Singapore’s Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) Vivian Balakrishnan’s attack on the Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) candidate Dr Vincent Wijeysingha’s sexual orientation has become the talk of the town. Now all’s fair in love and war, so I have no problem with Dr. Balakrishnan outing Mr. Wijeysingha as gay, but now that the People Action Party (PAP) has taken this road, then they better not field any gay/lesbian/bisexual candidates tomorrow.
Yes, I know the SDP and its chief Mr. Chee Soon Juan are currently taking the high road on this issue but tomorrow is Nomination Day and I’m willing to bet that the opposition are just waiting to see if the PAP is going to field any gay or lesbian candidates tomorrow. Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has hinted before that there is a current Member of Parliament (MP) who is a lesbian. Considering that both the opposition MPs are men, this means that the lesbian MP is from the PAP.
Yes I read about Dr Balakrishnan trying to say that the issue is not Mr. Wijeysingha's sexual orientation but sorry I (and most Singaporeans) don't buy that. His denial is a little strange considering that Dr Balakrishnan was quoted by The Strait Times newspaper as saying;
“I am not sure what (the Singapore Democratic Party’s) strategy is. I would like to know whether they have confirmed that they are contesting, I would like to know their line-up. I can’t help feeling that part of the reason for their reticence is they have elements of their agenda they are not prepared to disclose and subject to scrutiny. Eventually, they will have to come out of the closet.”
– Vivian Balakrishnan, Straits Times, 20 Apr 2011
You say something liked “to come out of the closet” and then say this is not an attack on Mr. Wijeysingha's sexual orientation? Sorry but even if it is true, it is way too late for that. The cat is out of the bag, the gates have open and till Election Day, it will be open season on every gay/lesbian/bisexual candidate in the election. So if the PAP does field a gay or lesbian tomorrow, the attacks from the opposition will come! And if the opposition don’t, then the opposition are idiots!
2 comments:
In the reply to VV's press release, the SDP issued a youtube. In that youtube, SDP questioned VV on the YOG spending and asked VV to release the YOG accounts. VV had spent a huge amount of money and there are a lot of unanswered questions. Previously, Goh Meng Seng of the NSP had done the following youtube to put the YOG spending in perspective to the problems currently faced by Singapore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tECcYnYQ7A8&feature=player_embedded
The YOG will sure come up sooner or later in this election, and it will be alongside issues like high housing prices, foreign workers, Mas Selamat. However I'm sure the PAP will be ready for them all. After all, these are the expected areas of attack from the opposition.
Post a Comment