I have already decided to give my vote to the opposition, regardless of who he is.

On the other hand,
I have gained more respect for Alternative Parties, TheOnlineCitizen and many other media that dare speak up for the people and for themselves.

I look forward to next election when we will have yet another chance to exercise our rights on who should lead this country.

I can go on & on. My vote goes to the opposition even if the opposition sucks. Because I will be a sucker if I kena conned by PAP again. Period.

The biggest flaw in your comment is yourself. You have been taken in by the PAP’s indoctrination that no party is any where close to the PAP in terms of its ability to lead the country. You believe this because you have been told over, and over, and over; again and again and again – that no other political party can govern Singapore the way the PAP has been doing.

The PAP operates by using everything at its disposal to escalate every small flaw, amplify every bumbling action, sneer every counter-suggestion and warn against every anti-PAP thought, brought about by anyone opposing them.

By constantly doing all these and more, people like you begin to ask questions that the PAP wants you to ask. You become ensnared without even realizing it.

Any political party can survive any uncertainties, anytime. The power of the people lending support can do wonders – the same wonders our foreparents were able to do alongside the PAP – in the early days of our Nationhood.

This is the reason why I ask that voters begin to see things for what it is. It is not this or that political party who will bring Singapore forward into the future. Let no party tell us this.

It is the collective will of the people; just like the collective will of our foreparents – not one man only – who will ensure that Singapore can look to a future that brings true happiness and prosperity for ourselves.

1. WP is not as gungho nor active as a political party found in other 1st worlds like Australia, USA and basically anywhere else. Whats going on? Whats the reality?

2. I still feel that despite this those who voted for them last round may still do the same if no other options or parties come to the fray. So, its like 1 option out of 1.
A new party with similarly qualified candidates could also get the same level of support if not comparable level of support.

What HAS CHANGED is the blogging scene. These non-political parties websites are the main Contributors to the fight against Apathy. These deserve a pat on their backs. These have spoken on all issues possible for discussion on behalf of the people. These should be the MP and People Representatives. They are more effective.

These are merely my personal views. Feel free to rebut me. If you can.

Even if Singapore is to have a strong defence force to deter any aggressor for national security, the defence budget should be cut. The deterrence value of the SAF comes from the NSF and NSmen and Singaporeans commitment to NS, not the regulars.

The problem is that the PAP is paying the regulars, especially the senior military officers too high pay, so as to give these senior military officers an incentive to keep them in power, in the event that should there be a freak elections, to use their words, they can send in the army to crush the opposition parties elected by the people. There is no such thing as freak election, if someone is elected into office by the will of the people, they are elected. If an election can be freak, can we then said that all the past electoral victories of the PAP are freak elections?

A major in the SAF at the age of 40 can earn up to $9000 per mth, with a retirement fund of $500k at the age of 50. Hence, being a regular officer in the SAF can make a person a millionaire by the time he retired from regular service, while the majority of Singaporeans are left to struggle to make a living becos of the high cost of living in Singapore becos of the high taxes imposed by the PAP to pay the senior military officers. Many of these senior officers with the rank of major and above do not hold combat appointments and even if they do, it is only for the inital few years in their entire military career. Subsequently, their duties are mainly office and administrative bound. Why should Singaporeans be made to pay an army officer such a high pay for a job that is office bound? Even a senior manager or a GM in a private company who has to worry about the profit and loss of his company daily may not earn that kind of pay.

Singapore can still have a strong defence force with a reduced defence budget. The reason the defence budget is so high, (Singapore defence spending is $11.447 billion for FY09, compared to only $4.74 billion by Indonesia in 2008 and Malaysia is $1.69 billion in 2000. Sources. Wikiedia) is mainly becos a large part of the defence budget has been used to pay the regular officers. If MINDEF reduce the pay of the regular senior ofifcers (with the rank of major and above) by $2k a mth, it can save $24k per year from each of them. Assuming there are 5000 officers with the rank of major and above in SAF, MINDEF can save at least $120 million per year!!! The problem with the high cost of living in Singapre is becos of the high defence spending, becos the PAP has mismanage or deliberately pay the regular SAF officers too high pay!!! Can you imagine a major, lieutenant colonel and colonel being pay $10k a month for performing only office bound or admin duties in CMPB, MINDEF and non-combat units? And many of these senior officers misused or make use of the NSFs and NSmen to do their work for them, with the threat to charge them for disobeying orders if they don’t do their work? An NSF or NSmen being pay only a few hundred dollars to do the work of the regulars being pay $10k a mth?

