When the Winds of Change start to blow,
When a new generation of Singaporean Voter lost their fear,
All types will surface - more new media savvy even more articulate & suave (TKL after all is old school).
More will actively seek Politics as a career - be they cynical or patriotic.
It will also be a test of voter maturity.
Beyond visceral outpourings, can we separate the wheat from the chaff?
Can we detect demagogic poseurs or can we perceive genuine passion & competence to match?
Men like JBJ, bleeding heart and all - have a liberal ideal driving them
CSJ, for all his radicalism,in all his published work, is no extreme demon the ruling party has painted him out to be...
LTK, took over WP, can engineered its strength-to-strength success using old-school Lim-Chin-Siong-Chinese-middle-school-type dedication, political streetsmarts and a certain resolve which even LKY grudgingly respect.
LTK has taken up LKY's taunt to move out from SMC to GRC and has had the last laugh for now. With his GRC team (Sylvia+CSM+Pritam Singh), very formidable in national & municipal advocacy...
CST - an old generation idealist with poor party leadership skills - yet he has not only tahan temporarily as his name suggested, but lasted quarter of a century in Parliament House ... his grassroot appeal is something GMS do not have.
Gone are the Seow Khee Lengs, Wong Hon Tois, Sin Kek Tongs, Harbans Singhs, bicycle-thiefs, slipper man etc etc
The Winds of Change will spew forth ex-pap grassroot disgruntleds like that Pwee guy, ex-scholars like that Tony tan couple, bohemians like Alec Tok, ex-EDB/IE/TDBs execs like Gerald Giams etc etc
All, I assure you, will have better public speaking skills than poor Tan Kin Lian...
LKY, distrusted idealism, hence he even publicly concede if not for WW2 circumstances & the times, if today he is young, he would never enter politics, doesn't make sense.
Wary of fellow charismatics like Lim Chin Siong & gang, in his next 2 decade as supreme leader, he stressed technocratic leadership & label any form of excellent oratory as 'charlatans & demagogues', as on top of depopliticising a whole generation of voters using carrot-and-stick, he also used utterly mechanistic methods to induct his PAP successors.
The result?
Heartless, Soul-less, management-by-Objective robots like MBT, WKS, Raymond Lim, YCT, Hairdo Lim, Lee Yock Suan over the years etc etc
of course these guys are human too, but essential they lack the feel & touch of true blue politicos like Low Thia Kiang.
GMS's heart is in the right place, but otherwise from mouth to ego, GMS is highly unelectable, never-mind his previous electoral numbers.
When the tide rises, even none swimmers can float & non-sailors cruise....
It is youngsters like Pritam Singh, no not Edmund Ng of SEO-fame, Vincent Wijey, Alec Tok that will form the next wave ...
The scions & white horse boys are also coming onto the scene, Lee Yock Suan's son for example & 'Little-India-very-dark' CBT-tainted ex-Jln Besar MP Choo Wee Khiang's son is that young Desmond Choo who talked cock & cry foul in the recent Aljunied GRC PA-kiasu-then-cry-wolf-childish-they-start-first pathethic sideshow.
PE 2011 is just a harbinger of things to come ...
Asking for Votes or Deciding how to vote - that is the sacrosanct right as well as awesome responsibility for every voting Singaporean in the next 6 years.
My land, our country, our economic & social livelihood, so long as we fucking live here, we must have the right kind of leaders to serve us.
Oh, the technocratics have all these wonderful vision : the Garden by the Bay, new downtown Financial Hub, revamped Orchard Road, Punggol 21 etc etc
F1, F2, Youth Olympics, Asian Games even, 5th 6th University, Terminal 4 or 5 .....
Will we citizens be destitutes in our own country - a glistening metropolis with world-class this & that, yet all of us, living lives of quite desperation, living from hand to mouth, striving to make ends meet and fluttering n Wed/Sat/Sun & the casinos, because that is the only game of chance open to our pathethic lives...
Along the way, all kinds of Messiahs, promising $1500 (why not make it $2500 then they can qualify for credit cards) for NSF, $x for retirees (who is a retiree at what age in future nobody knows), etc etc etc
Money all in past reserves, limpei also can be fucking generous what ! No Brainer !
So, fellow Singaporeans, surf, lurk, post, KPKB, flame, spam, go nuclear like Uncle Yap or bonkers or cranky like all our famous resident characters here,
off line,
our lives must go on ..., GE or PE or what E .....
This is my country, this is my land, this is my future, this is my life !
This is my family, these are my friends, we are Singapore, SINGAPOREANS !
Majullah Singapura !
