2013 shall be remembered as a very eventful year till the very last day with the massive jam caused by the most expensive crooked expressway in the world. This is kind of hard to beat really. But through the year there were several other outstanding events that really shook this little island like a little tsunami.
Let me recall, the two high level corruption cases involving top civil servants when money was still not enough to stop them from being corrupt. In both cases it wasn’t money that led them astray. This may call for a rethink on what else is needed to keep officers in public service clean short of recruiting monks and priests for the job.
This was followed closely with a long list of luminaries involved in underage sex with a nymph. Quite shocking that this happened in such a scale and involving so many prominent people, including the scions of famous clans.
The courts really were doing roaring businesses with God’s money being passed around in circles that were called round trippings. And poor God had to apologise to his dear messenger for the mess and putting him under the authority of human judges.
The headless body and the numerous crimes were pale in comparison to these events and the Little India riot that saw policemen running for their lives and their vehicles overturned and burnt. It turned out that the culprit was alcohol.
Would the challenge by a cleaner threatening to take the PM to court over some acts in the Election Law be considered another great blooper? Or would the Presidential Election when the elected President won by the skin of the teeth and with barely 35% of the popular votes be considered a bewilderment? The discovery of election boxes left behind in a school months after the Presidential Election did raise some eye brows and must surely be a worthy blooper of the year. Or would a top notch talent of the ruling party losing to an unknown ordinary female candidate be earth shaking enough to be included as a big blooper?
What about the Rolls Royce equivalent folding bicycles for the comfort of rangers to patrol the parks in the garden in a city? And to top the issue of corruption there was a deputy director of the CPIB being charge for corruption.
What else is equally worthy? The contents of a minute about cleaning of hawker centre or a $2 company buying a customized software and selling it at a friendship price may also be good choices vying for the blooper of the year award.
What other hilarious or nightmarish events that could draw the oohs and aahs from the people with comments like, ‘like this also can’? Would it be the PWP, Natcon, or the frequency of train breakdowns with the new Downtown Line breaking down on its first day of operation?
What do you think? Which event is truly deserving of being awarded the Blooper of the Year Award? I almost forgot about the Messiah, or is it the owl, and the sudden downtime of govt websites for maintenance, the Media Acts to control social media. There are just so many interesting and outrageous events that made 2013 a really eventful and memorable year. And the haze, oh it reminds me of you know what. And the list could go on.
What would you think deserve the honour of being the Blooper of the Year?
Chua Chin Leng AKA RedBean
*The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/