By-Election Date Set

President Tony Tan has issued a writ of election for Punggol East constituency. Nomination Day for the by-election is on the 16th of January with Polling Day on the 26th of January.

The Punggol East seat has being vacant ever since Member of Parliament Michael Palmer stepped down last month due to an extra-marital affair. Now I have said several times that the PAP should show the by-election ASAP as the opposition is having problems deciding who should contest the seat. The Workers' Party (WP), Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), the Singapore Democratic Alliance, Reform Party and at least one independent have expressed interest in the seat.

Despite many people hoping that the other opposition parties will surrender the seat to the WP in this by-election, it is highly unlikely that will happen. They will earn nothing in surrendering the seat and both the SDP and Reform having bigger names in their stable than anyone the WP can put up. So holding the by-election now makes sense for the PAP.

However, I have to question the quick turnaround for this by-election. The campaign is only 10 days! Now this may be in keeping with recent elections but I feel this is different. 40-year-old surgeon, Dr Koh Poh Koon, is widely expected to be the PAP candidate in the by-election after being seen accompanying caretaker MP, Teo Ser Luck, during a Meet-the-People session.

Dr. Koh is a surprising choice because no one knows him. Even though the PAP name should carry him first over the finish line, there is no reason for the PAP to take the risk. Having a long campaign period this round will works in the PAP favor. It will give the residents in the constituency more time to know Dr. Koh and it comes with little risk as the opposition is in disarray. In fact the short campaign period might actually help the opposition as the public is still distracted by the recent AIM-Town Council saga.

No matter which opposition party is in the contest, the PAP should win Punggol East. Michael Palmer won by over 13% the last time round. However, the PAP need to be careful. This by-election may not be the cakewalk they are expecting.  

Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings trilogy was an epic that imprinted itself on the minds on a generation. Not only was it critically acclaimed, it made a boatload of money for everyone involved. With all the money made from the three movies, it’s no surprise when Hollywood decided to film The Hobbit.

The story of The Hobbit is that of Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), who was half-coerced/half-tricked into taking part in a quest proposed by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen). The quest involved accompanying thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on a quest across Middle-earth to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the dragon.

Set up as the team's "burglar", the peace-loving Bilbo now has to deal with unruly, unkempt dwarves; hobbit/dwarf eating trolls; escaping from orcs and goblins; and a dangerous but delightful riddling contest against Gollum (Andy Serkis). All on a journey to meet, defeat and kill a fire-breathing dragon that had once defeated an entire kingdom.

No wonder the hobbit fainted before the journey even began!

Now first off; No, this is not a prequel! JRR Tolkien wrote The Hobbit first before the Lord of The Rings trilogy so The Hobbit is not a prequel; The Lord of The Rings is the sequel. I know some people think this is nitpicking but please get this right.

Second; you need to watch this with an open mind, especially of you had read the book. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first of a new trilogy of movies based on JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit. I said “based on” because well…The Hobbit is a pretty small children book but somehow Peter Jackson intends to make three films out of it, each presumably close to three hours long. So I walked into the theatre with an open mind, and that make a lot of difference.

Third; Expectations are a double-edged sword. People expect a lot out of the movie, out of the whole Hobbit trilogy. Given how good the Lord of The Rings trilogy was, that’s understandable but frankly if you don’t lower your expectations, you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment. That’s not to say The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a bad movie. In fact, I found it to be a charming, spectacular, and exciting film. Once the party got going and they left the Shire, the movie was every bit as good as anything found in the first trilogy. However it’s a different story, so I feel you need to take The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as a movie on its own, not as a continuation or a prequel of the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

If you can do that, you are going to enjoy the movie.

The film is anchored by excellent performances from Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen and having Peter Jackson back (along with a whole bunch of familiar cameos) does give the movie a sense of familiarity that works in the movie’s favor. I especially enjoy the scene where Gandalf speak with the White Council; Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Saruman the White (Christopher Lee). I always thought the Lord of The Rings trilogy never truly showed how powerful the Council truly was, it was something that has been rectified in this movie. You can truly get a sense of the power of Galadriel when everyone on the Council deferred to her in one way or another.

