Thursday, September 24, 2015
《雨季》December Rains the Musical
Esplanade Theatre
Ok, not exactly a concert, but it's still a musical performance. Some of the concert-going group of friends attended together to support the re-run of this classic local Chinese musical, a day before the last show.
It was our first time watching this musical, having missed the previous runs. It was a pretty simple plot, which didn't quite appeal to some of my friends. To be honest, when compared with 天冷就回来, 雨季 paled slightly in terms of the music and plot, but it still was a decent local production, which was set against the backdrop of the Chinese student-led riots in the 50s.
We managed to get a group shot with 梁文福 and 叶良俊 too, the men behind the songs. Thanks to QR, who was a student at one of 梁文福's modules in university, 梁文福 spotted our group and gave us a little priority in the photo queue.
人生是黑白的.
4:46 PM <3
>>>
The GE2015 seemed to come and go pretty quickly. Compared to the 2011 election, this year's mood felt more muted and fewer people seemed to be talking about it. Perhaps the SG50 mood was still high, against the backdrop of a lingering post-LKY Singapore. Right from the start, Singaporeans knew that the election would be very much in favour for the ruling party, but I'm sure nobody ever expected a landslide win in the likes of a 10-percentage point swing of the popular vote back.
On polling night, I was at Hougang stadium. When we reached the stadium at about 9:45pm, the sample vote count results were streaming in. To the supporters on site, none of the results were good. There was only the sample results for Hougang to cheer for, but it still was quite a dip in support compared to 2011. And there was the sample results for Punggol East, which put the candidates at a 49%-51% fight, and that of Aljunied, which saw a 52%-48% contest. Both were too close to call.
But what surprised me most was the results in East Coast GRC and Fengshan SMC. These constituencies were supposedly thought to be the closest fight among all, and a number of analyses by political watchers and even the man-on-the-street predicted a WP win. After all, these 5 seats were just 5% away from a WP win in 2011. Ever since the last election, the opposition party seemed to be working extra hard in the area -- conscientiously walking the ground and maintaining presence. Even the candidates line-up put it on par with the WP 'A' team in Aljunied, with some even saying that the team could actually surpass the PAP's East Coast team in terms of qualifications. The eventual 39%-61% loss came as a shock, but it also reflects the difficulty in gauging ground support in future polls.
Back to the Hougang stadium mood that night, I could easily see faces of despair all around. This was a total opposite compared to 2011 (I was there too), when the atmosphere ran high and hopeful, even before the announcement of the Aljunied win that time. I guess the sample votes killed all the anticipation, with some people leaving after 11pm, knowing that the sample votes were so accurate. The Punggol East loss, too, brought the stadium into silence. I was pretty sure that there were people who teared at the news. The defending candidate, LLL, had her fair share of tears at the sides before taking to the stage quite a while later. There were concession speeches by the different candidates one after another, and the crowds did what they could -- giving generous encouragement applause and cheers after a good fight.
Indeed a good fight. Over the 8 nights of rallies, all the WP rallies attracted tens of thousands of people. I've always loved to attend their rallies, because the speeches were of pretty high standards, compared to all other opposition parties. I attended 5 of them live in person, 2 through online streaming and 1 through delayed catch-up. (Well, you really can say that I followed GE full-time). It helped that the rally locations were all nearby (WP only contested the eastern half of Singapore) and I had the company of a highly-active political whatsapp group, which was sharing GE-related news day and night over the past 2 months. By the end of the hustings period, it felt like I know most of the candidates already, even if I had not also followed them on social media.
Now that the election is over, lives are back to normal, and our political chat-group has quieted. Looking back over the past 2 months, it felt like we've been through quite a lot of action. Some of us (including myself) had been quoted in Zaobao newspaper, and some of us had been meeting up to eat orh luak at Fengshan market, and also to attend rallies. It was the most random WhatsApp groups ever, but even though we initially didn't know one another, it was the most active one yet. It was really quite surreal to be able to forge new friendships over a General Election (?!). At present, we do not know how the chat-group will end up, since it's still a long 5 years to 2020, but we do hope more Singaporeans become more politically-aware and be informed voters to make future wise choices.
Till then, GE2020.
人生是黑白的.
4:02 PM <3
>>>
