The Seated Candidate

"If I'm fit, I'm prepared to stand". That's an interesting choice of word right there, considering that the speaker recently has always been photographed sitting down. His other criteria was, ".. and capable of making another speech like this."

That he may be ambulatory challenged should not worry the electoral architects too much, they make such nifty wheel chairs nowadays. Besides, these folks have more than enough stashed away in the war chest to pay for Anthony Le's US$4,000 Ironman suit featured in Popular Science. Then again, Gus Dur was sightless, and yet could still end up being President. Talk about the blind leading the blind.

The worrrying part about his speech making was his advice to HDB flat owners not to sell and opt for renting. By his own admission, flats that used to cost $30,000 to $40,000 are now carrying price tags of about $300,000. So if asset appreciation is not to be realised for the liquid profits, what exactly was the purpose of the investment in the first place, pray tell? He may not understand it, but those contemplating selling off the roof over their heads are probably in dire need of hard cash to pay the bills. One recalls not too long ago when the desperate, retrenched and jobless, sought the use of their CPF funds to put food on the table. The heartless bureaucrats refused to budge, insisting that the locked up funds were meant for retirement in future years, without realising that the petitioners did not have enough even to see through another week of hellish living. Maybe he was just insensitive to the problems on the ground, or maybe the interferons in his brain have been misfiring with the passage of time. You be the judge.

Whether Reform Party's declared intention to contest the Tanjong Pagar GRC is premature is a subject of separate debate. But judging by the grinning faces of the meretricious cohorts standing behind their seated sponsor, the dubiety of the electoral results may be a moot point. Has Sam Tan, Indranee Rajah, Koo Tsai Kee, LimTuck Yew or Baey Yam Keng made any significant contribution for the betterment of society in their years of office? Does it matter? So long as Humpty Dumpty does not fall off the wall too soon, they know their golden goose is good for another 5 years or more. Their iron rice bowl is reinforced with kevlar, 5 times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis, and second only to the gerrymandering tricks of the GRC system.