Also working in the movie’s favor is the humor of the movie. Adapted from a children book, An Unexpected Journey is more light-hearted than Lord of The Rings and the humor shines through. After the at-times-too-serious Lord of The Rings trilogy, this change in mood was more than welcomed.

Also welcomed was the total absolute lack of humans in the movie! There’s elves, dwarves, hobbits, trolls, orcs, goblins, giants but no humans! If you want to be technical, you can say there’re 3 wizards in the movie but in Middle-earth, they are not really considered humans. To me, this prove that Peter Jackson truly believe in the story of The Hobbit.

Now there’s some debate about Jackson using the highly controversial High Frame Rate, a motion picture format that use a higher projection frame rate than the industry standard of 24 frames per second. Personally, I don’t quite get it and I don’t know how much of a difference it made but I will say An Unexpected Journey is a very good-looking movie. There were some majestic shots of the scenery and even Rivendell look much better.

Of course some things didn’t works out so well for the movie. Many critics have blasted Jackson for being excessive and I could understand why. At 169mins, the movie was about 30mins too long. It took over 20mins before the party even left the Shire which I thought was a little too much. There was no reason for the dwarves to indulgent in 2 songs or for the long scene between Frodo and Bilbo.

Also anyone who read The Hobbit knows that there was almost no way you could get 3 films out of the book. So it’s no surprise that Jackson added a lot of stuff into the movie. Some scenes like the aforementioned White Council meeting works, others did not. One of the things that did not work was the escape from the goblin city. My friend say it remind him too much of the escape from Moria by the Fellowship (which is true), and to me it felt kind of tack-on. Looking at it, I can’t help but think that it’s there because Jackson needed a big action sequence to satisfy the action fans.

However like I said earlier, I found The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to be a charming, spectacular, and exciting film. It is a good movie that could stand on its own and a good additional to the Lord of The Rings trilogy. Watch it for a fine return to the great world of Middle-earth! 

Expansions; Not DLCs

Recently, Sony Entertainment gave a one-month free pass to all former subscripters of the MMO action game, DC Universe Online. Now say what you want about Sony, they know how to treat their customers. They don't just kill game off (like another company that shall not be named) but actually work on it to make things better. I mean just look at Vanguard. A dead-in-the-water MMORPG which now boost a healthy population.

I am enjoying my time in DCU Online but having said that, I don't think I will continue playing DCU Online after the month is up. Now the game is F2P so there's no harm in playing it but I just can't see myself doing it. The main reason is that there's no expansion to the game.  Worse, there's no plans for an expansion to the game! Sony like most other companies nowadays, seems focused on DLC (downloadable content).

However, DLCs just doesn't do it for me. I played the new Aquaman and Spectre DLCs and enjoyed them but would I pay a monthly fee for them? The answer is no because good as they are, there's no new area to explore. For gamers who like exploring, that's a big no-no. Basically, there's no meat to DLCs!

For that, you need a new expansion. I hope Sony and all the other companies out there would listen; stop focusing on DLCs and start making expansions again! DLCs may be easier and cheaper to make but ultimately no one is going to pay a monthly fee or buy a new game just for 2-3 missions. You may retain a few customers here and there but you are not going to make new ones.

And for MMO games to survive and strive, you need that.

Legal Dirty Politics

Do you know that sometimes in trying to prevent something, you can actually make things worse? If anyone doubts that, I strongly suggest you read about the sage between M/s Action Information Management Pte Ltd (AIM) and the PAP town councils.

Last week, I blogged on the case and since then there had been twists and further twists on the matter. As the initial defense by the PAP-owned IT company has been widely discredited by the Singapore public, Coordinating Chairman of the 14 PAP Town Council (I didn’t even know there’s such a position), Teo Ho Pin, issued a 26 paragraph statement explaining the PAP's Town Councils rationale for the sale.

Like the initial defense by AIM, the Singapore public did not accept it as there were gaping holes in his statement. The question of conflict of interest was not touched on and while Mr. Teo said that the Town Council will save $8000 in the leaseback agreement, we have no idea how that figure came about as no one seem to know the cost of developing the original software.

