On Jan 11, the Prime Ministers Office [PMO] issued a letter informing the ‘blog’ known as ‘The Online Citizen’ [TOC] that “The Prime Minister intends to declare the owners, editorial team, and administrators of The Online Citizen (TOC), by order in the Gazette, to be a political association for the purposes of the Political Donations Act”.

I started reading TOC around late 2008, some time after the financial crisis. I liked the way the TOC provided the poor ‘ah pek ah soh investors’ who have ‘lost their pants’ in Lehman-linked products an avenue to seek redress, even though I do not necessarily have a good opinion of Tan Kin Lian. I felt what was done was meaningful and good, even though I have no self interest in the matter. After all, I had no investment in Lehman-linked products, nor had my parents lost anything in these products.

I then continued to read the TOC on and off – since my friends or acquaintances would post links to TOC articles on Twitter, Plurk or even their own Facebook wall from time to time. From March 2009 onwards all the way until the AWARE EGM in May, I was disillusioned with the seemingly liberal and pro-HBT [Homosexual, Bisexual, Transgendered / Transvestite] agenda. In fact, there was very little difference reading TOC or the Peoples Daily Straits Stooge Times.

It made me question TOC’s agenda. In fact, I removed the link to TOC soon after. When Wayang Party gave itself the new atas name of Terbalik Revue Temasek Review, my experience with TOC put me off the idea of linking it. I had no clue Wayang Party has merely changed its name, and I thought it has simply disappeared. It was fortunately I didn’t, because I would have regretted my decision as I have a very low opinion of the content on Wayang Party all these while.

Even though I have stopped linking TOC, I have not written it off completely. But I am further disillusioned when TOC made a fuss over the death sentence of Yong Vui Kong and championed for the abolition of the death sentence. Every drug trafficker has his own sad story to tell. In fact, some violent criminals maybe a doting father, a loving husband or a filial son. But does that justify the pardoning of their crimes? The entire premise behind the objection to the death sentence seems to be that someone innocent may be sentenced to death, and then it would be too late when proven otherwise. But this implied that our police officers have failed in their due diligence in their investigations. It suggests that our police officers are sloppy in their work. It suggest that our courts simply go through the motion of sentencing people to their deaths and are nothing more than a rubber stamp before people are put to death. (The perhaps sort of explain why Alan Shadrake got into trouble.)

I have since then almost stopped reading TOC. I only read it when I am compelled to by the title of the articles linked. That’s the complete opposite from the Terbalik Revue, which I had ceased reading completely (Their exaggeration of the bad food served during the YOG sealed their fate). Thus, I wasn’t aware TOC held a F2F (Face to Face) where all the local political parties (including the Tali-PAP) was invited until it was too late.

I didn’t really follow the event but it appears that the Tali-PAP declined to attend, and the Workers’ Party was accused by certain quarters for being disrespectful for sending someone else other than their own secretary general or even their chairman. I thought that times have really changed, because I was expecting the government gahmen to find some obscure law to stop the event from happening. I was under the impression something like this would never be allowed to be held in the past, and I was expecting some kind of response from the gahmen, if not the ruling party itself.

So it didn’t really come as a surprise that TOC was subsequently gazetted. A few opposition parties erupted in indignant fury, and the Workers’ Party remained quiet. It wasn’t really unexpected, since I am in the opinion that the Workers’ Party has departed from the way of lofty and meaningless ideology a long time ago. What is the point of endlessly talking about democracy in the first place? It serves no purpose other than to expose some of these opposition parties superficial understanding of democracy being nothing more that ‘participation’ while ignoring the fact that most Singaporeans are generally indifferent, if not uninterested. It never cease to amaze me that some of these political parties attempt to have the electorate align with their agenda, while failing to align themselves to that of the electorate. The bad showing of the Singapore Democratic Party [SDP] in the last few elections is a clear testimony of their lack of understanding of their voters.

Above which, these political parties failed to talk more about the other pillars of democracy. I am not talking about the tripartite institutions of democracy such as the executive, the judiciary and the legislative, but the rule of law, the middle class and nation building. Few could argue there is no rule of law in Singapore, as even a mini$ter had been hauled up by the Corruption Practices Investigation Board [CPIB] and he killed himself while in custody. Opposition members like Chiam See Tong has sued the ruling party and won his case. If I am not wrong, there was even a case in which a Tali-PAP MP who was investigated for breach of trust was asked to resign. Very few Singaporeans would argue our courts were ‘opened by the Tali-PAP’ (法院是行動黨開的) like the Taiwanese used to say about their courts being ‘opened by the Kuomingtang [KMT]’ (法院是國民黨開的).

The middle class is Singapore is more concerned with job security and law and order. Cases of a resurgent triad or secret society, or the fear of losing their jobs and slowly slipping into struggling to make ends meet is of greater concern to them. The dissolution of the true-blue Singaporean middle class, replaced with one that is filled with foreign migrants with different aspirations and indifferent to our values and traditions while true-blue Singaporeans are left with the scraps would be something that would be of greater concern than anything else. As far as I am concerned, the usual few opposition parties who makes the most noise about democracy have been utterly lacking in addressing this. Do I really care about ‘participation’ when I am staring at my bowl of rice that is rapidly getting smaller, and even worrying that it would disappear? I am really more concerned with the cost of living and job security. Only after I can feed myself and feel secure can I start looking at the other levels on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, yes?

As to nation building, no one can say that the Tali-PAP has no policies for nation building. Municipal wise, one can look at the plans in place for improving our transport system, plans to rejuvenate certain city centers or to move parts of gahmen departments and services out of the CBD. The two Integrated Resorts [IRs], the industries in Tuas or the many industrial parks stand as a testimony to the plans for nation building. Our only complaints about this may simply be that the Tali-PAP gahmen is more interested in building the hardware or the economics more than the software – the people. If there’s anything lacking it would be fostering a sense of belonging to our nation, or to encourage the people to participate and take ownership of the decision and policy making process. This is where TOC could have served as a platform.

It is interesting that in TOC’s response to the Prime Minister’s Office [PMO] and Media Development Authority [MDA] on the PM’s decision to gazette the TOC, it mentioned that ‘our nation-building efforts will be set back by years’. Yet it is short on details on why and how. I dare to hazard a guess that in the end the TOC will have no choice but to register itself as a political association, since few would have cared to take a harder look into the potential of TOC other than a whiners’ platform – even though they could have been ‘whiners’ that make good points at times.

Fortunately, while I am a even worse whiner at times, I have a low readership and too insignificant to gazette… 😛