Say what?!

So, let's take a look at the following messages:

• "It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the government." ~ K. Bhavani, Press Secretary for MICA on 3rd July 2006.

• BARELY four months after the General Election, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has his eye on the next one, saying he will contest in Tanjong Pagar.
  'If I'm still fit and capable of making another speech like this, I'll be here, I will stand with you,'' he told more than 1,000 residents at a National Day dinner, to applause.
  Mr Lee also sounded a note of caution, telling Singaporeans that they cannot expect to get equal services from a PAP Government if their constituency votes for the opposition.
  'The trouble now is that Singaporeans believe we'll always have a PAP Government.'
  This allowed the opposition to say that if voters chose the opposition, 'then the PAP Government will have to give you more'.
  Warning against such a view, he said: 'One day they will wake up and they'll find the opposition is the government, a miscalculation.'
  But by then, it would be 'too late to regret'', he added.
  It was important that voters understand the link between their vote and the consequences. This was why opposition wards would not be treated in the same way as PAP constituencies.*
  The Government's position has been that opposition wards come after the PAP's on matters like estate upgrading.
  Doing otherwise, Mr Lee said, was 'the surest way to make the system malfunction''.
  Referring to why PAP wards came first, Mr Lee said: 'If you vote for the PAP, this is the bonus. If you vote against the PAP, your bonus is your opposition voice.''
  'I hope in a quiet way, this message will be understood.''

ZAKIR HUSSAIN ~ The Straits Times, August 19th 2006.

Discuss the contradiction, if you will.

Uhm...PlugPAPmuch? If this isn't campaigning, what is? I mean a leader in a political party (and let's face it, he is the puppet master) comes out saying that voting for his party is the only responsible thing to do and that's not campaigning? C'mon MICA, do your job. Get Zakir Hussain fired please. He's engaging in partisan politics and he's trying to skew public opinion with his entry. Where's the letter condemning the man for writing this piece? Are you honestly telling us that people like that can get away with playing sides in politics? When newspapers have no right to campaign for or against the government?

On another, more disturbing note: MM Lee said that by voting opposition, our bonus is our opposition voice? I beg to differ sir. Our right in our democratic nation is our opposition voice. Or are you trying to say that we are not actually a democracy. PLEASE come out and say that. Then people won't get so confused during elections, which we can hold every 5 years with walkovers in all constituencies. We could just rename the elections "the PAP has been doing a good job all these years, let's kowtow to them a little more" day.

Ondine says that I gripe a whole lot and that a lot of my posts are angsty as hell. They are. I realised that I only gripe after reading The Straits Times. Maybe I should just stop subscribing.

In the spirit of my mood, Bah, Humbug.

*BTW, opposition leaders. Now would be a good time to sue because the man has just about called you all incompetent to your face.