In the latest additional to the saga, lawyers acting on behalf of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) served a letter to local blogger Alex Au demanding he take down the blog post that first raised the issue. Mr. Au, quite naturally, did so (why not when the matter is already out) but the damage was already done.

I think this act through the lawyers was truly foolish on the part of the PAP.

Now the ongoing saga involving AIM and the town councils has raised questions of propriety, transparency and accountability. The PAP had tried to explain away the entire episode (twice), but the Singapore public is not accepting their explanation. The last thing they should be doing is to go after Alex Au.

To the Singapore public, it looks like the PAP tried to explain away their actions to no avail so now they are going after the guy who first broke the story. To me, that’s like saying the PAP has no more cards to play, no more arguments to make, so the only thing left for them to do is to shut people up.

Simple put; going after Alex Au now is an admission of defeat!

Also, this latest action by the PAP comes at a totally inappropriate time. I mean if you want to shut people up, do it before trying to explain away your actions! Not after you had failed to do so! What’s worse is that this action by the PAP now makes people think there’s really something wrong with the whole AIM deal.

There isn’t! Everything is totally legal. It's dirty but it's legal and this is all the PAP need to emphasize. To be blunt, it's dirty politics but it's legal, dirty politics. Yes, Singaporeans are unhappy about the deal and most expect our leaders to be more ethical than this, but let's be serious here. If Singaporeans can accept the PAP gerrymandering left, right and centre every election, they can accept this.

This is dirty politics and the PAP need to stop trying to justify dirty politics. It's not going to work and they need to stop trying ASAP because the more they try, the worse it will get for them.

Videogames and Museums

Now there are some people who say videogames are a new art form. That video games are as deserving of discussion as any other kind of art form like movies and television. So I guess that’s the reason why in America, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Museum of Modern Art both had opened exhibitions on “The Art of Video Games”.

Like I said, it’s totally understandable…now please excuse me while I vomit out my lunch!

Sorry but videogames and museums do not go together! Now as a gamer myself, I’m not saying videogames aren’t an art form but videogames in a museum? Videogames has been around for over 30 years but going to a museum to see videogames? Sorry, not to be an anti-snob, but there is just something seriously, seriously wrong with that. 

Don't Pimp My Ride, Singapore

On Yahoo Singapore today, there is an article asking why modified cars have such a bad reputation in Singapore. In most countries, people are allowed to modify their own vehicles but in Singapore, that’s a big no-no with stiff penalties against vehicles that are illegally modified.

The answer to the question of “why” is very simple. In a word; luxury.

In Singapore, cars are a luxury. With our world-class public transport system, cars are not really needed in Singapore. So cars are a luxury and modified cars are a luxury on top of a luxury.

That is why most Singaporeans, including me, have little time for people who modified their vehicles. Personally, I don’t understand why anyone need to make their car’s exhast louder, or need to have sports rims, and spoilers on their vehicles. To me, like most Singaporeans, people doing this have too much time and money on their hands.

I mean public transport is good in Singapore (MRT breakdowns aside), so cars are a luxury. Now you want to modify your car on top of that? Go right ahead, but don’t blame me when I laugh if you get into trouble. 

The Sooner, The Better

Since People's Action Party (PAP) member Michael Palmer resigned from the PAP due to his extramarital affair, Punggol East Single Member Constituency (SMC) was left without a Member of Parliament (MP). Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has since said that he would carefully consider when to call for a by-election in the ward.

The New Year has come and gone and there’s still no word on when the by-election will be held. For the opposition parties, this is good news because for the PAP, the time is now! Like I said before, I believe the PAP would be favorites for the ward but if they want to have the best chance for the win, I truly believe that the PAP will want to have the by-election as soon as possible. 

My reasoning is simple. The PAP needs to have the election before the opposition get their house in order. The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), The Reform Party and the Worker’s Party have all said they intend to contest in the Punggol East SMC. That is at least a 3-way spilt on the opposition side of the election and the by-election could go as high as a 5-way contest. 

This is a chance the PAP should take advantage of.

The longer the PAP waits, the more time the opposition has to engage in horse-trading and the more chance there will only be one candidate against the PAP. For the PAP, in the case of the by-election in Punggol East SMC, it’s a case of the sooner, the better.