Political self gratification

What is political self gratification? It is not much different from masturbation. Just imagine whatever that is pleasurable and masturbate on it, work on it I mean. One way is to think that you are the best talent in the world and the people must pay you whatever is your price, be it $3m, $5m or $10m. The thought of it is enough to get wet. And to really be paid that kind of money, now that is political self gratification at its best. Then you tell the people that what you have done is the best in their interest, like enhancing the value of their assets. Disregard those that have to pay more and more to chase the asset balloon. If they cannot afford it, just ask them to lower their expectations, from 4 rm to 3 rm to 2 rm. And you know the people just cannot do anything about it. Damn gratifying. They still have to come begging for more. It can be better by telling the people that they have to live with your logic, like it or not. Tell them that you are not going to build flats like cars in the show room for sale. They have to put in their orders, then only will you throw a tender and let the developers sweat it out in the next 3 or 4 years. Then tell the dumb asses that it is their fault for not planning when to get married and when to want to buy a flat. If this is not gratifying what else is? Comes election, throw them a slate of candidates and tell them these are the best talents you can find even if the talents are no better than their next door neighbours. And if the opposition comes up with candidates that are as qualified as yours or better, just question their motives. Your candidates did not have any motives. Or tell them the motives of your candidates are all honourable, to serve the people. Oh yes, tell the peasants that you are their servants, to serve them. After the election you can continue to rule them for the next 4 or 5 years. Screwing peasants must be great fun. Tell them to work hard, be cheap, be better and faster, tighten their belts when things are not looking good, and threaten them that without you their standard of living will go down, their property values will drop, and they may end up as maids in foreign countries. Isn’t that gratifying telling them that you are their servant? I must confess that I have no motive writing this. I am just getting a little self gratification. I am wet already.

Brazillian Road Festival

A procession of colourfully dressed performers on a road festival in Brazil. Click on Art of RAR image on top right for more paintings.

One casualty before the GE

Temasek Review has been down for a couple of days. It announced that it will not be in business in July. We are now still in April. Does anyone know the reason why Temasek Review is down and out? It can’t be the GE and that someone thinks that it is a threat and blocks it from broadcasting. It will be a sad day for the internet if it is so. Maybe the fear of the internet is true. Is this the beginning of a clamp down prior to the GE? How many will still be broadcasting throughout the GE? The humble internet is growing in importance to compete against the main media in the coverage of socio political news. And in the GE, its role is all cut out, to ensure a more level playing field for all parties. The opposition parties do not have the privilege of a friendly media covering and presenting their side of the story in a better light. With the internet, they practically have their own reporters and broadcasters to say what they really want to say. Then there is this dirty tactic that some like to used to attack their opponents, peeping into candidate’s key hole, sneaking in to find juicy news, digging out candidates history or things like candidates digging their noses and wearing pink panties. When candidates run foul, play foul, the internet could make it into an issue to embarrass the trespassers, to shame them for hitting below the belt, even to question their integrity and suitability to run for political office. This is the least the alternative media can do, to be the watchdog for fair play. The dirty game is just starting and more can happen without the internet to check such abuses. Let this game be a fairer game, a decent game and the better and more deserving man or woman be elected to Parliament. And let the punks be made known as punks. This is what citizen journalism is all about.

A bad feeling

Chen Show Mao spent 40 of his 50 years out of Singapore. There is this rumour that he may be disqualified to stand for election under the 10 year residency condition. The public data that I have gathered is that he came to Singapore in 1972, completed his primary, secondary and A level in 1979. This is followed by 2 ½ years of NS. He graduated from Harvard in 1986. From these data, the number is scary. Assuming that he continued to work outside of Singapore after graduation, and he started in Harvard in 1983, probably he will be safe. But if one is to take a fine comb and go through the days he was out of Singapore on holidays etc, it can be very dicey. This case his passport will be a key document, to count the number of days he spent in Singapore to make up for the 10 years requirement. And the number of days he returned to see his parents will be very crucial. Who will be tasked to do the checking? The WP better starts the checking to provide all supporting documents for this case. Will he be disqualified? Let’s hope that this is a false alarm.

Three tsunamis after the GE

Someone said the Worker's Party did not know that the tsunami is coming. Would there really be a tsunami? For the moment there is a calm before the storm. For 13 GEs, there were no storms to talk about after the GE. There were a couple of afternoon showers that were regarded as bad and shocking, like a little flooding in Orchard Road. The coming GE is the 14th GE. 14 is never a good number to those who believe in fengshui. Could there be a storm after the GE? What could be worst than a storm, more like a tsunami? As in all democratic elections, the people, the 'masters' of the country, shall decide. Three frightening results can actually happen. No one can really throw them out as rubbish, impossible. The first shock could be Chok Tong losing his Marine Parade GRC. The second shock, LKY and Tanjong Pagar go down. And the shock of all shocks, Hsien Loong loses Ang Mo Kio to a team of young turks. If any of these three events were to happen, it could rightly be called a political tsunami. And if all three were to happen, it will be a triple whammy. The falling of a few ministers and their GRCs is now more of a reality and can be expected. Nothing earth shattering. Are the people prepared for such a tsunami? No way, impossible! Is there such a thing as impossible in a free and open democratic election?