My First Time

For the first time in my life, I sit up and listen to speeches.

For the first time in my life, I start to look at the political candidates.

For the first time in my life, I ask about the impact of the votes.

I didn't know that the Prime Minister, Senior Minister and Mentor Minister could lose their positions and jobs if they are 'voted out'. I thought the positions are mandates, just like kingship. That's how ignorant I am.

And yes, it's all because of the gutsy girl, Nicole Seah. She is my first political awakening (pun intended).

I am thoroughly impressed by this Singapore-born-and-bred girl. How many of us have gone through the grind and have succumbed to the system, and believe that the world belongs to a particular party and there will be no change forever and forever, amen? How many of us have given our dreams up just to live a life of money-earning just so that we could live from hand to mouth?

She is just 24 years old, and yet have so much to live for. How many of us, by that age, would have believe that life is all about waiting for and buying a flat and supporting it till we die?

Someone said that one should be at least 35 years old to enter the parliament because of maturity issues.

I beg to differ.

I am not sure how many of us mature at an astronomical rate within 10 years to qualify for that 'maturity' statement, but what I do know is, the opportunity cost for that marginal rate of maturity is passion, guts and dreams.

At 35, most of us would have settled for a belief, and for Singaporeans, mostly 'dreams are just that - dreams. Earning money is more important'.

At 24, this girl has got a lot of guts to stand for an election.

At 21, this blogger wrote an article on his reasons for not voting for the mainstream party. Because of what he wrote, my memory of how my father tried to tell me about the story of Lim Chin Siong was jolted. I didn't think what he said could be completely true since facts could be thwarted by human opinion. But this article tells me that my father has not been partial to the historical facts.

We condemned Japan for hiding the truth about World War II from their younger generations by not publishing the facts or truths in their school textbooks, but we are doing the same about our politics history in our primary school textbooks. How upright are we?

How many 35-year-olds can write articles like that? How many 35-year-olds would have the guts to stand up for what they believe in? It's when you have nothing to lose that you would go all out. When you have a family at stake, you are more hesitant, more cowardly, because you have alot more to lose.

For a 35-year-old's cowardice, I am glad I don't have to vote. To me, a decision is always painful. So while voting is a privilege for others, it's a relief to me, and more so since I am in the public service industry.

Voters have been urged to 'vote wisely' over and over again. I hope they really do.