P65 MPs: Style over Substance?

Singapore Post-1965 Politicians: Style over Substance?
Dancing their ways to our hearts, snaking their ways to our minds

Style
Barack Obama is a lesson in style - people trust and are charmed by him. He appears on shows like Conan, and young voters eagerly reach back to him. In the same fashion, our P65 MPs are signaling their desire to connect to us. Us - the group of post-65ers who will make up the majority of voters in the next election. But we just laugh at them. And at best the journalist writing for the Associated Press about P65 Chingay was restraining his smirk.

Are we observers hypocrites? Weren't we the ones who wanted PAP to loosen up from their paternalistic ways? I have a parallel first hand experience - I was a student councilor in JC. Mass dances are huge at my JC, and being responsible for devising new dances and passing on traditional ones, we councilors spent time practicing, performing and leading dances. Some students weren't impressed, they thought we cared too much for dancing - and we weren't even good at it. I enjoyed dancing but realized I was no dancer. But I danced on. Maybe I was pushed by more senior members of the establishment because they thought it was crucial in our service to students. Definitely I felt a passion to serve my fellow students. Yet style is a two-way street - not just about exhibiting, but about listening to feedback and reacting...stylishly.

If you pardon my example, aren't dances usually as mating rituals? So what are the p65 MPs using it as a vehicle for - substance?

Substance
To give them some credit
True to PAP, our P65 MPs prefer subtlety. Their blog may sometimes seem like inane recollections of their day or childhood, but carefully embedded in each entry is subtext on a hefty topic, like for example racial harmony or urban planning. The MPs have better uses of their time than to sit in front of a computer and blog nostalgia. Clearly they are using our common childhood memories to connect. C'mon, we Singaporeans are a sappy bunch, suckers for Korean dramas and more family-oriented than most city-dwellers. Politics are about grassroots power - with their posts in various languages and different MPs focusing on separate niches like arts & design, minority issues, the p65 blog is much weightier than most people give them credit for.

Then to take some away - personal peeve
First, maybe I'm claustrophobic, but something personal: I hate frames, so I dislike the layout, even when the frame is inlaid. I prefer my customized frameless version.

If I put on my postmodernist glasses and analyze why I don't like the border of happy smiling MP faces, I guess I'm bothered by how much it reminds me of our GRC system. How I don't vote single politicians but by the gang.

The lack of dialog, the lack of engagement
"It's Where We Talk," claims the tagline in a handwritten font. I'm not sure who "we" refer to, but most readers of the p65 blogs are not satisfied with the level of political engagement. While Singapore bloggers were debating the GST hike in November 2006, the first posts from the MPs didn't come till much later. Even when that happened, some MPs were accused of not responding directly to comments readers left.

Lim Wee Kiat was singled out by a reader (named anonymously "Singaporean") as "the only P65 MP here on this blog who is willing to discuss govt policies." I'm sure there are many readers who are equally frustrated with the lack of dialog and engagement. So the return volley from the MPs is: why then, no one comes the webchats and real-life sessions (other than Young PAP members)?

Our impatient world
As David Harvey succinctly said of our post-modern times, we face "Time-space compression." (Space)Here I am blogging in the United States, but my readers come mainly from Singapore. (Time)Maybe the complaint about the lack of engagement is really a complaint about the lack of timely posts? Some of the most popular Singapore political bloggers are not just the best writers, they are the most frequent writers. Politicians, however, are probably not passionate bloggers. It's part of what they do, but my advice is for us readers to slow down and push for more engagement while not pushing for more frequency.

[End of portion about MPs]
The Asides
Thanks for reading so far, I really appreciate it, and would be happy if you could leave comments.

Intra-country income disparity is a global phenomenon, countries rich as the United States and (previously) poor like China are grappling with it. I believe in the power of open markets, even in thoughts and debate, so I'm happy I live in a generation where I can influence how we tackle this problem.

Coming from a background that's at best lower-middle income, I empathize that the lower income groups need help, but I'm concerned at how Singapore politics have pressured politicians into what appears to be more welfarism, at least in appearance. With our globalized, connected world, institutions need to be nimble and quick, and I think too many complex welfare policies will drag us down.

Major diversion - The carnival as a microcosm of society
The level of democracy is reflected in our Chingay carnival. I was once in a carnival in Aalst, a small town in Belgium, and almost every float that went past was political - whether local, Belgian, European, or world-wide. Yet they were mostly very funny, if offensive (not at a Borat level though). For a while I thought there was a huge Danish population, because everyone was waving Danish flags...then I realized it was about the cartoons.

Whereas our Chingay is sanctioned clean fun. Carnivals aside, where's our space for expression? Where's our freedom of speech? Is governmental control hurting us? Let me give a YouTube example - if I want to learn about Lee Kuan Yew and I search for videos, only 5 are returned, and the top hit is about a cabbie complaining about him. Oh, no, readers of my blog who come from gov.sg, please don't start uploading innocently proper LKY clips on YouTube - learn the lesson we have to... our participatory culture needs the government to realize we are moving beyond top-down, government implemented.

IR
Decades ago, the worlds (Beauty World, Gay World, Great World etc) were what would be regarded as Casino resorts today - they offered the glamor, the exoticism...yet they went away, or were taken away.

When we return these places of decadent fun (come on, we all know casinos bring with them sins like gambling, drinking, dirty money, prostitution etc), we can't just be reintroducing them to attract hedge fund managers (Wall Street Journal suggested that's why we're doing it). Bankers come and go, and increasingly maybe Singaporeans come and go, but everyone knows - the Singaporean will at least pause and think before they pack, but the banker is gone as fast as that Mercedes cab comes...