Obama for Singapore?

If the media is to be believed, Barack Obama is the most exciting person in American politics right now. Actually, that is an understatement. Barack Obama is probably the most exciting person in politics worldwide right now.

Most politicians will be happy to have delivered one speech that gets people talking about the eloquence of the delivery for days. Obama has made it a weekly habit of his. “We are the change we seek,” thundered Obama at one of his campaign speeches, mixing alliteration with his favourite pronoun.

His political star is burning so bright a student in our country, halfway around the world, threw up this question a at recent political forum – will we ever see our very own Obama?

Well, our very own Obama will have to come from a political party and it certainly will not be the PAP. It has long been the ruling party’s style to groom its future leaders through a methodical fashion. For the PAP, it is not about change we can believe in, but about a track record that we can trust. We are more likely to see a Hillary Clinton who expounds on her ability to be a leader from day one in the PAP. There does not seem to be any room for the meteoric rise in profile that Obama, a relatively inexperienced senator, is enjoying in the US.

And the younger members of the PAP are hardly able to reach out to younger voters the way Obama has appealed to college students in the US. The post-65 MPs have simply been hard-selling themselves too much. The cringe-worthy dance routine they tried to pass off as hip-hop was panned by many and the MPs spent much time defending their dance effort on their blog.

Obama inspires viral videos from everyday people and celebrities alike. Netizens blog about his speeches on the presidential campaign. The Post-65 MPs have to blog about their own speeches in Parliament on their own blog.

So we turn to opposition parties for our Obama, but they are unlikely to produce one either. Much has been said about Obama’s grassroots support and his ability to raise massive amounts of money from internet donors alone.

But we forget that he had a swooning media circus that catapulted him into the minds of the public when he was just a green senator from Illinois state. The extensive coverage of Obama in the news, which actually started way before his decision to run for president, gave people awareness of the books that he wrote, the speeches he made, and his appearances in the US Senate.

Now that he is running for president, cameras are ever-ready to televise every single motivating word he utters. The media has made him visible to the average American who is supporting Obama right now. The media has created Obama.

In Singapore, the opposition hardly makes the news. Whether it is because they are not worth covering or because the media is unwilling to give them coverage, we will never know. But the fact remains that the opposition is hardly in the public’s eye.

The only time the opposition appears regularly in the news is during the short period of general elections every five to six years. And though the opposition parties are able to come up with fresh faces from time to time, they lack the ability to stay in politics for long.

The Workers’ Party captured the imagination of voters when they fielded young candidates in the prime minister’s ward. But these Kamikaze Six, as the prime minister called them, disappeared from view as the ballot boxes were put away. Disagreement within the ranks later led two other members to quit the party.

Another opposition member, Steve Chia, made such a big impact in the 2001 elections that Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong praised his credibility. But he shot himself in the foot when a scandal involving compromising photographs of his maid emerged.

These are just about the only reports we see in the media about the opposition parties. The news-making juggernaut that is the government simply sucks up all the coverage in the media.

So can Singapore have an Obama? To borrow a line from Obama himself: yes, we can. We might even already have one in our midst. But without the media telling us so, we will never know.

I will sing

"Foreigners should not be encouraged to organise and lead Singaporeans in making complaints about the nation.

Information, Communications and The Arts Minister, Dr Lee Boon Yang, made this point in Parliament on Friday when he reiterated the government's position that only Singaporeans can be involved in domestic politics.

Dr Lee said letting foreigners lead Singaporeans to make complaints in public, run contrary to established principles that comments for domestic affairs should be reserved for Singaporeans.

To Mr Siew's (Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong ) point that Singapore had commented on the domestic politics of other countries, notably Myanmar, Dr Lee noted that the situation was different.

He said reactions to what was happening in Myanmar were in line with international sentiments. " Above-mentioned quoted from -CNA 15 February 2008 1842 hrs

Hmm, if Dr Lee says that only Singaporeans can be involved in domestic politics, does this policy presume that Singaporeans can freely be involved in domestic politics without being a victim of the politics of fear?

It seems to me that this policy presumes the presence of a certain vibrant and safe public sphere where Singaporeans can express their emotions and reactions to local politics. But how true is this? How many Singaporeans would gladly attest that we are free to express our political views about Singapore, in Singapore. How many of us would tend to hide behind the excuse of being 'politically apathetic' instead of embracing the opportunities given to us to spread political awareness and recognise that a political life is an everyday reality, whether one admits it or not.

Befitting the context, if some Singaporeans felt like forming a choir or an improvised drama group or even just a book sharing session to express and share political views, would they ever be granted a license from the MDA to perform in public? Would it ever be legal to bring out our political opinions into the public sphere? Is a civil society viable in Singapore in the near future?

These are important questions that we should at least stop in our busy upper middle class lives to think about. These are critical questions that should somehow touch a nerve within you. How long more will we be able to hide behind materialism and economic development and repress our natural desires to be engaged in a political life, whether it is simply hoping to see some real competitive politics on TV or being able to decide what to do with your lifelong savings.

I would like to commend CNA for mentioning Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong's counter-point to Dr. Lee, pointing out the inconsistency of the government's professed policy towards non-interference in other nations' domestic politics. Even if we accept Dr. Lee's caveat that it is in line with international sentiment, the same caveat can be used to support my point that there is alot of unhappiness with Singapore's domestic politics (or lack of), whether emanating from inside Singapore or outside. I believe there is a certain undercurrent of international sentiment that does not exactly agree with the oppressive and authoritarian type of democracy that exists in Singapore. This underlying sentiment may be much diluted and dwarfed by international perception of Singapore as a successful business hub and post-colonial developing country in Asia, and also perhaps the active use of libel laws here.

I will sing in protest, not at the state of domestic politics in Singapore, but to spread awareness among my friends and fellow Singaporeans. Wake up from your dreamy cushy upper middle class life and stand up for your rights, act in the full capacity of a political citizen, for the strengthening and renewal of this beautiful country and state. 'Political apathy' seems like an oxymoron for me, I cannot understand how it can truly exist unless you are truly that easily satisfied with things in life. I will sing, whether in hokkien or teochew or singlish or english or mandarin or arabic or malay if you teach me. If you are willing to hear, I will sing, for I believe certain fundamental things in life like music and liberty are a universal language that transcends many barriers.