Of the introductory dramas

Now that the government has dissolved, what we had known to be the incumbent are showing their ugliest side.

Dr Ng Eng Hen (PAP) said it was "a reasonable question from any voter" to question Mr Chen Show Mao's intentions for standing this election.

Mr Chen Show Mao was named the "Dealmaker of the Year". This month's American Lawyer magazine had announced its picks for Dealmakers of the Year i.e. lawyers who worked on the biggest and most significant deals of 2010. Chen has the caliber that the PAP would seek to woo and eventually deign to win over with obese paychecks that would likely relegate a Kate Spade handbag to the repository and bring forth that Birkin bag to the light. On top of it, Chen had served national service even though he wasn't a naturalized citizen yet unlike a certain candidate that the PAP had been trying to get the people to accept. Click on that link to view The Online Citizen's excellent writeup on why Chen is more than qualified to stand for the election.

The PAP's theme this year had been solely focused on "leadership renewal". There have been strings of reports on how the PAP has scoured Singapore over in search of talented people to join the party, how the retired MPs had in their tenure been the most conscientious workers, etc. My concern is, when a party seeks renewal, does it look to better its current policies or merely shoot down suggestions from the opposition parties just because they are on the other side of the play field?

What I don't hear is leaders acknowledging that there is room for improvement.

I agree with the analysts labeling the coming elections as a "Social Media Election". Political parties have used the internet to build their internet presence and also to use it as a medium to interact with voters. So far, imho, SDP has been most savvy in using its website and Facebook page to publish their updates. In this aspect, it seems like PAP has drawn considerable flak. It began with photographs of a candidate that were found online which were exacerbated by her mentor over what seems to be a poor April Fool's Joke, disabling comments on the video of their manifesto and a certain GRC up north had put up an iPad as a mean to encourage residents to get to know their MPs better. That contest has been halted.


Perhaps in an effort not to be outdone, we have Nicole Seah of NSP, caught swearing in her Twitter account. It does portray her as an ordinary human / peasant like you and I. It does mean that political parties can use this against her. Maybe, it's a ploy to demonstrate that ERP has done zilch to ease peak hour congestion.

At the end of the day or the elections for that matter, it is only Singapore because the they would reign beyond their 46 years of power.

But, please don't get too dirty and personal. We are no longer that bunch of "forgetful Singaporeans". Social media can be very unforgiving.