Maybe you would like to elaborate about the help you have mentioned. A Self-discovery “help” or active help from another party during the cooling-period day.

How about you also elaborating more on the lies.

But if people really vote like that, election results will almost be like lottery.
It depends on whether voting day is on an odd or even day.
In that case, what is the point in even voting?

First, a 24 hr cooling period before Polling Day is an idea that only a political party such as the PAP is capable of. If Dr Yik thinks that such a policy is sound and should be applied not only to voting practice but also in our daily routine, has it ever occurred to him to ascertain why it was not introduced in prior elections which have been held every 4 years for the last 50 years? Why only now? Having been voted into power in the past – in the absence of a cooling period – is the PAP now afraid that it will be voted out, on emotional grounds, if a cooling period is not introduced? If so, it cannot be considered as rational thinking.

A cooling period will make no difference if people have already decided which candidate/party they want in. Moreover, it can be argued that it is not a question of having a day of calm reflections to help one think rationally before casting one’s vote. Whether the government has performed to people’s expectations is a far more important criterion, and one does not need a cooling period of 24 hrs to know or decide whether the government has performed to expectations or not.

With support from people like Dr Yik, the PAP should have no fear of being knocked out of the competition. It may lose its shirt but not its pants.

To quote Dr Yik’s opening line: “Dr Catherine Lim’s interpretation yesterday [“Surprised by ‘cooling off’ idea”] of the People’s Action Party’s [PAP] announcement of a 24-hr cooling-off period before Polling Day is as striking in its perspicuity as it is jaundiced of the PAP’s intentions.”

If Dr Lim is perspicuous with her interpretation, then it would be contradictory or inconsistent to accuse her of having a jaundiced view of others.

Sorry, Dr Yik, you are the one who is jaundiced, not Dr Lim. And my advice to you is, you need to see a physician, and the sooner the better.

I tot it is a moot point because what has happened has already happened? Thinking of ‘what ifs’ will not change history, hence it is moot.

In any case, I was thinking if there could be a thread on brainstorming for ideas to change the “cooling day for reflecting PAP successes” to “cooling day to compare PAST PAP success and RECENT failures”…

For example, when opposition hold rallies or post stuff in their websites, they should constantly ask people to reflect on the recent failures of PAP specifically on the ‘cooling day’.

One suggestion is to give out a mailer on everything the ruling paty has promised and never delivered on the last campaigning day and request voters to think about it and discuss it at home or online.

Another would be to highlight the ever rising cost of living, lower wages, the influx of foriegners, the government lack of concern for the citizens and the amount of money the ministers are making, the GIC & Temasek losses and let the people think about it overnight.

These suggestions might seem crude at the moment but it can be fine tuned.

post #28 on January 18th, 2010 3.05 am

////The cooling period can be used to educate these people on the severe consequences of voting against the PAP.////

what are the severe consequences? care 2 share?

also please define educate? if its to educate, then its not a cooling off day.

who you 1 2 con? :P

However, the ruling party also recognised the fact that there is a small percentage of voters who need help in seeing through the lies made up by the opposition parties.

The cooling period can be used to educate these people on the severe consequences of voting against the PAP.

FIFA does not play in the games itself.

For our election rules reviews, the setters of the rules happen to be the players themselves. Do you still see where the fuss come from – not only in our election rules reviews but also in the fallacy of your flawed examples.

are singaporeans not the most TAMED in the world?
who would voice up in hong lim park?

given this, what is the fuss with the cooling off?
What is there to cool off when the people are so tamed ?

why not in the last 2 elections?

see, you should ask yourself the same question that you asked the readers.

singaporeans in general are Apathetic. There is no need to cool off. They will good boys and girls always.

why so over?

Perhaps Dr Yik has not been paying attention to the repeated calls for answers to wide-ranging questions, despite government authorities having proffered statement after statement after statement in the media in response. Leading members of the voting public have repeated their questions precisely because they fail to get answers that resound with the ring of truth and sincerity. He should examine this phenomenon before talking about disingenuous oratory.

While at it, he should also take time to research the criticisms levelled at Singapore’s human rights issues, state of political and individual freedoms, poverty, retirement, healthcare and social welfare situation, transparency of State processes, judicial independence, and so forth, before asserting that no one will argue with Singapore’s success. Lots of people will, and do. They just use different measures of success.

Unless Dr Yik has some incredible ability in clairvoyance, which I lack, I can just as credibly make the equally unsubstantiatable claim that Singapore would have achieved much more if certain individuals had been allowed to participate in governance in what could have been a more consultative and inclusive government, rather than sit rotting for decades in jail.

Many examples could also be cited to illustrate instances of inept governance helmed by iron-willed leaders who pushed through self-serving policies to the disfranchisement of huge swaths of population. Some such governments even started out competent and benevolent.

If the assertions that “the ruling party is the best there is”, and that “Singapore is as good as it could have been” are claims that cannot be gainsaid, why hold elections to give irrationality a chance to intrude?

Much of the disenfranchisement and disapproval has been festering for years. These feelings have not been put there by some Opposition Party members distributing flyers in the streets from Changi to Jurong in defiance of laws no one else distributing flyers in the streets seem to have run afoul of. Such Opposition “riff-raffs” have always been quickly and swiftly charged and fined and jailed. Rather, much of these negative feelings stem from the difficult-to-believe public utterances, the arrogance of elitists talking down to the population, the slow out-creeping of worms from under the floorboards.

I do not know how one can label as “sane”, a policy that virtually aims to erase accumulated negativity against the ruling party – in a single day. And I assure Dr Yik – in me at least, regret for having ever helped vote this government into a new term, that regret has long already arrived.

is she saying that only the voting for the incumbent is deserving and is by some special & quirky divine mandate always immuned to any ” concatenation of a young electorate manipulated by disingenuous oratory” which somehow seem to apply only to all others excepting the incumbent.

do the following fit into the jacket of disingenuous oratory.

1) public housing institution making a loss.
2) cheaper better faster for lesser people but astronomical pay for ministars to be non corrupt.
3) one man assembly in the name of security.
4) cooling period.
5) kicking spur into local hide.
6) here is curiosity, it is a matter of public interest. That is not sufficient reason to disclose information.
7) for long term (get screwed early) & also for short-term (for re-balancing).

///It is easier to be swayed momentarily by demagoguery and emotional argument than by rational reasoning.///

not if you keeping on having your hand on the switch.

///Nothing remedies this better than a good night’s rest and some rational reflection, after which convictions can be firmed and action taken without room for remorse.///

you should keep this advice for your paying patients who may need it more.

///but in the final analysis, the ???? idea is more conducive to the election of a government that Singaporeans are less likely to regret.///

yeah, only with the cooling period. y didn’t they think of it and have it implemented earlier – happily then, no seemed to regret it.