Then there are these regular reports telling us that this minister or that said no, these (announcements about upgrading, better services, improvements or whatever) are not election goodies, just part of what we are doing for residents/citizens. Come on, what do you expect the ministers to say when you ask them, 'Sir, is your announcement an election sweetener?' You think he will say, 'Yes, yes, of course. We are finished if we don't win at least 80% of the votes'?
My wish is for the media to play a more helpful role in the run-up to the elections, and in their coverage of campaigning and how it actually turns out.
Here are some things I hope they can do:
1. Look at what would interest different groups of voters: the young 45,000 first-time voters, older maybe-first-time voters like me (never had the chance to vote before), politically apathetic Singaporeans, the older generation, higher income / lower income groups, the unemployed, the elderly, etc etc.
2. Discuss 'democracy'. Since they stopped doing stuff like ancient Greece in lower sec history, how many Singaporeans know about the origins of democracy? Apart from images on TV of Taiwanese MPS bickering or fighting, South Koreans on strike, etc, do people know enough about what other Asian democracies are like? Should we model ourselves after the western democracies? What does casting a vote mean?
3. Ask more specific questions about specific issues, and here I have some that I hope will at least be touched on:
LWhat exactly is going to be done to keep our economy afloat in the face of China and India (and possibly our neighbours one day) poised to overtake us in so many areas?
LHow exactly are the needs of the ageing population going to be met? What is going to be done to make sure the medical, social and health sectors can cope well with this? (Recent announcement of plans for the elderly not enough! People have been looking at retirement villages for some 10 years or so already, people - like me - have been wondering about 'barrier-free' access, e.g. lifts in multi-storey car parks, wheelchair-friendly transporation, etc, for years. Why take so long? What are the concrete plans?)
LWhat support is going to be given to the unemployed / lower income group? (apart from cash handouts)
LHow exactly is the defence of the country going to be maintained, given falling birth rates (fewer boys going to NS, etc)?
LHow is the MOE making sure that the quality of education is not compromised with the whole slew of new programmes (through-train, etc) at secondary level?
LWhen will they abolish USSR (Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading) in primary schools (and I sincerely hope this thing is no longer carried out in secondary schools)? This is not as trivial an issue as it sounds. Abolishing it would have rather widespread implications. One would be how early kids have to be to school each morning (7.10am for most schools, from what I understand, which means before 7am for those poor dears who are prefects because their 'duty' starts before the rest of the kids arrive). Everything that was debated recently in relation to this would be affected - enough/not enough rest and sleep for the kids and their families, bus companies, traffic conditions, etc. It would also have an impact on the curriculum - how to encourage reading in more meaningful ways. How the role of public libraries can be enhanced, and about time too, given the revamps, renovations, etc that have been done in the last few years. ETC...
LAnd a clearly non-trivial issue: How are we going to manage our relations with Malaysia, since the outstanding issues are still outstanding?
ETC.
And also, this 'rule' about giving the political parties different amounts of airtime, according to the percentage of contesting candidates they have, are they still going by this?
So many things to look at. So I hope they won't just keep trying to ask for hints about the timing of the elections or if election goodies are election goodies.
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