Voting for a Difference: Singapore’s GE2020

Oh wow, it's been an exciting few days. I feel like crying happy and proud tears. I haven't felt this way before; now I understand how politics can be such an emotional affair. I just voted as an overseas voter on Thursday for the Singapore General Elections (GE), and it's my second time getting to vote. This time, I paid more attention to the political parties, what they stood for, and started learning a lot more about how the political scene has evolved. It seems to be a lot more active than I remember it 10 years ago. Oh what progress we’ve made!

For those who don't know, Singapore's politics is based on the British parliamentary system, where we vote for members of parliament (MPs) to represent us in parliamentary debates and policy decisions. Depending on how the government draws up electoral divisions, we're either voting for a group representation constituency (GRC) of 3-6 members, or a single member constituency (SMC) of 1 person. My home address is in the west part of Singapore, which is represented by a GRC and is traditionally very supportive of the dominant party, PAP.

Yes, we often get a lot of flak about having a one-party system, and it's even used as case studies in political science classes in the US as an "autocracy that looks like democracy", or "illiberal democracy". Even I've lost hope about having any credible opposition; as the apathetic Singaporean I am, I expected things to remain the same.

Yet, this time Singaporeans voted differently, albeit concentrated in the northeast part of Singapore where the opposition party there is the strongest. Still, across the board, PAP received 61% of Singapore's votes, down from 70% in their last elections. What made it more unexpected, is that usually in a crisis year like this, voters tend to turn towards the PAP government for economic backing and certainty. The fact that voters voted more than before for opposition, really sent a message to the government that we don't want to stand for any more gutter politics and bullying tactics against opposition.

I felt so excited, hopeful and gratified with the GE results this time. It was more than I could have hoped for - we voted in a record 10 opposition seats (remaining 83 seats still went to PAP), which was more than we've had before. For context, we've only had 1 or 2 voted seats for decades, and then 6 seats in the last two elections. This is the first time we voted in opposition parties in two GRCs too!

Another thing to note is that opposition in Singapore has been very fragmented, we had 10 opposition parties running this year, and only 3 of them were well known with strongholds from before. The rest were new or relatively unknown. The 10 seats that were won, all belonged to Worker's Party as they're the strongest and most credible opposition in Singapore. The runner-up, Progress Singapore Party (PSP) is a new party created last year, yet captured the next best votes at 48% to PAP's 51.6%.

It's very heartening to see more credible opposition coming up. To me, this is a signal that opposition is getting stronger, which would encourage smart talented Singaporeans to want to join opposition parties and not just PAP. We need a variety of voices, who can really represent the diversity of opinions that Singaporeans have.

I definitely got emotional and was tearing up a few times as I watched the live election results come out yesterday. This was the first time I was watching the results live, and it was easier for me since it's daytime here (while it was going all night from 10pm till 4am in Singapore!).

I’m so proud of you Singaporeans, for voting differently from before, for really trying to send a message without mindlessly voting for opposition.

Read here for a very well-written summary of what happened and why in Singapore's elections (much better writing than mine): https://www.facebook.com/notes/remy-choo-zheng-xi/ge-2020-what-the-electorate-said/10157717884973737/

Also on a random note, I was reminded of the last time I voted as a first-time voter in Washington DC. I went early before work, and was interviewed by a reporter and made it into two newspaper articles! There's even a photo of me in there (if you know where to look ^^). Check out my 2 seconds of fame here:
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/ge2015-singaporeans-vote-in-three-us-cities
https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/singaporeans-in-britain-among-first-to-vote

One Week On: It's easier now

I think I'm feeling better now. I've stopped ruminating over memories of Bruiser. I'm back to work and haven't thought about him as much. I also can look at his corner, his things, without feeling guilt or pain or grief. It's a lot faster than I thought it would take.

I'm guessing it's because I'm not as close to Bru but also because I really gave myself the time to grief, before, during and after. I let all my feelings out, and wrote, and cried my heart out. I've been crying for Bru for probably a few weeks now, as I saw him suffering, when he stopped responding to us, stopped enjoying all the happy things he used to enjoy. I cried because I was helpless, I couldn't do anything to help him. I felt so useless. I felt it was so unfair.

In a way, now that he's released from his pain, I have stopped needing to worry about his suffering. I stopped feeling so helpless. And in the last week, I've learned to let go.

I realised that I still feel a jolt of sadness from time to time, when I see other shiba inus on the street or in japanese anime (they often show up in Studio Ghibli movies!). I feel sad when I read what we wrote about Bruiser's suffering, or when other people tell me about walking their dogs, playing with them, essentially triggering my old memories of Bru. I think anything that reminds me of how it was when I spent time with him would make me sad. Or anything that reminds me of the suffering he went through. I would tear up sometimes, but only cried maybe twice this whole week? That's pretty impressive for me (I'm always crying at little things...so it's hard to keep it together).

I don't feel sad looking at other dog owners walking their dogs, instead I feel a lot of compassion and gratitude that these dogs have people who love them. I feel like some sort of a kindred spirit with the owners, now that I understand what it's like to love a dog and want to walk them and bond with them. I just sold 90% of Bruiser's stuff and handed it off today, and it didn't make me feel sad at all. It's easier now to move on, now that I've accepted it.

It's a good thing I have a bad memory - it helps me bounce back faster and stop remembering or ruminating about sad things too much. I get to live true to my name, being joyful and optimistic about things.