Wednesday, 02 December 2009

• My thoughts on 'Cooling Off' day

  
  

  PM Lee proposed to add an extra day just before polling day. He said,

  “I think 24 hours after the last excitement of the election campaign period, the rallies, the door-to-door campaigning, the adrenaline flowing, the clash in the mass media as well as in person, perambulating vans blaring away loud speakers, it’s good to have 24 hours to just calm down, think about it – tomorrow we vote.”

  Frankly Sir, your comments raised millions of eyebrows and questions. General Elections are now like parades? Something that is exciting, noisy, adrenaline rushing? And therefore requires an extra day to cool off? Not so simple lah. I would think it's a preempt to ease unapproving ground sentiments who might unceremoniously vote in a freak election result; and also this extra day serves to black out information on opposition parties. I think this sounds more logical rather than trying to paint GE as a festival of spectacles.

  “Previously, once in a while, we have had pushing and shoving at election rallies as the crowd gets worked up and doesn’t disperse, but the main thing is to have time for people to think over the issues and to vote in a calm state of mind,” he said.

  Calm state of mind? If you recall the 2006 GE, PAP went on an 7 day newspaper onslaught on James Gomez, calling him a liar for misplacing some application form. Instead of debating on policies, MIW decide to play character assassination the entire week. Not the kind of calmness we expected.
  
  

  “On the Internet, it’s grey and also the policing is not so straight-forward but even then, in principle we should say today is a quiet day. I cannot control several million videos on youtube but your website, what you’re putting up in your own name, I think that should end the day before the cooling-off day,”
  
  

  And main stream media not subject to this 'quiet' day? Wow... fair and free are indeed rare commodities. ST would gladly mount a one day onslaught of mouth pieces to entice, scare and confuse the electorate. 
  
  There are policies and events that have changed our lives drastically and we have to consider them seriously... the influx of foreigners, depressed wages, CPF Life, Retirement, HDB flats pricing and deficits, Minister Salary, Town Councils Sinking Funds, Temasek Holdings & GIC investment losses, GST 7%, 11 days to dip into reserves, 133rd, Mas Selamat Kastari ...and the list goes on.
  
  These are serious matters of livelyhood. Therefore, it is quite hard to observe 'cooling off' day. :)
  
  Here's a recap on the calmness of GE 2006,

  PM Lee on Fixing Opposition
  

  Sylvia Lim delivered a rousing rebuttal to PM Lee’s remarks.
  
  

  The James Gomez Constroversy
  

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