'Respect for All 🍍'

Singapore will go to the polls next week to elect a new President, the ninth since our independence in 1965, and the fifth elected President. This role is slightly more than just being a figure head of state. It does have a custodial role.

As stringent the qualifications to be a President are, we can still sift out these potential candidates. We actually have pretty qualified people as candidates for the elected Presidency in Singapore. But whether the electorate like their attitude, words or morals and principles, we will vote for the candidate we want. We'll see if the majority think the same way.

Regardless of what people say and think, it's each to his own. I'm not going to spoil my vote. I'll turn up and vote for my choice of candidate. We've such limited say in politics that I will just use whatever avenue open to me to say what I want to say. Voting is something I can, and will do. I'm not about to make a point by not voting because if I do that, nobody gives a shit. My vote will and must count.

I'm not about to pass over voting because 'I know who will win' or 'Aiyah, the PAP candidate will always win', or 'It's so obvious who will be the next President'. I'm not leaving it to chance. Remember how Trump became President in 2016 in the lowest voter turnout in the past 20 years. Hell NO to misogyny and xenophobia.

Three candidates for the Presidential election were confirmed on August 22, 2023. On the same day, the three candidates unveiled their logos that would be displayed on the voting slip. I did a double-take. I had just flipped my calendar page over to the new week. I blinked. But there it is. A PINEAPPLE. Piña coladas yo!

Is my calendar prescient? Is it trying to tell me something? 

I'll bite.

Calendar is from Tatsuya Tanaka's MINIATURE.