chen show mao can be an asset or a liability to WP. Depending on
where he contests, If he is put in with the team for Aljunied,
which cover much of private residential estate such as serangoon
garden, he can be able to connect well. George Yeo
doesn't speak mandarin at all. Have not heard Sylvia speak
mandarin. Chen can enhance the strength of WP's
team. He cannot fight as an individual.
actually, George Yeo can speak mandarin, he's given speeches in
mandarin before .... and not in a mainland accent like chen show
mao either, but like you and me, I think he speaks malay and his
dialect, teochew, as well, but nevermind about the chap.
you're right to say that chen cannot fight alone .... he's got
to be hidden in a team, given his background, though the WP seems
very keen to push this chap out to the front.
This chap is different from other foreign born candidates in the
worker's party. Take angela oon for example, the babe of WP, true,
she's a malaysian who only got her singapore citizenship last year,
but she's been here since a toddler, she was here the last 30
years, she went through the good times and bad here, so in this
sense she has a more concrete stake in Singapore than this
particular gentleman. Someone like that, whether in the WP or PAP,
it's fine.
Now imagine if Chen came out as a PAP candidate instead of an
opposition one, can you imagine the kind of flak he would have
caught, as someone who disappeared for 30 years after getting his
citizenship, who doesn't even live here till this elections, who
doesn't even speak like us ? Can someone like that be expected to
connect with the heartland grassroots ? He would have been buried
so deep online if he were a PAP candidate.
And that's the irony here, it seems that the negative
sentiments are so strong on the ground that many are quite happy to
lap up, swallow and praise whoever the opposition throws up as
candidates. There's this strange silence ... where are the chaps
who used to snipe at some of the PAP MPs and office holders just
for being foreign born ? I'll find it very very sad if this
man were to be able to ride on the current wave of popular
dissatisfaction with the MIW into parliament, and WP and the other
opposition parties would do well to remember that if they do win in
the coming elections, it's actually not so much an affirmation of
their capabilities, or their proposed policies, but rather, simply
discontent against the MIW.