Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Biting Off More Than He Can Chew

Since Vivian Balakrishnan was too lazy/cowardly/sneaky to identify the "suppressed" YouTube video he adopted as a personal WMD (Weapons of Mass Distraction - from inflation, housing, foreigner issues etc), mainstream media has outed the above clip. In it Dr Vincent Wijeysingha is heard quoting Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." That must have been the awkward moment for the Minister. Maybe it was that very reference of people power that made the Minister squirm, and soil his designer white pants.

This is one insecure sorry excuse for a politician who went through great lengths to explain how he was given a girl's name:
"My father chose the name.  He was a law student at that time and he was attending a lecture by a visiting Indian judge whose name was Vivian Bose. And if you look strictly in the literature, V-i-v-i-a-n is a boy's name. There is the cricketer Vivian Richards, there was the explorer Vivian Fuchs, and obviously there was this this person who gave a lecture who so impressed my dad that he name me after him. But in more modern times, people usually associate that name with a girl's name. "

Not anyone can play the kind of ad hominem attack that is the trademark of Lee Kuan Yew gutter politics. To do that, one needs a certain degree of gravitas, the type that wusses can't manage too well. Through innuendo and snide remarks, Balakrishnan recently sniped at Wijeysingha ("Eventually, they will have to come out of the closet" - Straits Times, 20 Apr 2011) and Ang Yong Guan (" 'Strange bedfellows’ in SDP team" - Sunday Times, 24 April 2011). Ang himself declared today, "I'm a Christian, but my personal view is that I will respect a person's sexual orientation."

The label “fundamentalist” (even just the term “Christian”) in mainstream Singapore society unfortunately still carries negatively charged connotations of being anti-gay, never mind if Lee Kuan Yew himself has publicly broadcasted his own personal view that some people are genetically destined to be homosexual.  In what could have been construed as a rebuke on Section 377A of the Penal Code (that criminalises sexual relations between men, but not women) Lee actually told a April 2007 weekend meeting with the youth wing of the PAP, "Let's not go around like this moral police ... barging into people's rooms. That's not our business."

Just because Balakrishnan has openly challenged the Oracle doesn't necessary mean he has the cajones to prove his genetic make-up. For all we know, his father was not too convinced about the presence of the Y-chromosome at time of his birth, and decided to err on the side of caution. He has fallen flat on his face before, raging rabidly about how bar-top dancing can kill, only to see it approved by government shortly after.

It is a no-brainer to infer from past actions of the PAP, Christians and gays have been treated as polarised groups, and marginalised as such.  However, Balakrishnan is as good as shooting himself in both feet, if he decides to play the religion card and the homophobic card at one go. Bottomline, is he man enough to declare he doesn't need any of their votes?

8 comments:

  1. Bala should heed his boss's advice "..is not a game, being clever here and clever there." He just brought gutter politics to the lowest form

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gutter politics has been around for a long time here. We see it even in our daily education system where Social Studies teachers tell students (even if the student is a smart discerning one) NOT to vote for opposition parties because they are bad or lousy, or the media's constant claims that opposition is crazy and so on. Name calling and whatever you see. It's pretty much shameless words used to try pushing the opposition into a corner, thinking that by doing so, they can lessen the credibility of the opposition. I don't think though that it won't backfire.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's so clear the move was calculated to unseat the whole team. Conspiracy theories abound:
    1. Some believe SDP is PAP's plant, and the whole gig is an elaborate narrative created to distract voters from the real issues.
    2. VW is in a quagmire now, cos he can't argue for or against 377A. Either way, his credibility as a politician working in Spore will be undermined. So, is Vince also a plant put there to derail SDP's real political cause?
    3. In the event VW is forced to retract his candidacy, will the whole A team be disbanded?
    4. Who posted the video online? Why was it taken down from the internet?

    ReplyDelete
  4. to me, no problem if Vincent W chooses to argue against 377A, assuming he gets into parliament, provided of course he spends most of his time speaking up for ordinary sporeans.

    if we were to compare VW or any other OPP to the PAP MPs, i cannot see how they can do worse, not when PAP MPs have a perfect track record of closing both eyes, becoming deaf and dumb to the following which is so obvious: conflict of interest(famiLee)that involves LKY, HC and PM himself, non accountability for so many screwups, so many hare-brain policies affecting majority of sporeans adversely...

    having said that, it is becoming crystal clear the PAP buggers are really desperate, and Vivian Bala seems to be the most desperate!

    it is only in the heat of battle, sporeans get to see who are the real scums and who are truly men of substance rising to the occasion.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not too sure what happen to the once well-respected PAP. A few of the big names,including the latest Vivian Bala, have been making fools of themselves.All those threats, dumb statements and so on. Which is weird consider the GE is coming.

    Maybe PAP is feeling the heat from the opposition, and are slowly and beginning to lose their confidence?

    ReplyDelete
  6. The "I give you one, I take back three or more" message in the video seems to be quite true about what is happening right now with political administration here.

    ReplyDelete
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