On Tuesday morning, I woke up to news that Leicester City had won the Premier League. I don’t even follow football, but this made me smile – I love a satisfying underdog triumph as much as the next person.

That night, I headed to the Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) rally to gather insights for this piece.

I’ll be the first to say what readers and newsmakers alike have probably been thinking: the Bukit Batok by-election has been boring. At best. At worst, it’s an unnecessary waste of time, manpower and expenditure for an outcome we already feel in our bones.

I’ve lived in Bukit Batok all my 26 years. From the paths I run on, to the walkways that shelter me from the rain, to the malls and hawker centres I patronise, my life is centred around Bukit Batok SMC. It’s inevitable that the outcome of the by-election will affect me.

But because I live in the part of Bukit Batok under another constituency, I can’t vote. The most I can do is write about a stake I do not have in a future I want to see. It’s a little unfair, but that’s a feeling you grow accustomed to living in this country.

The thing is, Bukit Batok is an unassuming neighbourhood. It’s happy staying out of the media. Its fuss-free, low key citizens appreciate stability, quiet consistency and status quo. They definitely don’t appreciate what this troublesome by-election has imposed upon their lives. A chance for radical change?

What’s that? Who cares?

At the rally, veteran actress Neo Swee Lin delivered a rousing speech, mentioning the petition against gutter politics she’d started on change.org. Next to me, a young man whipped out his phone, probably to google it.

Chee’s speech was met with thunderous applause every five minutes. I would certainly have been less compelled to skip class in uni, had he been my lecturer, but how much of this feverish support translates into votes?

It wasn’t my first time at an SDP rally, but where there was once pure electric passion now hinted at frustration. Less at the government, more at fellow Singaporeans who don’t want the same future.

To be clear, this by-election isn’t about Bukit Batok. It’s also not about youth mentoring programmes, nor retrenchment schemes and CPF savings. It’s not even about how one can afford to retire. Those are pertinent things to discuss, but this by-election is fundamentally about the average Singaporean than the two candidates and their plans.

It is boring because it is predictable. It is old behaviour reiterated through new circumstances. It is about being terrified of uncertainty; about change that is so often hoped for but never truly embraced; about being unforgiving and hypocritical to a fault, supporting campaigns that encourage giving second chances when we haven’t remotely internalised the grace needed to give them. It is about dismantling these core mindsets in order to progress, but choosing not to do so because change is uncomfortable.

Over breakfast last week, my mother mused, “Do you think Bukit Batok will vote for change?”

In the split second before I answered, I thought of the neighbours I’ve seen my entire life, the hawker centre stalls I’ve visited since young, the mama shop owners who’ve seen me grow up. I thought of the banal predictability of the online rhetoric surrounding this campaign, the excuses we make for choosing familiarity and comfort. This is not a place that knows change. This place is quintessentially Singaporean.

I sighed. “Nah. I know Bukit Batok.”

But on Tuesday morning, Leicester City’s win flooded my newsfeed, and I felt something that resembled hope.

Top photo by Edwin Koo

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