Something similar is happening in Singapore political scene. It has to do with a small constituency called Hougang. What's so special about Hougang is that for 20 years, this little area was held by a opposition party called Worker's Party. If you know that almost the whole of Singapore is under the rule of the ruling party PAP, then you'll understand how hard it is for any opposition party to win any constituency.
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Try as they could, the ruling party simply could never wrestle back this little Hougang from Worker's Party's Low Thia Khiang (above).
The problem was, for a long time, the opposition parties only managed to hold on to Hougang and one other small constituency which was held by another opposition party. Yes, pathetic. Also more pathetic was the opposition parties weren't united. There are many opposition parties. Too many if you ask me.
During the last general election which was held last May, something big changed. Hougang's incumbent Low Thia Khiang made a big move. He gave up his comfortable Hougang and led a team of 6 to run for a bigger constituency. They eventually won and got 6 seats in Parliament.
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Low Thia Khiang sent Yaw Shin Leong (above) to run for Hougang and Yaw managed to win Hougang easily.
This would have been the happy ending to this story except Yaw was expelled by his party less than a year after being elected. The reason? He refused to address allegations of his alleged extra-marital affairs. And you know what happens if you get expelled by your party? You lose your seat in parliament. To date, no one knows for sure how many women he bedded. Also he FLED THE COUNTRY.
Which brings us to the present. Yep, Hougang is calling for a re-start. Sorry, they sent in the wrong guy. They didn't know he was like that! We'll send a faithful guy this time.
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Today is nomination day. Worker's Party sent this guy. (above) People call him "Huat Ah!" (prosper). I looked up Worker's Party's website and found Huat Ah's data here. His position in the organisation is "Deputy Webmaster".
OMG! They sent in their tech guy! I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Alright, I laughed.
On May 26, Hougang will cast their votes and should the opposition party lose Hougang, I shan't shed a tear. They already won, for god's sake.
Thanks for making me laugh. "They sent in their tech guy!" I don't understand politics. I avoid it at all costs. Yes, even though my husband is on the local town council, too - most of the time I don't know what is going on. And... I think this type of nonsense is the reason! If all we ever talked about was "issues" and actually got things done, then maybe I'd pay more attention.
ReplyDeletewhen i was living in hougang, our hougang section was under the "aljunied constituency". so i never had the chance to vote for the very happening WP. I hope they win Hougang again.
ReplyDeleteHope Ah Huat speaks Teochew as fluent and melodious as LTK. LTK's speeches in Teochew is peppered with proverbs and colloqial language and in hougang, teochew is the 'it' language. Even if LTK fields a gorilla for this by-election, the gorilla will still win.
ReplyDeletePolitics, not something I even try to understand most of the time!
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