Excerpts from blog posting by Ng E Jay.
Personally, I think that Yaw should not have publicly announced that he voted for the PAP, especially since he is not only a leading figure in an opposition party, but also a candidate himself. If Yaw told his supporters to pluck up the courage to vote for the WP, wouldn’t his supporters feel let down or even betrayed to some extent that he has voted for the PAP instead (even granting that Teo Ho Pin was standing against a candidate from another party, namely the SDP)?
In the run up to GE 2006, Yaw Shin Leong himself said that the reason they contested Ang Mo Kio GRC was to allow people the chance to vote against PAP and balance out the playing field. Isn’t that opposition for the sake of opposition itself — in a positive way? Why then does Mr Yaw contradict himself now in his most recent blog posting, by saying that we should not have opposition for the mere sake of opposition?
Read the full article on sgpolitics.
—————–
The Politics of Betraying.
I understand that Yaw Shin Leong was from Young PAP before he joined the WP.
If that is the case, then he could have already betrayed the PAP by switching his
allegiance to the WP. Therefore, if he could betray his previous political party,
who is to say he cannot betray the WP or any other political party that he might
decide to join later on?
On another note, if he had been with the PAP for some time, then he could have
been brain-washed by the PAP’s way of thinking (as reflected in his arguments
to support the notion why he had deliberately voted for the PAP in the last General
Elections while asking others to vote against the PAP in the same go). So,
subconsciously (“we should not have opposition for the mere sake of
opposition”) he could be very much a PAP man, though his physical body
could be with the WP. For all we know, he could be an unwitting double-agent without even knowing it himself!
One more thing, we all know that voting is secret. We need not reveal who we
have voted to anybody. The question is why did Yaw Shin Leong deliberately
revealed to the public via his blog post that he had purposely voted for the PAP?
What is he trying to do? What does he aim to achieve by contradicting his own
stand?
Last but not least: Why is in in politics at all?
Just to share my thoughts. I may be proven wrong.
Spy-Hunter.
spy / double agent ???
score political points from PAP ???
Raise his profile?
Mr Yaw why do you see a mine and still insist to step on it? How do you intent to lead the electorate with this kind of logic? I am very worried for WP as a viable opposition if this type of calibre exists. At least Dr Chee and gang probably also voted PAP in WP contested ward but at least their logic states that voting is sacred. Never leak it out especially from the horse mouth.
Yaw is just too naive to be the type who can face up to/combat the PAP’s machinations ( to quote a term from the late Dr Lee Siew Choh ). He has explained that he voted for TeoHo Pin because he was the best man in his ward. Now, best man for what? We know that heartlanders – the hoi polloi – usually need them for bread-and-butter issues. And I admit that perhaps PAP MPs do better – in bread-butter issues -being backed by the formidable machinery and power bases in the civil service they have consolidated over the years.
However, as far as the macro is concerned, Teo is after all still a PAP MP and he has a Party line to toe; so he will never be as committed to being the true Opposition as we want him to be. The lesson of the pig and hen in the ham-and-eggs partnership. The pig is committed because a part if not all of him is on the plate whereas the hen is only involved and not committed, because it didnt have to lose any limb or life by laying an egg.
People like Yaw surely can’t be thinking about B&B issues and therefore don’t need to rely on such MPs,and I have to think that since Yaw is a member of a political party, I must believe that he is in it for bigger things – the macro, the battle for true democracy, upholding freedom, civil libertiesetc. – not bread-and-butter issues. Therefore, by voting for Teo, he has been bought by the PAP’s propaganda and has descended (out of cowardice) to subsistence level politics to ensure his own existentialist needs instead of using the vote to cast in with a David that is trying to battle with overwhelming odds the PAP Goliath. Now, it’s a vote lost to the Opp and a vote won for PAP who already has too much ( and isnt Yaw in WP to counter this???). What happened to loftier ideals, strengthening institutional checks and balances etc to prevent abuse of power and despotism?
What happened to Yaw?