I support the PAP in this election, subject to qualifiers
Firstly, my constituency is not contested, so there would be no need to vote. Secondly, I’m not back in Singapore, so I wouldn’t be able to anyway.
I know that there are certain restrictions on blogging about politics, but hey, what the hell, this could be the first and last election on which we get so much freedom to blog. Hopefully I am wrong and we don’t lose this freedom.
I actually started blogging because I was inspired by all the intelligent and insightful bloggers commenting on the 2004 USA Presidential Election and I wanted to participate in that global conversation. At this point, I feel like its 2004 USA Presidential Election all over again.
The Americans were given 2 choices at that time: a fake insincere Democrat Senator from Massachusetts who had botox injections and spray-on tans, or a fake Republican cowboy from Texas who often appears to be trying to do stuff way beyond his abilities. Tough choice.
In this years election, Singaporeans who get a chance to vote are faced with the choice of voting in the PAP, or the alternatives, of which the 2 most likely to succeed are the WP and the SDA.
The fact is, I may not agree with the PAP on issues such as personal freedoms and some aspects of their economic policy, I cannot find anything that is redeeming about the policies stated by the WP or the SDA in their manifestoes.
So here, I state my support for the PAP in this election, subject to the following qualifiers:
1. Gradual and incremental withdrawal of the state from regulating speech
In order for Singaporeans to participate and contribute to civic society, such curbs invariably results in chilling effects. It drives away ideas, both good and bad, and the people who would contribute these ideas. While suppressing bad ideas might seem a good thing, it comes at a terrible cost of losing the good ideas which could counter these bad ideas. In the meantime, bad ideas will remain underground and fester.
Lose these chains on thought and speech, and I will support you.
2. Gradual and incremental withdrawal of the state from regulating consensual private behaviours between adults which do not harm third parties
Fuck Asian values. Seriously. There’s no such thing. If people want to fuck, whether male or female, as long as there is no coercion, violence or fraud, and both are consenting adults, the government has no business telling people what to do in the privacy of their own homes.
Lose these chains of hypocritical self-righteousness, and I will support you.
3. Gradual and incremental withdrawal of the state from the management and control of for-profit enterprises.
While your track record on the economy is satisfactory, your constant meddling and ’state-directed capitalism’ only serves as a reminder why command and control economies in communist societies failed miserably. The entrepreneurial drive of our fore-fathers have been suppressed for too long by centralised economic policy controls. Singaporeans are a dynamic and creative people. They can create businesses and jobs that will employ Singaporeans, if they are not hindered from doing so.
Lose these chains of economic controls, and I will support you.
