As announced in the recent budget, Singaporeans will receive, among other inducements, up to S$800 in May. Shortly after which strange handout, we predict, the elections will be called. In line with the principle, apparently, that Singaporeans have short memories.
Why would a ruling party, in such an entrenched position, resort to such blatant, shameless bribery of the electorate? We can only assume that they are doing it just to be on the safe side. And they are fearful of a Malaysian contagion or perhaps, the Middle Eastern conflagration. Which spreads and spreads.
Yet, PAP and its politicians have often held forth about the dangers of corruption. If this is not corruption, we cannot tell what is.
The high road, is not, it seems, for the PAP. The end, in Singapore, now justifies the means.
It is left now, to the Opposition, to unite against the PAP. And contest every single seat. For how else can the electorate take them seriously. They do not have to have perfect candidates for every seat. As the PAP pretends to have. The people will have to understand that the opposition is fledgling, and must be given a chance. And perhaps they will, this time, give them their vote, as even the more oppressed people of Malaysia did, in 2008.
The electorate may well, seduced by PAP's "election generosity", continue to meekly vote for it. The older citizens, well-indoctrinated and made frightened of phantoms, could certainly feel compelled to. As will the business community. For freedom adds no bonus to their balance-sheets. And of no good is the Singapore Law Society, for unlike their fighting Malaysian compatriots, they have been perverted into the PAP's servile, frightened, nodding creatures. For the most part, they disgrace their calling, by focusing on creature comforts and personal advancement, while ignoring their duty to their fellow-citizens.
But Singapore's youth is a dark horse that can make a difference. And they must. For only they, it seems, can save Singapore from another five years of overbearing rule. Another five years of the secret police, in the form of the 'special' branch. Another five years of crackdowns on the last bastion of freedom in Singapore, the Web. Another five years, of Singapore's own Climate Of Fear.
Youth has a chance to lead Singapore to freedom in this coming election. They can, if they will galvanise into action. And believe.
The sums they are handing out to citizens in May are paltry, almost an insult. It should be rejected, in protest. Reject those 30 pieces of silver, for they are paid you to betray yourself, and your rightful freedoms.
And Freedom, as we have seen around the world in the past month, can come to the most oppressed of nations.
Singapore should not be left behind, with an anachronistic government which rules, and treats citizens condescendingly, like it was still 1965. A government which grudgingly doles out pennies, and rewards its own senior officials and Ministers, in the very same budget, with an 8-month bonus on top of their already over-fat salaries. A government which believes it can buy your vote for a pittance, and then lord it over you for five years.
Preaching sanctimoniously, while contemptuously engaging, as in this Budget, in acts of overwhelming corruption.
"Thirty pieces of silver!
Oh! It is hellish gain!"
-William Blane
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