First Impressions

A runup to an election in Singapore and Malaysia is always very interesting and a run up in either a federal or provincial election in Canada seems to attract more scepticism. It could be just due to the reason that we are so used to having an open democracy and an independent judiciary.

Kenneth Jeyaratnam:

Leader of the Reform Party, Singapore. He seems to have the qualifications to take on the PAP. First impressions are important. He seems to have failed at it.

When I got to start reading blogs and reading stories and viewing videos in events he has participated in I did not receive a good vibe from the guy. He seems to be a slouch and he has a fake British accent and looks like Mr Bean. I understand that substance matters more that the way somebody looks.

Due to that reason I watched the NUS forum members from most of the political parties were invited. Mike Palmer (Parti Tindakan Rakyat), Sylvia Lim (Parti Pekerja), Dr. Chee (Parti Democratik Singapura) and Kenneth Jeyaratnam ( Parti Reformasi). All I noticed was a guy who complained about his families misfortunes at the hands of the ruling party. Dr Chee did talk about similar stuff but his seemed more interesting and entertaining possibly because he was talking about the elderly down trodden folk in Singapore.

All in all I had high marks for Sylvia Lim and Dr Chee and low marks for Kenneth Jeyaratnam and Michael Palmer.

(I understand that I have not shared the reasons for giving some of the politicians high marks and some low marks. I shall try to do that in upcoming posts if and when an election is called)