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This.

There's nothing inherently wrong with having a dictatorship. As long as its a good government and the people are happy. Other countries had and still have monarchies where the rulers are good and the population is happy. Elections are extremely expensive to run and consider all the tension they cause plus a whole lot of needless drama. Maybe the PAP should just get rid of something that is essentially a sham and use the money somewhere else.

I never understood the point of opposition members in parliament. In terms of voting in parliament, the opposition's 2 seats compared to the 84 seats the PAP has is meaningless. They can't vote against anything the PAP wants to pass or block it or do anything opposition parties in other governments do (fillibusters, no confidence, etc). From the PAP's point of view the purpose of the opposition is just so they can say Singapore has a functioning democracy with an active opposition.

I wonder why people in the opposition towns keep voting for opposition members. I think that opposition towns like potong pasir have been greatly underfunded, though this has been changing recently. I'd really like to talk to the people who vote for the opposition and ask them why they do it.

The point of an opposition in a functioning democracy is to act as a check and balance system. If the people aren't happy with their government's performance they can give more power to the opposition. As a newcomer to Singapore during the 2006 elections I found it funny that the government was having an election, where a large majority of the seats weren't even being contested. And then the leader of the opposition was jailled a few weeks before the election and released a few weeks after. I don't know how many of you keep track of international events, but the recent presidential election in Zimbabwe followed the same script with just much more violence.

That's sad D:

I love it in Singapore heart
at least because it's small I can go anywhere quite easily xD

yeah that ish teh point and we won get lost in teh jungle -.- like amazon rainforest...die of water i tell u

Wow, i guess i'm the only one who is most determined to migrate from here. But then again probably also because I've already lived overseas (still in asia, but international schools in two other countries) for ~70% of my life.
Trust me, theres a lot more out there than here. Granted its safer here, but how to learn when you're kept in a box? What is there to experience right?
Anyway, I still come back every CNY or summer holiday to visit family, but in my opinion, singapore is a great place to come back to, but not really stay. Agreed that its boring, you've seen one shopping mall, they're all the same. Nothing much else compared to where i've been.
Due to some personal reasons, i'm stuck here (hopefully) until early 2011. Until then i'll pig out happily here :} but otherwise, i cant wait to go back..

PS: no offense to singapore or anyone out there with opposing opinions. I'm just stating my own.

@PinkSupervisor: cheong pang nasi lemak = <3

Nothing to complain on the ruling party, i think they're doing a swell job biggrin -thumbs up and kudos-
but i suppose its the social part of singapore where you cant say "good afternoon" or "hi" to a random stranger on the street (just even a polite greeting) without them either waving you off "NONONO, not interested" or etc. ):
pft. maybe i'm just petty razz