6 things I learnt from PAP’s 'Cut defence budget? You wanna die ah?” Commonwealth rally

Yes, national defence is important.

Nyi Nyi Thet| September 08, 06:56 PM

Editor’s note: Mothership.sg called for young Singaporeans to step up and give their perspective of GE2015. The aim of such an endeavour is to provide our readers a means to view GE2015 through the lens of young Singaporeans, warts, sparkles and all.

For their second rally on Sept. 7, this time held in Commonwealth, the Holland-Bukit Timah team focused their efforts on rebuking SDP’s proposals, specifically one $9.5 billion issue.

Here are 6 things I learnt from the Holland-Bukit Timah rally.

1. No one will ever accuse the PAP of being all style

Vivian Balakrishnan outlined the rally plan for his team when he sought permission to “make the most boring speech of my life”.

Sadly, even with that self-imposed restriction on an interesting speech, Vivian was far more exciting than the other three members of the Holland/Bukit Timah team.

Liang Eng Hwa was especially critical of the SDP’s fiery rhetoric and flashy style, promptly countering it with a speech that had neither.

 

2. Sometimes we have to turn to the crowd for entertainment

There just wasn’t a sense of tangible excitement at hearing the team speak, a point perhaps best summed up by this man jogging across the field without stopping as the rally began.

[video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://cdn.mothership.sg/1/2015/09/Man-jogging.mp4"][/video]

 

Entertainment was mostly provided by this PAP superfan with the Singapore and PAP flag sticking out of his cap.

pap-commonwealth-rally

Some of his choice quotes included telling Christopher de Souza that “you are the Dark Knight!”, which either meant he was the hero we needed or he was just mumbling a lot.

The fan was also calling on Chee Soon Juan to be admitted to Woodbridge and constantly professing his love for Ann Sim.

In fact, when Sim Ann recalled just how many houses she had visited, he enthusiastically asked if that was how she kept her figure.

 

3. Time is relative

An underlying theme throughout all the speeches was the time spent with residents. Both in terms of how many house visits they had carried out -- “10 '800-home' visits to HDB homes, private houses and landed properties in 5 years” and how long they had been there, asking the residents whether they wanted a team that has “always been there” or a team that turns up “once in every five years”.

SDP’s home visit records were also called out, with Liang Eng Hwa claiming SDP held the world record for conducting the shortest house visits. I wasn’t sure how much truth there was to these points but I can safely assure you that their rally felt much longer than three hours.

 

4. Defence matters

A less subtly hidden theme was PAP’s response to SDP’s call to cut the defence budget. Liang Eng Hwa insisted that we were a small country and that “vulnerability will never go away” furthermore “as a tiny country, we have to constantly worry about who’s going to bully us”.

He went on to claim that we lived in a “rough neighbourhood” which is why we need defence to ensure our safety. It was a measured and rational view of our living circumstances, and a good argument for the importance of defence. So should we move on to other topics?

 

5. Defence really matters

Ok, I guess we’re still on it. Christopher de Souza kept the ball rolling by giving a quaint little backstory of how his father had flown in the first Black Knights and how “defence was in his blood” and “how defence was in every one of your blood”.

He went on to claim that a cutting of the defence budget would “jeopardise Singapore’s sovereignty” and SDP’s claims were highly irresponsible.

Again, it was a good call for defence, a bit fear-inducing but it wasn’t that far of a reach. Oh okay, Vivian is next, he’ll probably tell us some funny anecdotes, something light.

 

6. We must never let bombs fall on Singapore again

What do you know that we don’t know? Are they coming already? Should we even be standing on the open field? Ok ok, just take all the money you want for defence, no questions asked.

 

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