Singapore’s Presidential election is a farce
August 28th, 2023 | 
Author: 
I voted. I didn’t spoil my vote. In Singapore’s history, movements to spoil votes have taken place before, most notably in the 1962 Referendum and the 1968 election boycott. Both failed. The 1962 Referendum was openly rigged by the government, with three unpalatable choices and no option to vote no (sound familiar?), and consequently many people cast spoilt ballots. The PAP claimed that such ballots were an endorsement of the status quo as the voter was telling the government that they had no opinion and would trust the government to decide. In the end, a massive 26.11% of the votes cast were spoilt but the PAP government, without an ounce of shame, declared victory.
Singapore’s Presidential election is a farce, and every time I think it cannot get any more ridiculous, it somehow plumbs new depths. I know many, like me, are disgusted with this Presidential election, with the open rigging of this election via qualification and procedural rules, and the insipid choices in front of us. But the PAP establishment are without shame. They will not care that the President has no mandate or that there is a high number of spoilt votes. All they care about is that their chosen candidate rubber-stamps their decisions, agrees to appoint their cronies into critical positions, and is otherwise powerless. In Singapore, politics under the PAP has become such that form trumps substance and technicalities matter more than intentions. There is no honour in PAP politics, no sense of right and wrong, no morality. All that matters is what the rules say, who interprets them, and what they have made legal. As all that matters are the rules, then I am responding accordingly to vote in the only way which will make a technical difference.
Please note that this post is not an endorsement of any candidate, but a condemnation of the status quo.
* Facebook post by Pingtjin Thum.
Posted in 
This election is basically for all of us to vote after 3 long years. It’s also an opportunity for the pro opposition voters to once again show PAP the middle finger and if Tan is elected then lagi better.
One last thing that this election will show is how much support they will receive for botak. If the 2011 election result was repeated then botak won’t have even a 1% difference from the next guy. PAP would use this result to decide if the next GE should be called next year or the year after.
And also, if the next GE doesn’t go too well for them then goondu Loong would have the perfect excuse to yet again delay the handover to Lawrence saying he needs to hang around to win back the lost seats. Ahem. Sound familiar? Ha ha ha!
loading...
The outcome of this PE will set the tone going forward into the next GE. If TKL wins, it signals that the ground is shifting in favor of the Opposition and the people are ready for change. If either one of the two Establishment figures wins the PE, it signals that the people are not ready for change, or they want change without having to vote for it. They prefer others to do it for them.
loading...
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing.
All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal.
We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
George Orwell, 1984
loading...
Many people, including news and ED, are telling the President candidates what they can say or cannot say.
What authority do these people have to tell the candidates to shut up? They have zero authority. That means they are the ones who should shut up.
The candidates can say anything they want, as long as they do not violate any law.
Similarly, the President can say anything he/she wants, as long as no law is violated. The little dictators should shut up.
loading...
Vote lah..
Now get choice still don’t vote ?
If not next time will be another Walkover…
Respect the two for coming out to stand against the endorsed candidate lah…
Who know,maybe your vote decide the Winner ?
loading...
The EXCLUSIVITY OF THE PE is over glaring especially with the $500M BARRIER TO ENTRY. Such a barrier greatly reducez the number of good and capable sgs who may want to come forward to SERVE THE NATION.
The $500M ,for example,BLOCKS OUT good and well-qualified sgs like DR TAN CHENG BOCK,JEE SAY AND even George Goh.
By blocking out good and capable sgs,the $500M creates a hindrance to sgs from having a wider choice of sgs to vote for.
Take for example this current PE,4 applicants initially was reduced to 3.
Out of the 3,2 are strongly ESTABLISHMENT-LINKED.
It seems that we are left with basically former ministers and top civil servants who easily qualify even if there are more suitable candidates available who are EXCLUDED BY THE IRRATIONAL $500M that seemd to be plucked out randomly from the air?
Lets review the road-bump$ to allow for s fairer,more inclusive selection criteria to allow for more good and capable sgs to come forward to SERVE.
loading...
