everyone in Singapore got a chance to participate in the electoral
process. It wouldn't be a legitimate election if citizens couldn't
cast their vote (rightly or wrongly, in my opinion) for one party or
another.
That said, I'm also very glad that I took the time to read the news,
watch the rally videos, talk about the elections incessantly for the
past what, three, four weeks? For me, the election fever started wayyy
before the 9 days of campaigning, but it got to a point where I would
lie in bed at 3am in the morning, hands itching because I could not
find out what people were saying on the #sgelections twitter feed. At
that point, I literally had to wrestle with Dave for my phone because
he was screaming at me to go to sleep instead of checking up on
elections news instead. Yikes.
I'm also very glad I took the time to attend the rallies. Watching
Chiam See Tong all frail and hunchbacked but still fighting for what
he thinks is right for Singapore made me all choked up.There were
other favourite moments, such as listening to Pritnam Singh and Chen
Show Mao as they encouraged people to think beyond their
municipalities. Or how I felt my heart soar when during the last
rally, Low Thia Kiang talked about how LKY dared him to leave his
stronghold of Hougang and contest in a GRC. "And that's what I am
doing right now!"
That was when I felt so proud of all the opposition candidates
(whether good or bad) for taking the insurmountable challenge of a GRC
and going head-to-head with a cabinet minister in nearly every GRC. We
cannot allow this unequal electoral playing field to continue much
longer if we are serious about the the viability and health of our
democratic system.
You know what, I'm proud of my voting decision today - although it was
one I made long time ago. If you had asked me five years ago when I
was under Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, I would have voted the same way as
well. My only regret is that my parents are overseas and won't be able
to vote in this watershed election, because despite our differences in
values and views (especially with my mom), we've actually see eye to
eye on many of the election issues.
Now I can only cross my fingers that my fellow citizens would have
made the right choice to. That they would have stopped to think about
themselves, other Singaporeans and the future that goes beyond lift
upgradings and other carrots (which are funded for by the taxpayers).
But here's the beauty of the democratic elections. If we can't get
this right, let's try again five years later (hopefully without any
gerrymandering).
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