We have to ask ourselves a few fundamental questions.
1. What message do you want to send across to the politicians you want as representative?
2. What message you want to send to the ruling party?
3. What message you want to send to the Alternatives?
4. What message you want to convey for yourself?

If you think the PAP has been good to you, your family, your friends and the community at large; fine; cast your votes based on this understanding. But if you have doubts about the quality of the current PAP team because of the numerous grievances you have heard around you, then you would do well to go hear them out and see if they make any sense to you. After that, go cast your vote and no one will fault you for your choice.

But if you conclude that these grievances have merit, and that you want to be less selfish for once; to think for your fellow Singaporeans who are suffering and lagging behind, and to lend them a hand, then you would also do well to give consideration to all these before casting your votes.

It is understandable that there are opinions – that even as we find the PAP deplorable in many ways – we cannot just cast our votes for any alternatives that have no track records we can rely on.

The point is we need to consider this: if we do not begin to take our chances with the alternatives, we will forever be facing this situation, election after election. When this happens, the PAP becomes more and more arrogant and those not suffering now, will eventually be suffering.

So, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to take a chance. We are not talking about having the alternatives forming the next government. Freak results and what-nots are the PAP’s way of frightening the people. With all the corrupted mechanisms in place, there is no way for such freak results unless Singaporeans are totally pissed with them. If this is the case, then it is not a freak result anymore, is it? It is what Singaporeans want.

What will happen when we take the chance to give the alternatives a chance (and ourselves along the way), is that we begin to set in motion the wheel of multi-party governance. There will no longer be a PAP monopoly; and; there will no longer be a state-centric government but a people-centric one.

If this is the message we want to send to the PAP, then this will be the time to do so. The PAP will be truly awaken to the need to reinvent itself to be people-focused. This is what any government ought to do and this is what we want the ruling party of Singapore to do.

should be : since you are allowed to do walkabouts and sell hammers, why not do more of this and stretch the boundaries to the max? Unless you tell me you have experienced the max? proof?

There is no choice WP, there is no way to discount from having to do all these walkabouts as you want the votes, you have to put in the effort and not just courtesy efforts but 101% efforts. I not sure does WP do Ave 9 and HG Green areas ? That seems like a white area.

You guys complain cannot do this cannot do that due to restrictions. But you said you have been doing walkabouts and selling hammers. Oxymoron?

What i fail to see is you increasing this type of activities to engage the voters.

Hey, come on, it as been years since the last election. What difference have you the WP made?

Tell the me.

One problem, LKY cannot go back his words that he has a bunch of useless elites, only out to keep holding on to make money from the political position that paid so well.

The next thing and hopefully before he goes to the grave that he understands paying millions to politicians is a graving mistake as well.

Look around us and look at history, what happen to people holding on to power for too long?

We must change in the next election, be good or bad now but eventually will benefit our next generations.

Look at Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan…etc they are a better country now then ever. Admire the Thais, a bit messy but democratic and tolerable. The Malaysians and the Filipinos are doing very well too. These people love their country and looking at their future. They do not want to experience the past again. The HK people are still holding on to what they believed, if not for their people power, HK will be oppressed by the mainland.

Today, the elite, the blindly loyalist, the fortune seekers, the one-tone, one-theme pap cronies fill the parliament, to continue their weak footing, out-of-touch, they survive in GRC, they are either muted ( sleeping through their term ) or be a loud speaker for the master, one typical is

Ms Irene Ng, the typical BIG MOUTH, DO-NOTHING pap “mp”

member of parliament not, member of puppets, YES !!