May 3, 2011

Earlier today, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke (and begged for mercy from the electorate) at a People’s Action Party rally in Singapore’s CBD. One part of his speech seems to have been almost buried, but it’s pretty newsworthy - the PM seems to be carefully marginalising the man who ran the country for more than thirty years, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. The PAP appears to be admitting that their venerated elder statesman is becoming a potentially massive PR liability:

Apr 27, 2011

Update: Hi! If you enjoyed this post, I’ve got a series on Singapore’s election going up over the next week: Election 2011: the Redistricting Election 2011: Nomination Day (this post) Election 2011: He’s Their Helen Thomas …and there’s more to come. Today was Nomination Day. There’s only one day in the entire election cycle where candidates can register to get on the ballot for a Singaporean election.

Apr 20, 2011

Update: Hi! If you enjoyed this post, I’ve got a series on Singapore’s election going up over the next week: Election 2011: the Redistricting (this post) Election 2011: Nomination Day Election 2011: He’s Their Helen Thomas …and there’s more to come. This is the first in a series of pieces on Singapore’s General Election, which was announced yesterday after a month of phoney-war campaigning. 2.4 million registered voters will go to the polls on May 7th, and - let’s not mince words here - the result is a foregone conclusion.

Nov 6, 2009

Welcome to the wonderful world of electioneering in Singapore. The seat of Potong Pasir is one of the few seats in Singapore that’s held by an opposition party member. (Coincidentally, Potong Pasir is also one of the few “single member constituencies”, which means it only has one MP - as opposed to “group representative constituencies” that have five or six members of parliament representing them. I’m just saying.) And because it’s held by the opposition party, Potong Pasir is getting the shaft from the ruling People’s Action Party:

May 31, 2009

JRE has had harsh words for the Straits Times in many, many blog posts over the last two years, for all sorts of different reasons. When they do something right, then, it’s only fair to shout it from the rooftops and give Singapore’s media the praise it deserves. So it warmed my heart to open Saturday’s ST and read, spread across pages 2 and 3, the editor of the ST staunchly defending his paper’s reporting of the hijacking - and subsequent retaking - of AWARE, a Singaporean womens’ rights organisation.