario as to how the government here will deal with dissidents. Better for some Chinese dudes to take a hit first and find out the hard way. Their home country does it better anyway.

It's funny though is how their actions are perhaps of a baser nature, as it seems that even monkeys reject unequal pay for doing the same thing.