The PAP government cares!
Every year, for as long as a close friend of mine who is a teacher remembers, mid year exams are held around the first and second weeks of May.
I met up for lunch with her today. She was extremely bitchy today.
PMS, I was thinking.
Apparently not. It's school, she said.
Exam period always causes additional stress to students, teachers and parents.
I was thinking, well, no different this year.
Not really. A big difference.
The problem was that, due to the elections, exam schedules had to be juggled around. This has caused widespread planning and logistic problems for EVERYONE who is mildly connected to a student (from Primary 1 all the way to JC 2). The teachers of schools (which are pretty much almost every single school) that are being used as polling centres have to abandon normal duties by noon on Friday and prepare the school for conversion into a polling station. Examinations had to be pushed forward to accommodate for the early day on Friday and the day off on Monday (day off given to the schooling system). Private tutors are scrambling to reschedule students to prepare them for the exams.
AND, but last but not least, THE STUDENTS. Gen Y kids in Singapore are very ill-prepared to react to last minute changes.
I digress.
Several weeks and months ago, before the government was dissolved. Many felt that the General Elections would be held in late May/early June 2011.
Why late May/early June?
That's because of the extent that schools are often affected when they are polling stations and nomination centres. Many, if not all, school teachers can vouch for that. Late May/early June poses the least disruption to the schooling semester as examinations are completed and school might actually not be in session anymore.
However, with the heat of the elections being unnaturally high. With the GRC advantage (for some GRCs) diminished. With the high cost of living in an uncontrollable upward spin. With the bonus carrot already distributed. With pretty much every sneaky advantage the ruling PAP has ever used becoming less of a factor. The last advantage they could squeeze out was a 2-3 week ahead of schedule elections.
All this, my fellow citizens, at the expense of an event (the mid year examinations) in the education system that has been in place for more than 20 years.
Just to protect the continuity of the ruling party's existence, they sacrifice the children and the teachers.
Just to protect their million dollar compensations, they trample on those who contribute more to society but with an income 100x less.
Just to have an edge over the most competent slate the opposition has had to offer, they screw up the lives of many others.
This, is the PAP that cares for you.
This, is the PAP that is saying YOU come first.
This, is the PAP that says they are grounded and listens to your voice.
The events of the last couple of days of campaigning have left me extremely disillusioned with the PAP. I once had some respect for some of the PAP candidates. I have lost every single ounce of respect for the team that does everything (nothing is below them) to ensure the opposition, however credible, does not become part of their checks and balances. They stoop to new lows, with the help of the media, the union (which is really not one), the statutory boards, to ensure they can continue to govern with no accountability.
This HAS to stop. We need change.
A call to the alternative parties... this is a segment of the population that is extremely frustrated at this moment. Reach out to them. THIS, may be the push needed to break the authoritarian rule of the PAP.
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