vicious babies on the loose

May 05, 2006

Working party

Decided to finally do what every Singaporean has been doing the past week and go to a Workers' Party rally, the final one before polling day on May 6.

The last time I attended a rally was also a WP one, in the archery field in Portsdown Rd in 1997. I'd gone there to listen to Mr JBJ, drawn by his call to Singaporeans to ""take your power.'' The idea of an empowered citizenry was an attractive one (beginning with the power NOT to vote the ruling party), but I was disappointed by his meanderings with the occasional bombast. The crowd was a desultory one but appearances can be deceiving. That was the year the WP took it to the wire in Cheng San. I think so, anyway!

This year they are once again oh so close to winning a GRC in Aljunied. If crowd numbers are to be believed, victory should be theirs tomorrow. But as the elderly gentleman next to me pointed out: ""Don't look at the crowd. This is all wayang.''

But wow, what wayang. Once Serene, Ember and I were on that field, there was no getting out. At 7.10 there were perhaps 1,000 people; by 8.30 the crowd was swarming like ants around a drop of honey, but unmoveable ants. Bodies packed the entire perimeter of Serangoon Stadium and we were getting text messages (started by provocateurs???) that there was gonna be crowd trouble, so watch out.

As it turned out, there was none. At 9.55pm, everyone sitting on the field rose to their feet and cleared their belongings, as though to a pre-arranged signal though there was none. I realised they were all rally veterans. Mr Low Thia Kiang appealed to the people in the bleachers to let the people on the field out first. They obediently did so order prevailed. We heard that the lights had been shut off at 10 on the dot in an earlier rally. The folks at the stadium were kind enough to leave them on till everyone had made their way out.

And I must say that things are not the same anymore at the Workers' Party. They have worked extremely hard at communicating with people. Just about every speech was cogent and well-delivered and showed how much they must have practised their public addresses. And when Sylvia came up to the rostrum the crowd's affection spilled forth. They surged to the front with banners professing their love. She responded in fine form, saying: ""If two or three of you love me, that is okay. But if more than 10 of you do, I won't be able to concentrate!'' People roared with laughter. Not only do they know how to make speeches, these are also candidates who are genuinely likeable.

I scanned the crowd for the young English-educated intelligentsia who are the ones agitating for an opposition in parliament. I didn't see many. Yes, there were young people but by and large the crowd was older, poorer heartlanders clutching Chinese evening papers which they laid on the field to sit on. One uncle next to us even revived a leftwing anachronism when he told us to beware of Sor Luan (who had stopped to take our pictures). ""She's not a photographer,'' he cautioned. ""She's a running dog.''

Running dog???

We didn't tell the poor girl, who was just doing her job. As the night wore on, the running dog press was forgotten anyway. The crowd was held rapt by the candidates, who surely knew which buttons to push. But the reason they got such a wholehearted response, I think, was because the pain they tapped into was real. All around me people were looking for answers to the lot that life had handed them. They were looking for a saviour for their future.

I don't know if the WP has got the answers they want. I didn't hear any that night; mostly it was crowd provocation and very skilful provocation at that. But I think that they, as the underdog, can relate to the underdogs whose cause they say they want to champion.

The master stroke of the evening came at 9.55 when Mr Low suggested that we all recite the pledge together, in English and Chinese. Hand on heart, I have never heard the pledge said with such emotion. In one move, he'd managed to make everyone forget they were the ""opposition.'' We were all Singaporeans, all patriots, all in this together. Around me, aunties and uncles didn't even have to wait for him to lead. They knew every phrase by heart and said it with true conviction. I was almost brought to tears. It was an emotional high, like being at a national day parade, but one which wasn't carefully crafted with music and pyrotechnics.

Magnificent stuff.