Rally

Edited due to bad bad typos

Let me bring you through the rally that just ended.

It started with crowds of people thronging the area outside the Central library of my Campus. Fair enough, it was afterall a rally and it should be well attended.

Then there were the placards. Cards that said polite stuff like Vote National, Brash for PM, Vote labour. Cards that were rude like Ignorant Clark. And cards that were downright disgusting.

Then, upon arrival on the PM who was late, she was welcomed by limited cheering backed by loud boos. How sad is it to be the most powerful person in the country to be met by an outcry of dissent. But this shows some maturity. That the Government can take criticsm and an honest outpouring of unhappiness. Singapore PAP is just too immature to take such comments. However, having placards that were merely derogatory might be a bit too much.

Incidentally, Ms Clark was caught speeding (at about 170 kmh as well as driving recklessly) to catch a thief. No actually, to catch an all blacks game. A jouney that should take 2 hours minimum took 1 hour 30 minutes. I think that was fast enough for her to be on time to catch a match but failed to come to speak on time.

Throughout her speech which was peppered by people yelling out names that are well, not very polite. That is if you were in singapore, you'd get hauled up to court, fined, declared a bankrupt and exiled. Your family too to boot. Here you get nothing. I think PAP needs to learn to allow people to complain about the government, whether fully justifiable or not. I am sure that there has to be some truth. But the PAP will only allow criticism if it is fully justifiable, and all failings can be justified. Since all mistakes can be justified, criticism can never be fully justified.

When Helen Clark was about to leave, a guy came up dressed in a pilot uniform and said something like "Flight 422 departing from Christchurch to Wellington is now departing" got into trouble with a labour supporter and that almost got into a fight. (The flight was in reference to the speeding incident that Helen clark was involved in)

Note: I just realised what he said: "Flight 422 Departing Christchurch for Wellington will be delayed as we are waiting for our prime minister, Helen Clark"

Was pretty cool actually.

Here is my take on it. I think in any election, it is not the country that makes the decision who becomes the government. No. It is in many cases the minority who have no presuppositions and do not punch the party ticket. I think the problem arises when the vote becomes one for the party and not one for the country. In singapore, the two terms, party and country, are used interchangably.

Much as anyone would like to counter, we are not a true democracy, neither are we a true dictatorship. It is like a monopoly with firms threatening to enter. IT is a monopoly in the sense that no other firms are in the market, but is's power is limited by the threat of the potential of other firms.

Unfortunately, in recent times, the monopoly has been able to exploit its power to grow and this has created substential barriers to entry, which reduces the potential of the threats of the other firms, further allowing it to exploit it's position.

Don't get me wrong, exploiting a position may not necessary mean bad for the society as a whole. In some cases, allowing the monopoly to capture the entire consumer surplus will result in an efficient outcome. THus allowing the PAP to extract all or as much of our civil liberities as possible might just permit it to operate at an efficient outcome. Of course the more civilised and perhaps more acceptable manner would be to allow competition.

HA ha like my friend said, too much economics. Ok ok i got to go for game theory now. see you guys