2006 Top-10 Moments: Number 10

It's that time of the year again. Decembers have always been an intensely reflective month for me for the last 6 years or so, and this year is no different.

Following the practice which I started last year where I splitted my top-10 list into 10 daily entries in the last 10 days of the year, instead of squeezing of all of my top-10 moments in one entry on New Year's Eve; today marks the start of this annual series.

Taking the 10th spot this year is the Singapore General Elections in May this year. It was the first elections I would have been eligible to vote at - if there was any brave souls contesting the incumbent party of 5 in my ward.

Alas! Nobody came along as the opposition decided to strategize and expand what limited resources was available to them.

All the action was happening in the northeastern corridor of the island. I felt so left out as the incumbent celebrated their "victory" by hammering up wooden placards all around the estate. A "hollow" one since they won by default if you ask me.

The "poster boy" at this elections was James Gomez - following in the footsteps of great men before him like Francis Seow, JBJ, Tang Liang Hong and more recently and persistently, Chee Soon Juan.

In an incident likened to "Gomez-gate," the then-secretary general of Workers' Party was accused of cheating as he forgotten to submit one of the gazillion forms to contest the elections, in particular, the one that would have certified him as a minority candidate.

The absurdity of the need for such a form is quite another issue altogether and one that has been related to racial policies in Singapore and rehashed ad naseum.

Anyway, this incident was poked fun at by mrbrown with his hilariously funny take on one of his shows. The bak-chor-mee-mai-di-kua episode provoked a mention at the younger Lee's National Day rally speech, where instead of saying laksa mai hum, he also uttered mee siam mai hum for good measure -- which mrbrown again brilliantly used in his remix of that Black Eye Pea song. Wicked!

Oh well, then there was the "Good Progress" monetary handouts, that we found out a while later, was actually meant for us to tide over all the tax increases that followed the incumbent party's "resounding" 66.6% victory at the GE. I seriously doubt I have any of that cash to spare, because I blew my 800 bucks on my new Canon Powershot S3 camera.

Psst, last I heard, GST is being increased to 7% in order to "fund welfare policies for the not-so-rich." Maybe their economics so good ah that it even baffles this Econs A-level E-grade student here. And almost at the same time, news broke of how Hong Kong decided to scrap plans for a same tax in the middle of a 9-month public consultation. So democratic sial!

Oh yes, Asian values account for the Singapura way. Asians like to be told what is best by their big daddy. Asians like stability and don't like freedom because no money can be earned with democracy and its associated chaos. It doesn't really matter if this stability is a figment of one's imagination.

Oh yah, I should not complaining scarly kenna mark because the gah-men says we should be grateful and happy that we got such a great gah-men and everything is so IR-ridiculously smooth.

The GE takes number 10 spot simply because it provided a glimpse into the local system and displayed the over-competitive, legalistic and graceless nature of the incumbent in all its grotesque glory, masking social realities in the social process with their political rhetoric.

I will never forget the pictures showing the contrast of the crowds at the rallies of the incumbent and the opposition WP. The pictures posted by various bloggers really astounded me and gave me some hope that Singapura-land might not be as obliviously oppressed as I previously thought.

Till the next elections 4 years on I guess.