Tan Kin Lian's Blog: General election

Monday, April 26, 2010

General election - TV debate

This writer suggest that a debate on TV for the political parties contesting in the general election.
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_519057.html

My comment
It is a good suggestion.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: Yes! It is a very good idea to put all the political leaders on the spot and see how passionate, reasonable and sound their ideas are! For such televised debates to work, all political parties and candidates must be treated as equals, and there must not be any fear or favour from the producers, the moderators or the audience. I.E. the moderator must exercise his duty to cut short LKY or LHL if he interrupts other candidates or go beyond his time limit, or go out of point.

Unfortunately, my gut feel is that PAP must be hit with a critical blow, before Singapore will have such open debates. LKY particularly is very afraid of opening up the media and/or allowing public opinions to flourish and be broadcasted. He himself used such tactics to win his court cases in the 1950s and also to build up mass people support and fervour which put PAP and him into power in 1959. That's why after becoming PM, LKY immediately banned the court jury system and put on muzzle & leash on the press and apply ISA liberally.

PAP is deathly afraid of a strong & eloquent person using the exact same tactics as LKY to influence singaporeans. And that's why LKY went on record in 2008 to say that Obama was basically a showman and no substance.; April 26, 2010 4:08 PM
Anonymous said...: TV debate will help Mediacorp lacklustre ratings to go up too. I am all for it.; April 26, 2010 4:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Mr Tan, have you seen the court transcripts when Dr Chee cross examined LKY, LHL, and their supposed hotshot lawyer Davinda during the defamation trial? There is also an audio recording taken diring the trial circulating some time back. The court has since then banned all such recordings.

If you have seen it, you will know why a TV debate will never happen.; April 26, 2010 6:45 PM
C H Yak said...: This is a good idea indeed. And all parties should have equal air-time, not co-related to the number of candidates the party can field.

This is the type of radical "CHANGE" a more educated and matured electorate is looking forward to. The election process should also be fair to the electorate, not just the contesting candidates.

And not just silly strutural changes like electoral boundaries and the number of NMP or NCMP...which are disguising for "CHANGE".

We are talking about "productivity" and I would think this is "productivity" applied to POLITICS.; April 26, 2010 8:01 PM
Anonymous said...: Yes, I read about the court case CSJ/CSC cross examine LKY/LHL until they totally speechless and lost.

They are too used to repressing people, not possible for them to debate live esp against CSJ, all their true colors will show, and overnight they will lose all credibility and respect.; April 26, 2010 10:20 PM
Anonymous said...: You expect an open TV debate, they cann't even give a simple off the cuff speech. To them open debate is an American theatrical show.; April 26, 2010 10:36 PM
Anonymous said...: The PAP leaders are too cowardly to take part in debates, as they would not allow themselves to be seen on tv losing face if they are caught dumbfounded.
MM Lee is too slow to react due to old age and a bit senile in behaviour, our PM is not a debater or orator in the same class as Obama.; April 27, 2010 3:41 PM
Anonymous said...: rex comments as follows,

anon. 3.41
such being the case, it begs the question of why a salary of 5 times obama's is payable?; April 27, 2010 5:02 PM