As part of his May Day protest rally, organiser Gilbert Goh had posted on his Facebook page that he planned to bring a huge poster of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. He urged those attending to vent their frustrations at the PM by defacing the poster like kicking it, spitting at it or even throwing dog poo at it. He added, 'We don't need to respect him at all.....because he never cared for us one bit'.
Gilbert Goh and his Transitioning.org organised yesterday's event at Hong Lim Park.
Naturally our 'super efficient Singapore Police Force' was quick on the draw and duly warned Mr Goh that he would be committing an offence by going ahead with such actions. Pity they only seem keen to warn opposition supporters of potential law breaking but seem unprepared when foreigners go on strike and riot. Anyway Mr Goh then proceeded to remove the offending post and acknowledged the warnings but added that 'it didn't mean we can't scold the PM for his errant pro-foreigner policies.'
Mr Goh has developed a strange fetish for effigies and posters.
That said, I must disagree with Mr Goh's actions here. It's definitely alright to criticise the PM and the Govt for any flawed policy or express his complete disgust with the way the PM runs the country. Every citizen must have that right in any functioning democracy or 'supposed democracy' like ours. However we must draw the line as to where and how the condemnations can go and must stop.
Let's leave the jibes about our PM to individual Singaporeans amongst themselves, not by organisers of rallies or any senior opposition figures. Personally I find him too boring a figure to bother with a nickname or jibe.
Mr Goh may dislike Lee Hsien Loong and his policies but he should not stoop to such childish levels to chide the PM. The Office of Prime Minister must be respected in that sense, and even the holder of that position. He is the duly elected Chief Executive of the country. There must be certain respect and decorum granted to holders of that office. If opposition supporters do not respect the office now, then the situation can so easily become similar when an opposition party wins the election and takes up the office, and PAP supporters do the same.
The ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich deserves the ire and acts of hatred for leading his country to ruin and enriching himself, something the PM here cannot be accused of.
This will lead to unnecessary tensions and take partisan politics a bit too far. For all his faults, the PM is no Viktor Yanukovich or Vladimir Putin. It's too much of a stretch to say he's corrupted, has bankrupted the country or has led the country to economic ruin. We can disagree strongly with his policies, but petty name calling and childish acts is something we can and must avoid. There's no brownie points to score with such antics. Instead it reflects badly on the opposition as a whole and can so easily scare off neutral voters, whose votes are key to any prospective opposition gains or win.
Mr Goh has been raising a number of good points but politics is also about perception. People are more likely to term him as part of the 'loony fringe' for such antics, than remember the points he has raised.
Low Thia Khiang has been wise not to associate and join forces with certain parties. There's nothing to gain and everything to lose by associating with a 'loony fringe.'
Other prospective opposition candidates should learn this lesson and stick to raising and debating the issues in a mature and vote-appealing way. Taking it a step too far, not only attracts needless police attention but will scare many fence sitters. They must not become the issue but make sure the issues and the PAP handling of it, is the only issue that voters need to decide on.
Anyhow Hamtam
*The author blogs at http://anyhowhantam.blogspot.sg