RECONSTRUCTING SINGAPORE'S GENERAL ELECTIONS 2015
VOTING FOR CREDIBILITY AND PROBLEM-SOLVING ABILITY

Our Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, has accurately identified the 3 main challenges Singapore will face over the next 50 years. 

1. How can we boost our productivity to continue our economic growth? 

2. How do we overcome the demographic problems of an aging population and a low fertility rate? 

3. How can we preserve our national identity and our sense of belonging?

If the coming General Elections is like an examination for the various political parties, let these be the important examination questions. This will get our politicians thinking hard about our country's problems rather than indulging in undesirable mud-slinging and character assassinations.

For us voters, let's do something unusual this year. Let's put aside our old loyalties and deep prejudices, our cynical distrust, our fickle vulnerability to favors, our selfish short-term considerations, our sense of entitlement and our petty tribal rivalries. Instead, let's judge the political competitors, fairly and objectively, on their credibility and potential ability to solve our present and future problems and give our votes to the deserving ones.

So, in a nutshell, if the forthcoming General Elections is an exam about solving national problems, the politicians are the students taking the exam; the political parties are the different schools that taught them; and the voters are the neutral invigilators and markers of the papers. Now, let the exam begin!