***
Seah Chiang Nee:
"One of the things I have learned in my 40 years of reporting is not to discuss current affairs with Singaporeans I don't know. It is often futile.
I have rarely succeeded in eliciting a spontaneous viewpoint about politics from them that is not straight out of a newspaper's headline.
This is quite unlike in other countries where I had been assigned to cover, including communist China, where people would often just open up to you.
The people of my generation were — and remain — a reticent, apolitical lot who were more concerned about good food than bad politics.
Most had no personal views or were afraid to express them, especially when it comes to a controversial government policy.
As tough times intensified, however, I have detected a whiff of change in the heartland...
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong... suggested a 24-hour "cooling-off" period after the campaigning and before Polling Day...
"(Elections) here are already devoid of any heat. Any more cooling and the elections will go into deep freeze, sending voters into hibernation," the Singapore Democratic Party cynically observed...
In recent weeks amidst the debate about foreigners "taking away" local jobs, I have encountered heated discussions in coffee-shops and hawkers centres, the like of which I had rarely seen before...
[One critic] expects more disgruntled people to vote to put more opposition candidates into Parliament"
Let's just say that we've experienced this time and time again, and each time the excitement about the imminent downfall of the ancien régime ends with its romping victory.
Celui qui ne vivra pas après la Révolution ne connaîtra pas la douceur de vivre et ne pourra imaginer ce qu'il pourra y avoir de bonheur dans la vie