Post Singapore General Election 2015 limbo

I woke up this morning, feeling empty and disappointed.

I feel empty because nothing has changed. The way I see it, the election results last night got us two steps back to where we’ve left off. I am referring to the voting trends from GE2011 and the historic win of an opposition party. It felt then that people are beginning to understand the need of an opposing voice in parliament; and it gives hope and is a huge stepping stone into the next election(GE2015).

I am fairly disappointed with people generally. We Singaporeans are a fairly educated bunch but majority of us seems be rigid in our thinking. I am pretty sure everyone is aware of the current state of things (high cost of living, rising housing cost, never getting back your CPF, COE, transport cost etc), no reason not to. It’s all we ever talk about constantly and is a popular topic. Somehow it speaks about the psychology of the majority. We are afraid of change. They probably envision some world-ending scenarios if they mess with the flow of things. I like to think that they do not actually understand what voting does and how they can affect policy changes. If that is not the correct explanation, I would have to conclude that the majority are weak and timid.

I’m sure we’ve met people and talk about our political affiliation. I don’t know about you but personally I’ve come across more pro-opposition than the ruling party. The election was in favor of the ruling party by a ratio of 7:3. Someone has got to be lying. I find it hard to trust people now. They would probably pretend they are pro-opposition but when it matters at the polls, they went the other way. That’s some next level craziness. Shouldn’t we be proud of the choices we make and represent.

I like to tackle other elements of GE2015 like the Media control in Singapore and the opposition parties another time. I still need time to come to terms with the current result and five more years. The winners won, the losers lost. The winners were handed the keys to the kingdom once again. More than that, they have the bragging rights. They can say anything they want now to undermine the opposition.

However, I have to acknowledge that it was well played by the ruling party. It was so nicely done that it felt rigged. I suppose that’s politics. I have no political background and the only politics I learn are from Netflix’s ‘House of cards’ starring Kevin Spacey. Great show by the way. We can’t be oblivious of the timing of this snap election. They had the SG50 and the sad passing of Singapore’s founding father in their favor. Moreover, they have control over the Media(another aspect I’d like to tackle another time) and have more money. The ruling party got the bigger posters all around Singapore; the bigger and thicker flyers in your mailer; the enormous amount of air-time on local media compared to snippets of opposition parties.

The way i see it, the opposition didn’t stand a chance against such overwhelming odds.