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I believe that news of Parliament dissolving and the issue of the writ of election, will be made known sometime this week. Then that would be in time for the earlier prediction of a May 7 Polling day.
1. The ruling party has announced all their candidates and also revealed their manifesto today. Scrutinise it HERE, if you want to. I've briefly scrolled through, and those pointers are just a continuation of what we're seeing today, which is probably a good thing, as I don't deny that they've done a good job in many areas. But I did think that some of the pointers given were a little vague and general, and there was the exclusion of 'touchy issues' like the immigrants policy, for example, which undoubtedly made it a less interesting piece of document to read.
2. The Singapore People's Party (SPP) has also unveiled their manifesto on their party website. Read it HERE.
3. Over the past week, we saw Ministers, one by one, taking potshots at WP's manifesto. Interestingly, they seemed to be really taking turns, having a different Minister commenting criticising it on each day, giving it an extended negative publicity on the mainstream media for the entire week.
I hope the ruling party isn't opposing it for the sake of opposing, because more often than not, their criticisms were not backed by substantial arguments. True enough, the ruling party made points like 'where are they going to get the money?', but some other comments, like the one made by our only Woman Cabinet Minister, on nationalisation of public transport: "Ultimately, you get cheap transport but it doesn't quite work out for the residents", seems to have no real value. Yes, she said it'll result in inefficiencies, but haven't they always been saying how great the government is? And why would cheap transport not 'work out for the residents'?
4. Anyway, I chanced upon a blog by Gerald Giam, one of the better performing speakers during the English version of the Political Forum held a few weeks ago. His party is contesting in East Coast GRC, and you can tell that they're serious, when they even valued the 30 families living in Pulau Ubin, by doing house visits there as well. This was not reported in the mainstream media, because the incumbents had never visited them before! I applaud the sincerity of this opposition party, because they could have spent more time on many more thousands of voters on the mainland in East Coast, rather than travelling to an offshore island, with voters that may not count significantly towards the overall votes in the GRC. His blog is HERE.
5. I've also watched both the English and Mandarin versions of the televised dialogue with the PM. It's amazing how the concerns of the English-educated (more on politics issues) are different from the Chinese-educated (more on social issues). Comparing both sessions, I found the Chinese version more interesting and engaging, and the questions posed were arguably more direct and pointed. One of the participants that left an impression on me, was Danny Yeo (杨君伟). Initially, I thought he would be asking about Mother Tongue issues, but instead, he posed critical questions like whether the MPs or Ministers truly understand the average citizens, and given the current system, why do we still bother to have an election. It's worth a watch, if you haven't.
6. I'll probably just end this off, with a reminder to friends who're currently overseas: You probably have just a few days from the date of this entry, to register as an overseas voter. That is because, once the PM announces the dissolvation of the Parliament and confirms the date of the election, you cannot register anymore! The list of overseas polling centres can be found HERE.
人生是黑白的.
6:24 PM <3
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I believe that news of Parliament dissolving and the issue of the writ of election, will be made known sometime this week. Then that would be in time for the earlier prediction of a May 7 Polling day.