Former Brigadier General Battles Former Police Inspector in Aljunied

Two things to write about today for a jet-lagged and overworked irresponsible anonymous blogger. The act of voting and Humility.

Read the following extract :

"I remember that day. I followed my mom to Braddell primary school which is now demolished. It felt almost like being first day of school (although I didn't go to this school) because it was doing something important for the first time and my mom was there to accompany me. :P The process was so simple yet it actually gave me a sense of accomplishment because it was symbolic of, or rather it was my voice amidst a bevy of voices on the little densely populated island. I wonder if other first-time voters felt like that. I wonder when I would get a chance to do that again."

Memories of a Singaporean on his first time voting. A memory that I do not have. A memory that many others like me do not have.

Looking at it, voting really is indeed a simple process. You register, take your numbered ballot slip, walk to a shielded counter and make a simple cross against the party logo of your choice. Simple but yet each individual cross etched, each ballot slip slotted into the box, aggregates into political power.

What about the feelings that accompany this simple action? Is it simple? From this short excerpt, no. Such few words but so many things come through. Do you sense a feeling of empowerment. Do you sense a feeling that this is an edifying moment. Do you sense that this is a significant moment of political learning. Notice the analogy. It was like the first day of school. Do you sense that at this moment, there was a feeling of being a Singaporean. Truly for the first time, a sensation of political meaning. To be a Singaporean. To be doing something important for the first time.

I sense so many things in this articulated moment, so many opportunities, so much awakening and yet it is a simple act of voting.

Sometimes I wish someone elder can tell me how it felt like to cast that vote during that infamous National Referendum for Merger. That simple vote to decide the fate of a country, a nation, a community. I can only guess that the feelings can be distilled into those same feelings as quoted above.

Stop and think. Take a pencil, a piece of paper and draw a cross and imagine that with that cross you join 4 million other Singaporeans to decide what everything means to your life. This is the political power coursing freely through Singapore now. The State can de-politicise you. But during this period, it cannot do so because it has to partake in politics for its own sustenance and legitimisation.

For the many more Singaporeans who are going to vote this time. Cherish this and know that it may not come again.

State participation in politics brings me to the next issue. Humility.The incumbent regime has been so long in power that it seems to have forgotten this simple political emotion, crucial in an election period. In drawing the battle lines and coming out with all guns blazing, their rhetoric has bordered on arrogance. Coming into my turf? Suicide. Polli-cide. MY PEOPLE WILL RETURN ME.

The State has consistently instrumentalised depoliticisation measures such that it requires the talent of technocrats or bureaucrats to operationalise these measures. Practical, procedural, hardly political. But there remains this incovenience of elections every five years. In the past, the PAP Old Guard were visionaries focussing on the political because they had excellent British-trained civil servants to execute the procedural, the bureaucratic. Now we do not have the such civil servants (hence, the need for the Admin Service) and ironically, the "best" of such bureaucrats are then cross-bred into politics.

So during election time, we experience the typical Mandarin attitude. Abrasiveness and arrogance.

But take a look at the wiliest and most consumnate politician in Singapore, Minister Mentor Lee. Feel how he enunciates and listen to his words in various media interviews. Compare the tone, the emotional tenor in these interviews to the forum where he took on the young radical English-educated Singaporeans. There is a difference. A slight difference. Cross examiner transforms into politician. It is not arrogance, it is confidence. He has distilled Singapore politics into its essence, vote me because I will deliver. During the struggle for independence, he persuaded Singaporeans in a marathon rally, his podium piled high with crumpled and still smoldering cigarettes. Today, political experience focusses that oratory power into sound-bite minutes for broadcast consumption.This is what the "young" PAP candidates do not have.

Political savvy no. Administrative savvy yes. Political savvy no.

Just analyse George Yeo's articulations over Gomez's handing in of minority status forms. He would make a good Returning Officer or Election Department Head. This is reflective of his technocratic mindset. This fixation with rules and regulations comes out naturally when he speaks. It is familar ground for a bureaucrat. Gomez failed to adhere to procedures, he lied, he is dishonest. Its the same mindset that perceives u-turns as rethinks because that is procedurally exact.

The political strategy of zooming in on the weakest link in Sylvia Lim's GRC team is correct. But the political method used in exploiting this link fails. And this is expected from a bureacrat's application of politics.

The traditional media compunds this bureaucratic mindset by aping this fixation with the procedural, when as Mr Wang points out, a simple look at Gomez will inform you of his race. The media apes this bureaucratic mindset when staring them in the eyes is such a beautiful media spin : "Former Brigadier General Battles Former Police Inspector in Aljunied" ... who knows the poeple well? who will have had greater operational experience in dealing with the community. "Sandbox Tactics Pitted Against Street Patrol Tactics". So many media opportunities and we waste valuable article space talking about the race of Gomez. He is Indian. No doubt about that. We can put it to a vote.

But I digress. Bureaucratisation of Singapore, Singapore Inc. The media institutions become the organisation newsletter. Grassroots organisations become HR departments. Schools become organisation training institutes. BUT politics abhors bureaucracy and turns it upside down, inside out. And this Achilles will be the single greatest reason why a single dominant party system will not sustain into the long-run in Singapore. To cross-breed two inimical ideas is doomed in the long-run. Singapore Inc cannot last into perpetuity.

And we will, we have to recover Singapore as it is. Because the procedural and the practical leads to statements like this :

"My personal view is, our land is expensive. But we have nearby neighbours in Johore, Batam and Bintan. The elderly want to reach their doctors within half to one hour. So retirement villages in neighbouring countries is possible, barring the cross-border hassle. It is best to find cheap land on short leases," said Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan. ChannelNewsAsia

Where Singaporeans are valued less than the their own land. Their soil. Their home. And shoved to die on short lease foreign soil.

Voting is a simple process. Let us Singaporeans be humble in our expression of political power.

Quotes of the Day --

"If a bureaucrat's superior gives him a directive he considers wrong he should object, but if the superior insists it is his duty and even his honour to carry it out as if it corresponded to his innermost conviction" -- Max Weber, Economy & Society

"... the politician must publicly reject the responsibility for political actions that run counter to his convictions and must sacrifice his office to them. A genuine political leader will be ready to accept responsibility for morally dubious action, since the different parts of our value system are irreconcilably in conflict." -- Max Weber, From Max Weber

"You were, as you say, taken on as a surveyor but we don't need a surveyor . . . The boundaries of our small holdings have been marked out, everything has been duly registered, the properties themselves rarely change hands, and whatever small boundary disputes arise, we settle ourselves.'' -- Franz Kafka, The Castle (unfinished work)