The Alternative View
What a General Election is all about
According to the States Times, PM Lee says that GE is about a strong core of leaders to make sure there is depth in the Cabinet and Parliament. It also added that renewing leadership is paramount so that the country's stability, prosperity can continue.
This is so very wrong. A General Election is never about political parties per se.
A GE is a time for the people to assess what the government has done, what it didn't do and to give account for all that have happened since the last GE.
Leadership renewal is part and parcel of every political party. How you renew your leadership should never become the citizen's problem. The people, as with any boss of a company, only selects the best from the slate on offer on Polling Day.
Toward this end, Singaporeans are better off today in terms of having their voices heard compared to the era of our past two generations.
We have somewhat regained a bit of our dignity with the advent of the Internet and social media. We have used it to translate our voices into votes and putting in alternative Parliamentarians into Parliament.
This is the sort of renewal we are putting in place for ourselves, not the sort of renewal where we are constantly threatened with doom if we did not help the PAP to renew.
A matured citizenry is now asking for a complete revamp of our political representation - not just party renewal.
So, before we get pulled by the leash of the PAP Media, we need to remember that our position as citizens is the position of bosses.
We need not have to fear or give in to artificial aristocrats, because whoever they are, whichever colour they paint themselves, how they renew their leadership - these are all paramount only to the party itself. They do not and must not concern us to the extent that we become paralysed without one party in control.
A GE is a time for Citizens to scrutinise each party on an equal platform. Tell us about yourself, what you have done, is doing and going to do.
We will decide after listening to all. No need to tell us what the other parties are not doing, doing incorrectly, and how they will be doing a disservice to us.
Leave that decision to us and know your position as servants - aristocratic servants notwithstanding.
For now, the PAP has been showing us that it does not understand the difference between government and citizens, and who is serving who, that is, who is Master and who is Servant.
We will put that right in GE 2015.
