General Election 2011

In a couple of hours' time, Singaporeans will get to vote who they want to represent them in the Parliment.

General Election 2011 has been very interesting. I think the last election which has caused so much fanfare, must be the times of our parents' and even grandparents' days. It has been a while since there have been so much talk about the general election.

A friend of mine has commented that there is a very good media coverage of the general election activities. I suppose given today's media technology, and thus, the real time updates of status and emotions felt during rallies via social network such as Facebook, Twitter and real time upload of rallies videos and any satire and parodies via youtube, the local media must be as prompt as possible in their coverage. And if the media coverage is not enough to quench the curious thirst, there are a number of bloggers out there who will generously share their views on their blogs.

Candidiates for the various parties have also utilized social network to garner support. In addition, netizens out there have also create groups on Facebook, which are either supportive of certain candidate/party or unsupportive of certain candidate/parties. Personally, I felt that all parties should not be defensive or unhappy with these support or "unsupport" groups, but to analyze the situation and perhaps, this will allow them to be better prepared for the next election to garner support.

I hope there will be interesting results for the voting later today. Like every other election, I will be with a bag or two of chippies, some coke and tea while watching the updates of results with my family.

I belonged to the hotly contested Aljunied GRC. I am sure looking forward to seeing the results and yes, I know my vote will be important. It is so much fun to be in a constituency which headlines all newspapers daily. There are people who felt that we should be contented with what we already have, and not make so much noise, but  I felt that such complacent attitude will not drive a nation forward. I believe every nation has room for improvement, like the competitors at the Olympics games, while being number 1 is the main aim, getting the gold medal and breaking either the game record or even the world record, is something sweeter. So, while Singapore enjoys peace and prosperity, we must still strive to break our very own records. Complacency will only slow down the nation's progress. We can try to slow down the pace of moving forward, but, we must still move on.

No matter who wins the Aljunied GRC, I just hope the party representing Aljunied will hear the people's voices and do something important, not just to pacify, but as a solution to the problem.