The biggest surprise was the poor performance of Murali both in content and delivery. His jokes also fell flat. Maybe he knows something about the residents that we do not. Grace Fu was outstanding and the other surprise with both her speech content and delivery. Looks like the fruit does indeed not fall far from the tree. She was clear, methodological and forceful in her all he arguments. It will appeal to the better educated and the astute residents. PAP's pony-tailed, retro belt buckled MC was also another plus with his bilingual / dialect and his easy of messaging and reinforcement during interludes between speakers.
Across the board SDP slate of speakers spoke and delivered well and all did better than Ah Mu. This is something that we have seen over the years with the Opposition speakers improving one the years. The best speakers for SDP were Damanhuri Abas and Chee. Damanhuri scored in delivery and content. He was also the only one to bring out all the woes of Singaporeans when it comes to PAP - David Ong's pants, Soldiers running MRT, Million dollars salaries,etc. Chee's delivery was outstanding, measured and much more confident than in 2015. He controlled pace and punch the way Old Man did. He was however spent too much time on each themes and he did mention that he will cover other issues at subsequent rallies. I am not sure if this is the right approach as not the same audience would turn up each time. He also focused on doing things full time. He also cunningly did the Lim Ching Seong "Pak Mata" Beauty World speech when it came to David Ong. Paul Thambyah was using the same speech material that he used when delivered in 2 previous private events. Overall SDP speakers did not disappoint. The messaging between speakers by the MCs on SDP policies were very dry and abstract.
Back to Murali - looks like nobody vetted his speech, his jokes, the content and kept referring to his bunch of community workers (euphemism for PAP zealots in BB) and engaging them rather than the residents. I think he did this unconsciously as the audience typical of PAP rallies were primarily PAP grassroots filks. Anyone who had no clue about the elections but turned up at the rally would have thought that Grace Fu was running for post and not Murali.
Chee did make a comment about his visit to residents. he said that many did not know of Murali or have seen him in the last 17 years. I suspect that there is truth to this as he appeared to be engaged with the party workers as seen by his speech.
Across the board SDP slate of speakers spoke and delivered well and all did better than Ah Mu. This is something that we have seen over the years with the Opposition speakers improving one the years. The best speakers for SDP were Damanhuri Abas and Chee. Damanhuri scored in delivery and content. He was also the only one to bring out all the woes of Singaporeans when it comes to PAP - David Ong's pants, Soldiers running MRT, Million dollars salaries,etc. Chee's delivery was outstanding, measured and much more confident than in 2015. He controlled pace and punch the way Old Man did. He was however spent too much time on each themes and he did mention that he will cover other issues at subsequent rallies. I am not sure if this is the right approach as not the same audience would turn up each time. He also focused on doing things full time. He also cunningly did the Lim Ching Seong "Pak Mata" Beauty World speech when it came to David Ong. Paul Thambyah was using the same speech material that he used when delivered in 2 previous private events. Overall SDP speakers did not disappoint. The messaging between speakers by the MCs on SDP policies were very dry and abstract.
Back to Murali - looks like nobody vetted his speech, his jokes, the content and kept referring to his bunch of community workers (euphemism for PAP zealots in BB) and engaging them rather than the residents. I think he did this unconsciously as the audience typical of PAP rallies were primarily PAP grassroots filks. Anyone who had no clue about the elections but turned up at the rally would have thought that Grace Fu was running for post and not Murali.
Chee did make a comment about his visit to residents. he said that many did not know of Murali or have seen him in the last 17 years. I suspect that there is truth to this as he appeared to be engaged with the party workers as seen by his speech.