Cooling-Off Day
Over the weekend, I went for a local production, Cooling-Off Day, which was a depiction of a collection of interviews collected from Singaporeans regarding last year's General Elections.
It was an interesting production. I wouldn't call it a show, because it felt serious and close to home. I like it that the views presented were fairly distributed. There were opinions gathered from not only PAP and Opposition supporters, there were also portrayals of people like me, who see both sides of the coin. Although there were cheers and jeers all around, it was still a good avenue from which to learn from. Particularly, I got a better understanding of how our current government's policies affects my fellow countrymen from various walks of life, especially the Malays and Indians.
Not to compare race or even social status, but I AM a typical Singaporean Chinese from a lower middle class family, and I have always think about issues the typical Singaporean Chinese lower middle class way, according to the kind of social exposure I had according to the way I was brought up. Some of the views presented were related to issues that I have never really thought about before, more due to ignorance on my part than anything else, because they did not affect me in anyway. It was a nice way to be educated like that, in a rather neutral environment.
Which is good for me. Now that the GE is nothing but a not-so-distant memory behind us. I see a lot of people go back to being the way they were. Some still extremely angry at the government. Some not giving a damn like before. While some of the hot-blooded bandwagon hoppers, who probably decided to join the fray because it was the cool thing to do, having realised that they now have nothing to be spirited about, had long hopped off their high horses, hoping that no one will remember their red-faced, fiery behaviour.
To most, all the competition is over. Time to get over the excitement and back to reality.
To me, this should be when the real contest begins. Just because the GE is over, and will not be round the corner until 4 years later, does not mean we should stop observing and evaluating. We should take the next 4 years to assess ourselves and our country, to see if where it is going is in tune with our own personal goals and ideals in life.
Just because anyone is a PAP-supporter now does not mean they should continue to be if they are not satisfied with their performance. And just because you advocate the opposition now, does not mean you should not give PAP a chance in time if they really do deliver. We are essentially picking a government to govern our country, not a party that endorses whatever agenda we may have. There should really be no agenda in the government apart from progressing our country and making everyone's lives a little bit better.
I think the problem with a lot of Singaporeans is that we like to act like an elitist when it suits us, but behave like paupers when we feel shortchanged. We are simply, for lack of a better term, hard to please bitches. We see things that other countries have that we don't, we complain that there is no progress. Then when our government tries to give us these things at the expense of what was already there, we complain that they are compromising our heritage.
Whatever it is, I am keeping my eyes and my mind open. Because I may be a lazy dumbshit, but I care about being a responsible person. Not just a citizen, a person, who don't base her decisions on just a few factors, but the big picture. And definitely not for the sake of being cool and different from the majority.
I wish more people can be like that too.
It was an interesting production. I wouldn't call it a show, because it felt serious and close to home. I like it that the views presented were fairly distributed. There were opinions gathered from not only PAP and Opposition supporters, there were also portrayals of people like me, who see both sides of the coin. Although there were cheers and jeers all around, it was still a good avenue from which to learn from. Particularly, I got a better understanding of how our current government's policies affects my fellow countrymen from various walks of life, especially the Malays and Indians.
Not to compare race or even social status, but I AM a typical Singaporean Chinese from a lower middle class family, and I have always think about issues the typical Singaporean Chinese lower middle class way, according to the kind of social exposure I had according to the way I was brought up. Some of the views presented were related to issues that I have never really thought about before, more due to ignorance on my part than anything else, because they did not affect me in anyway. It was a nice way to be educated like that, in a rather neutral environment.
Which is good for me. Now that the GE is nothing but a not-so-distant memory behind us. I see a lot of people go back to being the way they were. Some still extremely angry at the government. Some not giving a damn like before. While some of the hot-blooded bandwagon hoppers, who probably decided to join the fray because it was the cool thing to do, having realised that they now have nothing to be spirited about, had long hopped off their high horses, hoping that no one will remember their red-faced, fiery behaviour.
To most, all the competition is over. Time to get over the excitement and back to reality.
To me, this should be when the real contest begins. Just because the GE is over, and will not be round the corner until 4 years later, does not mean we should stop observing and evaluating. We should take the next 4 years to assess ourselves and our country, to see if where it is going is in tune with our own personal goals and ideals in life.
Just because anyone is a PAP-supporter now does not mean they should continue to be if they are not satisfied with their performance. And just because you advocate the opposition now, does not mean you should not give PAP a chance in time if they really do deliver. We are essentially picking a government to govern our country, not a party that endorses whatever agenda we may have. There should really be no agenda in the government apart from progressing our country and making everyone's lives a little bit better.
I think the problem with a lot of Singaporeans is that we like to act like an elitist when it suits us, but behave like paupers when we feel shortchanged. We are simply, for lack of a better term, hard to please bitches. We see things that other countries have that we don't, we complain that there is no progress. Then when our government tries to give us these things at the expense of what was already there, we complain that they are compromising our heritage.
Whatever it is, I am keeping my eyes and my mind open. Because I may be a lazy dumbshit, but I care about being a responsible person. Not just a citizen, a person, who don't base her decisions on just a few factors, but the big picture. And definitely not for the sake of being cool and different from the majority.
I wish more people can be like that too.
posted by Keiia at 2:15 PM
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