Joshua Chiang/Photos by Shawn Danker
The jeers that greeted Presidential candidate Dr Tony Tan as he took to the stage to give his speech on Nomination Day were loud enough that those who were watching the live broadcast on Channel Newsasia could here.

“I think it is deeply disappointing to have people who will not even listen. I hope that during this campaign, Singaporeans will listen to views of all the candidates,” Dr Tan told the press afterwards.

According to Today, it was the supporters of rival candidate Mr Tan Jee Say who jeered at Dr Tony Tan. The Online Citizen’s volunteer photographer Shawn Danker who was present at the Nomination Centre concurred.

He estimated that there were 50 Tan Jee Say supporters in the crowd of roughly 500. He also told TOC that he recognized some in the group as the same people who had jeered at Tin Pei Ling during Nomination Day of the General Elections at Tao Nan Primary School on 27th April this year. Back then, they had chanted “Kate Spade! Kate Spade” when the PAP team contesting Marine Parade GRC – of which Ms Tin was a part of – came out to greet their supporters after the Nomination Papers were submitted and approved. (watch the video here)

Mr Danker also said that the supporters of Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Mr Tan Kin Lian had remained largely out of the fray during Dr Tony Tan’s speech.

When interviewed by the press over the jeering incident, Mr Tan Jee Say said, “I thought that was not the correct way to conduct our campaign. We should show respect to everyone.”  He had earlier told the press on 11th August when collecting his Certificate of Eligibility that he “looks forward to a dignified contest”.

Opinions divided

Opinions were largely divided when TOC posted the question on its Facebook page what they think of the incident.

“Regardless of the other opponents fight fair or not, personally I felt jeering is unsporting and not a respectable way of expressing our feelings. People can say all they want to degrade us, but we should not degrade ourselves,” wrote Joseph Goh.

Echoing a similar sentiment, Weiwen Loh wrote, “Booing is childish behaviour. Just like name-calling, insults, and baseless accusations. Let’s not turn our elections into a circus.”

But there were also people who thought otherwise.

Johnny Loh wrote, “No big deal, PAP supporters boo to SDP on GE 2011 Nomination Day too.”

Ridzuan Osman agreed, “Booing doesnt mean youre not being civilised. Its part and parcel of a political campaign. All the candidates are grown up adults and they have been in the political scene for quite some time so if they are affected by boos and jeerings, I dont know what should be said of them.”

Juan Yan Lim felt that a candidate’s tolerance for ‘pressure’ is reflective of whether he can lead the country through its toughest times. “If a candidate says he can take pressure to lead the country, especially in this tough times, but keep whining about the boos, then it says very clearly his tolerance for pressure,” he wrote.

“I think it is the right thing to do as it can help to sway votes in the pro-singaporean direction. Some people do require verbal cues to know which candidate deserves our vote,” offered ‘Emeritus Niki Wang’.

On her blog Singapore Actually, ‘bookjunkie’ gave an explanation to the jeering:

“It shows how angry the people are. How much a huge segment of the population don’t trust that Tony Tan is impartial. I think most people link him to PAP, even his supporters. The mainstream media and his former party members sort of added to this by having the Unions and Clans back him up. And here I thought the President was supposed to be impartial.”

Regardless of opinions, one thing’s for sure. It doesn’t matter how loud are the ‘boos’. The only voice that truly counts at the end of the day is the voice of the vote.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

Prosecution seeks minimum 10 years imprisonment of Yang Yin for misappropriating $1.1 million from widow

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sanjiv Vaswani, who led the prosecution, asked after…

【选举】陈清木领军打西海岸集选区 前进党“认领”打义顺

在今日(26日)的记者会上,新加坡前进党秘书长陈清木医生宣布该党出战各选区的准候选人,其中他将亲自领军攻打西海岸集选区。 准候选人名单中,未见李显扬名字,不过陈清木重申,“政治中一切都有可能”,“候选人可能会转移阵地…你可以揣测,但记得,最终确认(上阵人选)必须来自于我口。” 与此同时,迄今仍无在野党“认领”的义顺集选区,也出现在今日该党公布的竞选选区名单。 前进党在西海岸集选区上阵人选包括:陈清木、梁文辉、邱宝忠、潘群勤和罗格纳登(Nadarajah Loganathan) 丹戎巴葛集选区:刘韦伶律师、蔡德龙、孙俊伟、Abas Kasmani和Harish Pillay。 蔡厝港集选区:阮健平、陈明华教授、Abdul Rahman和崔宣明 义顺集选区:毕博渊(Bradley Bowyer)、郑财成、Kala…

WP Leon Perera reassures PAP supporter that the party will “serve all residents equally”

Workers’ Party’s (WP) Leon Perera took to his Facebook on Sunday (26…

93万组屋住户将在本月领水电费回扣

财政部在今日宣布,大约93万户本第组屋家庭,将在本月领取60元到100元的水电费回扣。 财政部解释,这笔回扣是消费税补助券的一部分,每三个月派发一次,旨在协助组屋家庭减轻水电费负担。 财政部指出,今年符合资格的家户将能从总值三亿元的水电费回扣中受惠。而无论有关家庭向哪家零售商购电,都能继续享有水电费回扣。 回扣数额按房屋类型而定:租赁组屋和两房式单位的家庭所获得的回扣最高,达100元。 至于三房式组屋家庭可获回扣90元;四房式和五房式单位,分别回扣80元和70元。公寓式组屋或多代同堂单位,则享有60元回扣。 就在上周六,新加坡能源公司(SP Group)宣布,基于,天然气的价格成本已提高,电费将在7月1日至9月30日,增长平均6.4巴仙或每千瓦小时1.43分(未包含七巴仙消费税)。 欲了解更多有关消费税补助券水电费回扣的事项,可联系能源公司电话号码 6671-7117,或电邮至[email protected]。