He said no

And I fear our work here is done.

Thanks for listening, folks. May the best man win.

Bloggercon dot SG

Good luck, folks. And have fun.

NKF fiasco

Here's a thought: TT Durai possibly qualifies to run for President.
1900-chew-on-it

Singapore President Nathan running for second term

And our hopes of a contest, and of putting the electoral mechanisms through a proper run, just dimmed by several notches. This is not to take anything away from the President, but the system does need to be exposed to the rigours of election, methinks.
NTD, your call.

NTD-speak

"Our government and political leadership have to learn to accept alternative views on public policies and resist the temptation to rule uncomfortable questions out of order.

"I would say that having 'OB markers' is to put a cap on thinking, with one crucial caveat: In a multiracial, multilingual and multi-religious Singapore, there will have to be OB markers on matters of race, language and religion. Not to place OB markers on race, language and religion is to invite disaster.

"Beyond this caveat, there will be no creative Singapore without the freedom to think. Only a free contest of ideas can give rise to the effervescence of creativity. Without creative thinking, Singapore would have lost in the competition between cities.

"The competition between cities differs from competition between countries in one crucial aspect. Cities compete on ideas, and ideas spring from the minds of individuals. More than in any other society, in Singapore, the individual counts. The individual makes the difference."

--- Temasek Club. August 11, 2004


How not to want a guy like that to be your President?

dates

ST report today reminds me there's one more date to think of: Nomination Day.

tap tap tap some more

We blame the media (mainstream kind) for many things around these parts, but one thing we shouldn't fault them on is their lack of coverage in the coming presidential election (or not, depending on who you believe) here in sunny Sing-sing-land, and the resultant general lack of interest. I mean, this has been going on for quite a while and nothing has really been happening for a few weeks now. How to sustain interest like that? Even the best of the scribes will be stuck for fresh angles and story ideas. Perhaps all the buzz started too early (as these things almost always do).
Dear PRESS PEOPLE: Next time please try to refrain from talking about any aspect of any kind of elections (guessing dates, candidates, electoral boundaries etc) until absolutely necessary. Otherwise you find the people who call the shots reacting too early, then get faced with sustained inactivity during which everyone just stops caring.
Having said that, and whether we have a contest or not, it is about time now to start thinking about (or at least gasak a bit) dates. I think we all should just sit and give this a bit of thought. 2 to think about: when the writ of election will be issued, and when the election will be.
At least this way we have something to look forward to.

Few things to keep in mind:
PM making 2 trips in the next few weeks.
IOC meeting - don't want international (read: Western) press to have opportunity to question our brand of democracy? Let them try. We'll all gang up to embarrass them.
National Day
National Day Rally

You want to remember that the IOC and National Day events generally calls for large scale deployment of resources - just like any election would, so will also have pragmatic concerns in the mix.


Mr Ngiam, please note: I can still make that trip to Prinsep Street to collect a form, if you're so inclined.

A reporter asked me recently, how come I'm so interested in these things. I'm Singaporean, if I don't then who would? If all of us don't give a rat's arse (cannot stand the word apathy), we're just all gonna give the holier-than-you western media more opportunities to tell us we deserve it.

tap tap tap...

no posts recently cos nothing's happening. and i've been stuck in deadline hell for 2 weeks.
for those who've dropped by: thanks.
there are still faint echoes of hope for an ntd presidency.