Hiccups At The Starting Line

Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen thought he could simply call the shots for how the imminent general election would be run when he boasted on Sunday (Jul 26), "No Mr Lee Kuan Yew to tell us what's a better choice, no Mr Lee Kuan Yew to tell us, give comments on the choice that we make." He declared that new candidates will be formally introduced after National Day weekend, and the plan was for retiring members of parliament (MPs) to help introduce their successors.

Well, it would appear not everything is going according to plan. Indranee Rajah of Tanjong Pagar GRC introduced her "sister" according to her own schedule, officially unveiling the new face of Joan Pereira during a walkabout at Bukit Merah View Market on the very same Sunday Ng spoke. And Inderjit Singh had to post his farewell on Facebook way ahead of everybody else. Ng didn't take that initiative too kindly,

"We want to handle the retirement of our MPs more smoothly and I would prefer a more deliberate and a dignified manner.
You can post your retirement on Facebook, but I think as an MP who has served 15, 20, even 30 years - that's not the best way to do it."

The upcoming general election will be "watershed election" indeed, but not necessarily the way Ng intends it to be. The horrible person had already expounded his premonitions at the Singapore Global Dialogue (skip to 18:40) in October 2011, shortly after the electoral setback of the same year. Maybe Ng should listen carefully to the voice from the urn once more.