Thursday 3 September 2015

Pro-Opposition Supporter: Why I will not vote for Bernard Chen!

Although I am pro-opposition, I will not vote for WP’s disappointing candidate in Macpherson. NSP gets my Vote!

Many of my friends have said that they are envious of me—a resident in Macpherson SMC—because the number one opposition party The Workers’ Party is coming to contest in my area. I am spoilt for choices, they said, and don’t have to settle for “non-choices” such as The Reform Party, SingFirst or the Singapore Democratic Alliance.

But I beg to differ. I told them three reasons why I will not be voting for the Workers’ Party in this coming election.

First, WP is insincere in contesting in Macpherson SMC. I have done my due diligence to research what is the reason they are contesting in Macpherson SMC but I couldn’t find anything. It is clear to me that WP is only interested to come to Macpherson because it was part of Marine Parade GRC. And they are contesting in Marine Parade GRC only because Yee Jenn Jong’s beloved Joo Chiat SMC is absorbed into MP GRC. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even be here at all! If they were sincere, they would have been working the ground for Marine Parade GRC, including Macpherson, over the last few years. From what I can see, their sincerity extends to only Joo Chiat SMC.  

Second, Bernard Chen is an election greenhorn. I might have considered WP if they fielded a person who is at least familiar with Macpherson. But from what I have found, Bernard does not stay in Macpherson.  From his Facebook, he has been seen more in Hougang and Aljunied than in Macpherson. Since the WP believes so much in working the ground and engaging the residents, why send someone who doesn’t hasn’t been in the constituency regularly? My sense is that the WP is merely fielding him in Macpherson for his baptisan of fire into politics. If so, don’t expect me to vote for someone whom his own party don’t expect to win but here for the experience.

Third, I don’t trust Bernard Chen to run my town council. According to his blog, he has only worked for less than one year. To my surprise, he has even fewer working experience than me (I started working in September 2011) at 29 years old! Does someone who has so little years of working experience able to manage a town council when his more senior colleagues in the WP already has so much problems? Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim have said they were inexperienced in the financial matters as it was their first time and they would do better. Then why are they sending a greenhorn? Will he give the same excuses that he is unfamiliar in running the town council when he screws up? And the stakes are higher in Macpherson because there are so many elderly who live there. If the lifts don’t work and cannot be repaired in time, I shudder to imagine the consequence. In comparison, NSP’s Cheo Chai Chen was a former MP for Nee Soon Central SMC from 1991 to 1997. For what NSP is worth, at least they showed sincerity and seriousness by fielding a veteran who was an actual MP. Despite the troubles in NSP, I am keeping my options open and see what NSP’s Cheo Chai Chen will offer in the upcoming days and explain why he is a better candidate than PAP’s Tin Pei Ling.

WP might make a compelling choice in other places, but definitely not for me in Macpherson.

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