GE 2011: Rally

I recently attended the final rally for the General Elections 2011, and I chose to attend the Singapore People’s Party final rally at Bishan Stadium. To be frank, one of the only reasons for me wanting to choose the SPP’s rally on the final night was to see Mr. Chiam See Tong speak, as I thought that his speech would be worth listening to among the other candidates. But I was surprised to find that the other candidates spoke well and were able to sway the audience with emotions despite this election being their first election as candidates.

The rally started with Mr. David Tan, and I felt that his aim was to use the public’s discontent of Mr. Wong Kan Seng and how he handled the Mas Selamat issue. I think that the weak link of the PAP team for this GRC is actually Mr Wong Kan Seng, because many people feel strongly that he should have taken responsibility for the issue and thus is not very popular among the people of Singapore. Mr David Tan’s message was to actually pull down the PAP and promote the SPP. I felt that the fact that he was the first speaker was a good move as his speech acted to rally people for the SPP and prepare the ground for the other speakers to speak.

Mr Sin Kek Tong was the next speaker, and he actually spoke about almost the same topics as Mr David Tan. The main difference though between their speeches was that Mr Sin used humour to get through to his audience and the public, starting out his speech by cracking jokes, instead of using a strong decision-making voice. Mr Sin and Mr Tan both emphasized on the monetary issues of the country, and how the income gap was very large, considering how the ministers are all earning top income salaries. I have to agree that the income of the ministers can be cut in order to provide more funding for the public. Our government has one of the highest paid ministers in the world although Singapore being a little red dot, so I think that it is not right to have the ministers of this country to suck the country’s funding.

The speaker I felt was the most influential was Mr Benjamin Phwee. He used Potong Pasir as an example to show the competency of the party and was straightforward in his stand, and yet had a sense of compassion towards the public. Despite my own constant reminder of trying to be neutral and see the viewpoint of both parties, I could not help but to be swayed by Mr Phwee’s speech. What I felt was one of his strongest topics that he touched on was on the fear of losing ministers through voting oppositions. I felt that he handled that issue well as he talked about how these ministers, although important, are not irreplaceable and so there is no worry when it comes to the minister places.

As the rally was coming to the end, the man of the moment, Mr Chiam See Tong finally stood up to speak. I respect Mr Chiam not only because he has stood and opposed the PAP for 6 elections and won all, but also because of his love and care for the community, the GRC. His speech was short, and I could not catch much of it. But what I could make out was this, “I want to make Bishan-Toa Payoh my kind of place.” I was touched by those few words, as it portrayed fully how much he cares for others and the community.

This rally is only the second rally I have ever gone to in my life, with my first rally being in the 2006 elections and when I could not understand these topics. But now that I have matured and understand what the candidates stand for, I feel a larger sense of national loyalty and cannot wait for when I am 21!