The elections had concluded and nothing much had changed in terms of the seats won and lost by PAP except that their total votes fell by about 9% compared to previous elections. With the ban on podcast and restrictions placed on bloggers writing about elections and rallies, I think it is better to share my experience, at one of the many rallies, after the elections.
My virgin rally was given to the largest (I guess so) one this year held on Friday at Serangoon stadium for the Worker's Party contesting in the Aljunied GRC. It's also the day that marks the end of my practicum (no more waking up at 6:30am for at least 1 more month) so that leaves me with some free time to cover the event with my H1 and our new addition, F11.
I don't get to vote because PAP had another walkover from where I stay. So I'm just there for the experience, listen to different views and witness the reborn Worker's Party in action. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that Mr Low Thia Khiang is indeed a capable politician and the Worker's Party seems to have a few capable candidates in their ranks. Unfortunately, WP needs more charismatic leaders like Mr Low himself to stand a chance to win a GRC.
The title above is written in Quantum Mechanics format and you could expect this post is about my personal experience at the elections rally. There will be other posts on other areas of the elections and/or rallies that I wish to mention too. The bras, < | and kets | > defines the topics that I will be discussing and the operator in between determines the angle / point of view. Maybe this could be the new way to write titles in the future.
Leaving for Serangoon - 6:15pm
We left for Serangoon early so as to find a decent parking lot before the crowd sets in and reached 25 minutes later to find that the carpark opposite the stadium was full. We tried our luck at the multistorey carpark above the interchange and found a lot fairly quickly. The early birds get the lots. We could see the crowds had started to move towards the stadium but we had other plans in mind - dinner. Serangoon looked more like Orchard road as people from all around Singapore gathered together here for the rally.
Serangoon Stadium - 7:40pm
After dinner, we casually strolled towards the stadium for the rally. One of the entrance to the stadium was closed and we had to squeeze our way through another. We were almost 100m away from the stage when we were there. The place is packed. I had never seen a stadium that packed with people.
All the prime seats were occupied when we reached. This is no surprised given the endless flow of human traffic in the direction of the stadium all night. Taken with F11.
The ocean of heads leading towards the stage. We are that far from it. A while later, we hear requests from WP to shift to the front so that more supporters could come in. Soon, the gates to the stadium was closed and WP requested supporters to shift towards the side of the stadium where they could see and hear the rally from the outside. Taken with F11.
WP Supporters waving their flags, showing their support to WP. They were chanting "Workers Party" all night and waving their flags whenever the speakers paused after making a good point. Taken with F11.
The speakers from the worker's party took turns to address the public, each focusing their speech on a few areas that they felt the PAP government did not do well. Most of the supporters there were middle age gentlemen and ladies. I spotted a few teenagers in uniforms among the crowd too. The WP leaders must be very encouraged by the turnout to their rallies for the past 8 days of campaigning.
Leaving for home 9:40pm
After hearing Mr Low Thia Khiang's first speech in Chinese, we thought it was time to make our way home before the roads get crowded again. As we left the stadium, we found hundreds of eager supporters outside the stadium listening to the speech by Mrs Sylvia Lim and hundreds of like-minded people leaving the stadium too.
Eager supporters who couldn't get into the stadium was still listening attentivel outside at 9:40pm. Taken with the F11
This scene looks more like Orchard road than Serangoon stadium. The only telltale sign is the traffic police around the junction directing the traffic and the human barriers at the side of the road. As we leave, we still find a handful of supporters still making their way to the rally. Maybe they had to work late that night but still thought it will be worthwhile to attend the last 15 minutes of the rally. Taken with the F11
Cars were parked illegally at road sides and in this case, completely blocking the traffic flow in the multi storey carpark. The situation was a bit chaotic as cars seem to converge from all different directions to the exit point. The bottleneck was at the exit of the carpark where there are 2 zebra crossings with endless human traffic flow. By the time we left the carpark, it was 10:10pm. Taken with the F11
Post Rally Thoughts
I must say the rally was inspiring given the magnitude of it and I came back searching the internet for more resources on the political scenes in Singapore. All the mainstream media could provide was the same old $X million upgrading packages if you vote for me, so and so is a liar and have no integrity kind of arguments. There are some interesting discussions on the elections online that brings a fresh new perspective that the Straits Times did not cover. More on that later. But this last part is inspired by a different Singaporean who took the effort to go to many different rallies and had some of these great images to tell his stories.
Taken from yawning bread when he went for the Hougang Rally for the WP. He wrote an excellent piece about the rally which I will reproduce here. Because I'm going to write about my own experience about this too.
