Raving Loonies? (Part 1)

For some reason, I am able to feel a lot more excited about Singapore’s upcoming election than my husband is.

Perhaps this is because, as a mere Permanent Resident in Singapore, I won’t be required to cast a vote on May 7^th.  As a bone fide citizen, A. will be required to vote however, and he will want to do so sensibly.  Acting sensibly appears to both harder and a whole lot necessary in Singapore than it is in the UK, unfortunately.  Governance is considered to be a serious business, not something to poke fun at.

This might explain why there’s no Monster Raving Loony party as yet in Singapore.  Officially registered in England in 1983 by musician David Sutch of Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages, the party issues daft manifestos and proposes even dafter laws but with the intention of drawing the voting public’s attention to serious issues.  To date, it has fielded candidates in both local and national assembly elections, where candidates are only required to deposit a sum of GBP500 in order to be allowed to stand as a candidate.  In 2011, would-be candidates in Singapore are required to lodge a deposit of around 15 times that amount.

Which is the more mature electorate, I wonder?  The one that requires the right of universal suffrage to be exercised reasonably, rationally and responsibly or the one that permits voters to not even turn out at the polling station unless they choose to do so?  It all depends on one’s definition of the word ‘mature’, I suppose.  Whilst a great many Singaporeans might disapprove of the likes of Screaming Lord Sutch, as many Britons would prefer to notice that a no candidate is ever permitted to walk into parliament without having first been opposed, no matter how inconsequentially.  Neither approach appears to me to be ideal or even any better than the other; they are merely very, VERY different to one another…