This post does make valid pointers.
However regardless what I do at the ballot box it won’t mean anything.
Even if the favorite ‘rebel’ candidate did get in, T-Holdings will see to it he takes orders from the female reptile and the rest of the establishment.
At least that day I won’t have to eat the low quality takeaway they sell at industrial areas since I got excuse to go polling.
A more effective vote would be to pay tribute/prayer to the God(s) of your respective religions to better your personal life.
Another effective vote would be to put some cash into TRE, I don’t know of other Sinkie sites offer this much freedom of speech.
loading...
Some excitement this time …compare to the last one.
Hope the excitement outcome will be good for Singapore …
Anyway Enjoy your holiday….
loading...
T is a nice man, but from the establishment, and I don’t think he is going to be another Ong Teng Cheong to question the establishment. I feel disgusted that last PE was a walkover because, that candidate if put to competition, will not win. So it was rigged to rule out other contender as not qualify in order to have walkover for their weak but yes woman candidate. All this rigging is to fence off Dr. Tan CB, who almost won the previous PE election. Then, I know for sure our dear yes woman will not stand for 2nd term, cannot be changing constitution to allow Malay two time chances, so, she was told to announce not intending to stand. T is their strongest candidate, confident of winning, so this time allow not one but two other contenders to have a 3 way contest. Why? In singapore, basically it is split to pro PAP and anti PAP, even if you have more than 50% cast against PAP candidate, still, PAP candidate will win, similar to Dr Tony Tan’s time.
Sad, really sad for singapore’s future generation. I am voting since young until I am an old man now, and ownself check ownself situation has not changed !
loading...
@ Pingtjin Thum.
While I agree with you that all the elections, not only the PE, in Singapore have been a farce I totally disagree with your view that the just concluded PE ‘spoil’ your vote which I have strongly advocated, would have similarly failed, as the 1962 Referendum and the 1968 boycott had both failed.
The problem is, you and others like you, have failed to comprehend that the circumstances and context during the said period of “failed boycott” were totally different from those that exist in Singapore TODAY.
Following the Korean War, SEATO was formed to counter what was perceived to be the scourge of communism spreading across SE Asia. and that the Barisan Socialis was widely seen as pro-Communist. Hence there was no support for the BS. Also, following independence, SGP was trying to attract FDI for which communism is seen as an impediment. Just before that, Indonesia had also launched its widely communist inspired confrontasi policy against the newly formed Malaysia. Hence there was no support from the Western democracies on such boycott by the BS. There was also the fact that SGP’s GDP was 25% dependent on the British Forces spending and that the UK was a lead member of SEATO.
Today, the threat of communism is well contained and that Western countries strongly support democratic movements throughout the world. Also SGP’s GDP is much bigger and dependent on Western markets, FDI and technologies……….which make the autocratic policies of governments like SGP more difficult to exist.
Pity you and those with similar thinking that you don’t see the difference between the circumstances in the 1960’s from that currently for SGP which only makes matters worse for SGP and SINKaPOOReans. In any case, what difference has been your (and others) vote for TKL make any difference from the outcome? By not SPOILing your vote, you and those with similar views, only help to LEGITIMISE the farce that is the PE, whereas more spoilt votes would have serve to increase the scrutiny of LHL’s autocratic governance which has resulted in epic failures in his COVID-19 pandemic for which I had debunked the White Paper on the issue. Separately it had revealed the incompetence in the management of our reserves by TH as manifested in the total loss in the FTX gamble which the new CEO had termed “ old fashioned embezzlement…. complete absence of trustworthy financial information …. compromised systems … etc –” whereas the Chair of the CFTC decried about failure to heed FTX’s “flashing red lights”.
I’ll just repeat: there is none so blind as those who refuse to see. Sinkies suffer the negative consequences of their collective failures.
loading...
Indeed,a farce.
Still get the ERECTED ONE.
Next time,criteria must include candidates must not be member or OFFICE HOLDERS of ruling Party for at least 5 years.
Oppo party members not affected.
loading...