~May Your Light Shine :D~

Monday, May 01, 2006

As always… I’ve been planning to blog… and initially I wanted to share some stuff I learnt at an evangelism workshop, or maybe about the book I am reading by Max Lucado. But I have decided to write on something that perhaps everyone back home is talking about…

Yes, I am gonna write about the upcoming elections.

Now, you may be thinking, “What is Lydea thinking?” Miles away, experiencing temperatures 10°C lower than the lowest temperature ever recorded in Singapore, she ought to be writing about life in oz land, doing her assignments that seem to just pile up like a tsunami or perhaps about a cute guy she just met (sorry dears… no such luck…)

Well, I was in the library today researching on the endocrinological effects on a guy’s voice at puberty, and felt that maybe its time I take a look at what is happening back home. Over here, I do not get newspapers, nor do I bother to buy any. The only news I get is the occasional time I switch on the tv during breakfast. And in Adelaide, its all oz news, other than the bomb blasts in Egypt, I dun recall any international news. Its amazing how easy it is to just be living in this bubble, without much knowledge of the rest of the world, when you are down here. I digress. Anyway, the point is, as I was reading TODAY (29-30Apr), and I only downloaded the first few pages, I couldn’t help laughing. No, Lydea hasn’t become a drunkard. I’ve barely taken a sip of alcohol since I’ve arrived. Honestly, I think politics at home is starting to become as comical as that of Taiwan’s. Of course, we are more subdued and sophisticated (or so we think) than our Taiwanese counterparts. But the underlying politics are pretty much the same.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a political science student nor do I intend to enter politics at any stage of my life, even though my brother is just hoping for the day he can vote for me at elections. I am reading the papers as a layman, looking at politics just like majority of the voters, an ordinary person (although I am not old enough to vote, nor am I in Singapore, and I pray hard the Singapore police won’t be taking a cut of the Budget to hunt me down when I’m done with this post).

First is the totally hilarious incident about the opposition candidate who was mistaken about handing up his minority certificate. Look, its pretty obvious that poor guy was really nervous at that point, I mean I would be if I knew that I would be kissing goodbye to $13 500, and tried to hide his nervousness with some misplaced gusto. I am sure we all can relate to a time where we tried to appear confident even when we weren’t and made a total fool of ourselves. I bet it was just an honest mistake, I dun think he is that dumb to try and purposely make life difficult for the Elections Department and the reason why he didn’t want to discuss the issue was because he was embarrassed about it. But the Elections Departments had to clarify the issue, with videotape and stuff (remind me of the nude squatting incident in Msia) and blow up the whole thing. With Mr Yeo (whom I suppose is our foreign affairs minister) insisting that the full story be explained to all Singaporeans. Gosh, are people at home so bored that they need to know all these? If I were to tell this to the people trying to rebuild their lives after hurricane Katrina and Larry or the suicide bombings, I am pretty sure tears would come to their eyes. Tears of laughter at the ridiculousness of it all. They would probably think Singapore is some toy nation, with no idea of real issues.

That leads me to the next point. The term ‘First World Opposition’ keeps coming up. Now, to have a first world opposition, we need to have a first world government. To validate that, we need to first find out what is a first world government. I do have better things to do than to slam my own government, so I haven’t gone to find that out but, “Elections in Singapore are always about jobs, about cost of living, cost of transportation — the daily grind of living — and not freedom of the press or freedom of expression, he said.”(MM Lee as cited in TODAY, 29-30Apr, p.2). Doesn’t that remind you of the industrial revolution? Or the days when the Soviet Union looked set to take over the world?

I do not mean to say that jobs are not important, for my very future lies in the govt’s hands, and the daily grind of living is what will affect us most. Nor do I mean to advocate freedom of expression as I think many of us are still too immature to take full responsibility for our words, myself included. But is that all there is to a first world government? It is unclear whether Singapore is a developing or developed country. We may be economically stable, progressing rapidly, even opening casinos like some developed countries. But what about plans and actions to aid starving countries? Or better awareness and understanding of the less fortunate in our own country? If these are what constitutes a First World Country, which I hope are, then I am sad to say Singapore is sorely lacking in these aspects.

Ever since I’ve arrived in Adelaide, I have seen more disabled people on the streets than I have ever seen in Singapore my whole life. I do not believe that its because Australia has a greater proportion of disabled people, but it is because the society here looks out for these special group of people, such that they are able to take public transport and shop at shopping malls, without being pushed aside or getting stared and mocked at.

I am not implying that I am ready to give up my Singapore citizenship for an oz one, the ozzies have their fare share of nonsense. Nor do I suggest you to vote for the opposition (lest you blame me when your block of flats do not get interim upgrading cuz PAP lost your GRC), whom I think are sorely lacking in experience (hmm…wonder why?) But this elections, take time to ponder at the heart of it all.

Lydea blogged at 11:39 PM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...