Opposition

I had just met a friend who came back from the States after he had finished his gym session. He was curious about the whole election thingy that's in the news because after so many years, he finally had an opportunity to vote.

So he was following up with the campaigns through the media but was somehow quite repulsed with the way the word "opposition" was depicted in the media. It seems any political party apart from the ruling party was termed "opposition". It seemed to be this election was one where it was the ruling party versus the opposition -- or the ruling party versus everyone-else-but-them.

He was drawing similarities from the movie saga, Star Wars, where the ruling party were shown as the good guys and the opposition were from the Dark Side (the Empire). Certain reports in the media made the opposition look like they were out to harm our society and way of life. It was certainly worth a good laugh!

But quite seriously speaking, isn't the so-called "opposition" made up of Singaporeans, who similarly like the members of the ruling party, wish to serve the community? The only difference is that they may have different views and methodology. They, too, want the best for our nation and are not some people from the Dark Side as what some think.

In fact, members of the so-called "opposition" are actually worth saluting for their courage because as quoted in some reports, "if you want to win (the elections), join the ruling party". The members of the opposition are willing to beat the odds to stand firm behind ideas that they truly believe in -- ideas that they believe can shape a better Singapore.

As what my friend says, we need to change our mindset on the way we perceive the opposition and he believes that every vote is important in representing what we want for our nation.

For a collection of the election rallies, go to: http://sgrally.blogspot.com