Well, I was being the typical kaypoh Singaporean, trying to squeeze into Serangoon Stadium but was unable to get in. Anyway, I wouldn't say I wasted my journey there, managed to have a discussion with my Little Princess regarding this election and here are some points that I've come up with.
Firstly, if PAP were to lose any of the GRCs, they only have themselves and the Singapore press to blame. By just reporting on the negative aspects of the speeches of the opposition party and in some cases, not reporting at all about the opposition party, it just makes people more curious about the opposition. And being Singaporeans, if we see a crowd (there is this thing called internet now, we can see there is a huge crowd but strangely nothing is said about it on the papers, making it even more mystical), we'll follow it, even if it is just Hello Kitty.
Secondly, if you think about it, other than the free speech side of thing, the Singapore government hasn't done too badly in recent years. Yes, we have tax increases, and yes, there is a hike in various transportation cost. But if you think about it, it isn't that bad. Just have a look at our neighbours, Indonesia is just as screwed up as it has always been, with political unrest everywhere. Thailand isn't spared either, the southern part of Thailand is a mess now and Thaksin has stepped down. Only Malaysia seem to be doing better than 5 years ago, mainly thanks to the appointment of Badawi as PM I guess.
If there is one thing that is essential to Singapore's wealth and existence, its political stability. Being a small country means we have little natural resources and have to rely heavily on foreign investors. And would a foreign investor want to invest in a country that is politically unstable? I don't think so. Ok, I'm not saying that if the opposition parties were to gain more power, the country would be politically unsound, but like what our dear old PM said, he would have to spend time to 'fix' them. Bad choice of words I agree, the Italian Mafia and the phrase 'You'll be sleeping with the fishes' come to mind, but I guess it is true in some sense as counter productive work would have to be done and extra effort would have to be put in just to please everyone. And in the end a good compromise would just leave everyone unhappy.
So far, in my opinion, our government haven't made any grave mistake in their decision making process. Ok, this is just an opinion of a person that is better well to do than most of the Singaporeans, so it might be a little bias but I, for one, wouldn't want to risk political instability just to have a 2 party/3 party/rave party country. Just take a look at how far a 2 party system have gotten the US of A. A whole lot of good it has been. The country can barely take care of its own people and yet it wants to 'police' the world. Haha... Big joke that is... And take a look at how far the a multiple party have gotten Indonesia. My Little Princess told me a story about her Indonesian colleague just now. The first time the colleague went to an Indonesian election he had 2 parties to choose from. The second time the fella went for an Indonesian election, he had to pick his choice from a whole freaking book. Jeez, talk about multiple parties! o_0