I was at the Serangoon rally with two such gaunt old mans, one was my Dad, and he happened to met his friend, a friend that he used to worked for, at the rally.When the chanting began, I decided to linger to see what might happen. But I was the minority. Most of the others, however, chose to start leaving. Each of the human backs that had formed the wall in front of me swivelled around to walk past me.
It was then that I saw the face of the man who had been in front of me for the last few minutes. Turning around to depart, he was just 50 cm from my eyes. For a brief moment, we were face to face -- he, a gaunt old man with sunken eyes, a grey crewcut and white stubble.
He had his gnarled hand up against the corner of his eyes, smoothening out the tears. Yes, he had been crying.
Perhaps he hadn't had an easy life. Perhaps he had been a hawker or a house-painter, informal jobs with nothing by way of a pension. In his old age, he might have a mountain of financial worries. Worse yet, life and society as he knew it in his younger days were disappearing. The dialects are gone from official speak, in their place, not Mandarin, but Angmoh (English). Medical and hospital costs are stratospheric compared to what he had known 3 decades ago. Even taking a bus downtown costs more than taking the taxi in days gone by.
Meanwhile the richer have gotten richer. And the government talks the incomprehensible language of foreign investment, foreign talent, GDP, globalisation, creativity and the arts.
He would not have understood any of this, but he didn't mind that. What was important for him tonight, was that for once, a politician had articulated his sense of loss, his insecurity and his bewilderment at the galloping pace of change.
I don't know what the solutions are, he would have said. I don't understand half the stuff that ministers talk about anyway. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that tonight, I heard someone speak eloquently what I feel. And if he knows what I feel, then I can trust him to do something.
Of course, not everything can be fixed. I've lived long enough to know there will be no magic solutions. I'm not expecting any; just a little improvement is all I ask. Speak for me to the powers that be and give me hope. Do that, and I'll put my trust in you.
My Dad was a renovation worker (like King Kong in Phua Chu Kang) for more than 30-40 years. He renovated houses at Tampines, Simei, Hougang, Seng Kang... you name it, he did them before. He made a decent living out of renovation because of his good worksmanship and workrate. He could easily own a car and support a family with his income, 15 years ago. Then things changed, economic crisis, influx of cheaper foreign workers and rising cost of living meant he could no longer own a car.
He couldn't understand why the government did not put a check to those Malaysian and the Chinese workers from taking jobs away from him. The high cost of living in Singapore meant that he couldn't offer his services at competitive rates compared to these foreigners. His long term illness then added more stress to life and to make matter worse, his mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, and the kids were still schooling, that was the lowest point in life, luckily, we survived. Subsequently, the jobs that he did were to fix those renovation jobs that were messed up by poor worksmanship of those foreigners. He could no longer make a living in his old trade, those good old days were gone....
His friend, used to be a renovation contractor, like Phua Chu Kang. Business used to be good until the government made one of the many changes to the industry. He was invited to join the HDB approved list of contractors so it will be easier to get permits and get business. Being working in the line for many years, he found no reason to pay commission to HDB for every assignment he gets as it will take a cut on his profits. Soon he found it difficult to survive in that industry and switched to opening a hardware shop in town. One by one, my Dad's former bosses wind up their businesses and my Dad is forced into an early retirement.
That day, he told my Dad that his closing his hardware shop too. He found it hard to survive as a small business in Singapore. He too was disenchanted and was left behind in the Nation's progress. There are many more policies that they could not understand, all they felt was that the country that they worked hard for the past 30 years is now forcing them into menial jobs like cleaners and security guards. The government added salt to their wounds when they told them not to be picky when they look for jobs. There is a sense of betrayal as the nation's policies changed once too many in their lifetimes...
The aging workforce is not an unique problem to Singapore. Even small business in USA are winding up at the sweeping financial powers of Walmarts and the likes. It's becoming more and more difficult to keep the baby boomers happy today as many of them were left behind after toiling for decades of their life. Many of them do not have pension or CPF to fall back on. Insurance was not common in their times and premiums are high if they enter schemes now.
They have to depend on their children or take up low paying jobs by being a cleaner to survive. Paying out a couple of hundreds or thousands as an incentive will ease their short term worries, what they need is someone to fight for them and give them hope, a hope that a thousand dollars could not provide.
That day, many old man found that hope in the WP. I know it
Two strangers met up in the rally. They were moved by the speeches, regardless of race, language or religion. I see them cheer as the WP brought a smile to them. I wanted to take a shot when his arm over the shoulder but I missed that by a split second. I wonder if they felt that there is hope for them after all. Taken with the H1.
I know the PAP would be the best party to bring Singapore forward economically and protect the nation's interest. But the WP is the one that resonates in many Singaporean's heart.
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