Overnight Overlord

(A letter from a friend of a friend)

Dear Ms Tin,

The long and short of it is that the youth do not want you as their representative. No amount of hard work on the ground will reconcile you with the "me" generation, because they have identified in you everything they do NOT want in a leader - fairly or unfairly. Frankly, you should give up on that and focus on the people who seem to like you - the elderly. The elderly have need of a champion as well, especially in a greying society like ours. You will have much greater difficulty relating to them, because they are the generation that lived in a climate of fear, and it will be hard to make them open up to you, for real rather than token gestures of kindness for a little girl who reminds them of their grand-daughters. It might do you good to read up the archives of all that has been, so that you stand a chance of truly connecting with them.

The youth are looking for someone to be infatuated with - someone with a sparkling wit, impeccable humour and blinding intelligence. They need a hero to rebel against authority, or at least to show the old fogies how it's really done. It's much the same with women's rights - you don't put a man in charge.

Your opponent possessed some of these qualities and this is why she endeared herself to the youth: She was fiery and passionate and truly wanted to make a difference, and it showed in her eyes (even if all she stands for is sob stories and the underprivileged, and the sum total of her at present is bleeding heart naivety better suited for missionary work than politics). She could speak in tongues and the young will buy it tooth and nail, and call her intelligent to boot. Tough nuts, them's the breaks.

To be frank, even if you scrubbed the floors of the elderly for five years till your nails bled and your knees gave out, the best you can hope to achieve, as Mr Goh has kindly put it, is growth into a "good" MP. And let us not mince words, by good he means decent and passable. An MP that got the job done well enough, but not quite one for the history books.

The youth want a champion, someone they see as particularly exceptional. That's what the "me" generation is about, glaring, blinding exception. A windows blue screen of death in stark white. Ironically, they recognize George Yeo to have these talents, and that is why they are calling for him to return to parliament, at your expense.

Don't blame them - the youth have always been like this since time immemorial; our parents were like that as teenagers as were their parents parents. We outgrow it with maturity. We gain wisdom with age, and then we look to our leaders for other qualities - depth of thought, broadness of perception, clear, level-headed decision making that strive for balance, and optimality.

Perhaps you are not like them - perhaps you truly do not understand why your image was so catastrophically destroyed - not by a concerted effort from a malignant opposition, but by a unanimous unspoken vote of no-confidence. If you are not like these youth, then it stands to reason why you cannot represent them.

Mr Goh reiterates how the PAP wanted you, and therefore it is not your fault for the hatred that you now receive. The PAP has wanted many people, at different times, and some of them either declined, or waited till an opportune moment in the future.
You could have declined and told them what is apparent now - you were not ready. Had you had entered politics five years later I suspect that you would have had more intelligent things to say to the reporters (never, never say you have no opinion! ever on pain of death! watch how the other ministers couch their words to support the party line without actually exposing their happiness with the status quo!)
and more confidence with which to say them. You would have had more of an inkling what people really want from a leader, and you might actually have been able to be that leader. Oh yes, and please stop repeating yourself. You tend to make the same point at least twice during the course of an interview. It is very annoying. The same goes for sentence construction. Don't say things like "the good in this is that it is good", or "it was a totally totalitarian..." etc. Please take a moment to think before you speak.

I wish you well in your political career, and would be overjoyed to discover that there are hidden depths to you that the relentless barrage of interviews and rallies have failed to extract, and that you will make a meaningful, lasting contribution that did good for the people. It would be refreshing to see you earn your keep.
Know that in the time you spend growing into a passable member of parliament, your opponent will be growing as well. The onus on you is to outgrow her - not because elections are a popularity circus (which sadly they are) but because unlike Nicole, you have, as Mr Goh says, somehow "made it" (here I suppose he means you didn't get run over by a car crossing the street or get hit by a bolt of lightning from the heavens, since there really is no conceivable way otherwise for you to not "make it" in, barring a vote of no-confidence in SM Goh himself) and you are here now, holding the office that you do. You OWE it to the people to grow.

It is your duty, and your responsibility.