Thursday 27 August 2015

Mudslinging makes potatoes grow (repost)

[28/08/2015: Uploaded my post on 'mudslinging' late last night, oblivious to what was happening in Singapore. Woke up this morning to learn the latest about fellow social scientist. Susah!]

I am plagiarising myself here. I first posted this on 24th April 2011.

In my view there was too much "mudslinging" at the last GE. I hope that we have matured a bit and will use less of this strategy and argue on points that matter. I would like politicians to inspire me, enthuse me with their vision of where they wish to take us in the next 30 years.

Talking about SG100 is, to me, a bit premature. Five years are too short. Short-termism -- where politicians hand out freebies and promise the electorate even more goodies, and neglecting to fix the systems that need fixing -- in British politics has run everything Britons are proud of (eg National Health Service, pension provision, social care) very nearly into the ground.

I think striving for positive change (eg class size, National Service, CPF) within a generation is much more do-able. Just think, there is now a whole generation of young Singaporeans who were brought up by foreign maids, and they probably expect their own children to be brought up the same way.

==== [from previous post then ...]
The potatoes in my garden are going berserk. [I grow these in potato bags, not in the ground.] Every time I see new leaves I cover them with compost (as per instructions).

If I put compost on it last thing at night, new growth appears the following morning. If I cover it with compost in the morning, the leaves break through again by the end of the day.

New leaves appear despite the compost. Or is it because of the compost?

I’ve been baking my own bread. In the temperate clime here it takes a long time for bread dough to proof (ferment and rise). But when it has risen to the right size, it takes but a few minutes to bake, and then soon we can tuck into delicious warm bread.

When it’s the season for potatoes to grow, nothing would stop it once it finds moist, fertile ground.

Fed with alternative views via the internet and watered by rising dissatisfaction, the political ground in Singapore is fertile for opposition growth.

The ruling party might dig up the dirt and heap it on the opposition. But mudslinging and dirt (as compost is but organic material that has rotted down) only promote even greater growth.

I don’t have to remind you that potatoes grow underground.

As the opposition has been biding its time, proving (pun intended) itself to be worthy (or not, as the case might be), so too like bread, it would not take too long for it to be ready to form a government, or at least that alternative voice so necessary to provide checks and balances.

Wishing you, my beloved Singapore, the wonderful aroma that promises the delight of freshly baked bread. Soon.

===
P.S. I hope I get to vote this time.

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