Politics is something that I usually prefer to reserve comment on.
It isn't because I have no opinion.
It isn't because I am committed to one leadership and therefore disfavor the others.
And it isn't because my choice (or none) has no effect or influence upon me.
We're a small country; a small city-state less than 50 kilometers east to west, less than 25 kilometers north to south, with a local population that stands at about 4 million.
How possible, then, is it that anyone who lives here and dwells here can be not affected by the Policies, Bills and Laws set down by any political party that hold a seat in the Government?
Of course not.
We all get affected.
It doesn't matter who you are or what you do. It doesn't matter whether you favor one Party or have a favorite Candidate or think this person should be doing this whilst that person should not be doing that.
The same Policies and Rules when passed will have an effect on you.
Does it then make a difference whether or not this candidate or that candidate is an ideal politician?
Yes, and No.
Yes, because personality, attitude, background, education and career matter.
No, because background, education and career- whilst important- are not necessarily a defining criteria of what makes a good politician.
You can have a reputable family background (old family name), a stellar range of letters behind your name, and a successful career with lots and lots of accolades, but if you are arrogant and hypocritical and if you suck at your presenting attitude (I say 'presenting') with the people whom will be putting their trust in you, I'm sorry, you fail.
In the same way, of course, if you are extremely personable and pleasant and identify well with the man or woman who will be putting their trust in you, yet cannot hold your own on the international stage, cannot communicate well in the language of trade, nor be able to assess the effects of your policies on a larger nationwide scale, you also fail.
Yeah, it is a tough call.
No one said being a politician was easy.
In fact, so hard a call it is that there are very, very few (or none) who have managed to balance both together effectively and harmoniously. More often than not, a politician is either one or the other. If liked by the people, he or she will be disliked by his or her peers on the international stage. If liked by those on the global stage (especially the analytical kind) then chances are, he or she will be disliked by those (who voted him or her in) at home.
I'd love if a political candidate is groomed to play both roles effectively, but it probably takes too much effort (and anyway no one has time) so let's just say it to be an impossible calling, and that we people of the world shall never have a politician who can balance well both sides.
Given that, however, what it does mean is that a candidate or incumbent can be either a policy maker or a personable character.
Maybe it is a naive, childish perspective.
Maybe it is too basic for what is the Deep Think of International Politics and Political Systems.
But I am no intellectual.
And I don't care to sound like one.
To me every system has her pros and cons, every leadership has its strengths and weaknesses. There can be no perfect system, just like there can be no perfect leadership.
All we can make do with is to find the best balance of leadership quality, adapt the best policies that suit the situation of the present moment, and carry on.
Again, maybe it sounds like I have no opinion and that I am once again sitting on the fence.
But you see, I am used to being on (or near) the fence.
It is impossible to not know- and see- firsthand how the Incumbents and the Oppositions are when you grow up in a Zone that has been, and continues to be, hotly contested by both sides every five (more or less) years.
We are the Zone that has had the experience of having to stay up late way past midnight on Polling Day because we were the last constituency to be announced.
We are the Zone that has had the name on our estate dustbins changed at least three times because our boundaries got redrawn and our Town Councils got changed.
Other constituencies may have had the luxury of being Walked Over (just bring out the potato chips and the beer) but we are the Zone that pays close attention to whatever changes there might be once Election season starts- because in Politics anything and everything can happen, and you never know what will, or will not happen.
Did anyone anticipate the (now famous) 10,000 strong crowd at the rally held at a field close to the junction here?
Did anyone anticipate that the results of the vote count from that rally would send a few good Ministers out of their current portfolios and into new ones?
Or that years later people would still remember the pickup truck with its loudhailer megaphone on its rounds in the estates blasting its manifesto statements to the high-rise residents in Teochew?
Some things change.
Some things don't.
Maybe impressions and memories really do linger.
At the end of the day, does it matter whether the vote count swings this side or the other?
Yes.
Because it affects how our homes will be for the next five years. It affects how our estates will be for the next five years. And maybe in the little things like the flowers downstairs our house, the sheltered walkways, the bus stops, the overall maintenance of the estate, yes, it does matter.
What is of real significance, though, isn't the ixora at the foot of the overhead bridge near our house, or even the wheelchair ramp at the front of the block.
What matters is that, should we (for one reason or another) have a need to go see our MP to "write a letter" on our behalf to the relevant departments and authorities, who it is that listens to us and represents us will be what gives us that glimmer of hope that life can go on, that things can be resolved, and that a solution to life's daily s*** always exists somewhere.