mrbrown goes to a rally

Boy, am I tired.

This has been one mad election week. Between writing humor columns, producing my comedy podcasts and videos, and digitally altering a mustache on a politician's photo, I’ve hardly had time to do the things that really matter, like going down to the election rallies and buying a party souvenir.

I really wanted that blue Workers’ Party umbrella for my collection.

That is why I am glad I attended a rally early. On the very first day of the (very short) hustings, I went down to a field in Opposition-held Hougang for the Workers’ Party rally.

Where did all these people come from?

I didn’t expect the rest of Singapore to be there. Good gracious, the traffic was backed up all the way to where I live, several kilometers away. People filled the very large open field and by the time I got there, I could no longer see the speakers on the stage, and barely saw the giant hammer party symbol on the stage backdrop.

An extended family was standing next to me. A man had his toddler son on his shoulders, and the boy waved his toy hammer. At least I hoped it was a toy. I wouldn’t want to be hit in the eye by a real flying hammer should the kid lose his grip.

Opposition rallies tend to attract large crowds every General Election. In contrast, the rallies for the ruling Peoples’ Action Party (PAP) tend to attract a smaller crowd. This is in contrast to the number of seats they have in Parliament -- 82 -- versus two Opposition seats.

I do not know if fewer people go to PAP rallies because they already know what the ruling party will say (they tend to dominate the mainstream media in coverage) or because they dislike the party.

I also do not know if people go to Opposition rallies because they genuinely believe in the Opposition’s cause and message, or because the atmosphere is more fun.

But the air surrounding this rally I attended did feel different from other times. People listened to the speeches, talked amongst themselves about the issues, and gamely shouted their replies whenever the politicians on stage said something angry about the ruling party.

The news reports claimed that there were 15,000 people at this rally. I say bollocks. There were easily 25,000 people there. I could smell them all as we stood shoulder to shoulder on the field.

Is this the calm before the storm?

This is an exciting time for us all. Out of 87 seats, 82 are contested, and two million voters -- more than double the number in 2006 -- will be going to the polls. A perfect storm is gathering.

One storm front is five years of not very good times. Issues like cost of living, overcrowded public transport, the Too Many Too Soon influx of foreign workers and high ministerial salaries have created a whirlwind of unhappiness.

The second storm front is the unprecedented number of young people voting for the first time. We are talking about young people who did not grow up with the hard times that bonded our grandparents and parents with the Old Guard of the ruling party.

Young people who are less submissive and dare to question authority. Brought up in the cradle of the Internet, where no boundaries or controlled media exist, these young voters are less likely to believe everything the ruling party says.

The old makes way for the new

The third storm front is the growth of social media. Five years ago, in the 2006 elections, Twitter and Facebook were not factors. We mostly had blogs back then. Now many are online, and most have access to Facebook. And if my wife is actively consuming and sharing thoughts, videos, and photos about the elections, then it is no longer a geek’s world anymore.

Like a giant kopitiam, we have gathered online, to trade stories, opinions and ideas. What used to be done in kopitiams by old men with too much free time in their hands, is now done on Facebook and Twitter, the kopitiams of this century.

And how quickly we spread thoughts now. Commentary is instant as comments and status messages pour into shared videos of rally speeches or news articles, sent from PCs and smartphones.

The power is in the photo

In 2006, you hardly saw a photograph of an Opposition rally crowd in the pro-government newspapers. I suppose there was a fear that a photo of the massive crowds may convince voters that they should vote Opposition too. Instead, you would see unflattering close-ups of sweaty Opposition speakers. And photographs of the ruling party’s rallies would include tight shots of the significantly smaller crowd.

Then Alex Au, a blogger known as Yawning Bread, published a photograph of a Workers’ Party rally in 2006 on his blog. And people spread it around via email like it was a photo of some politician caught at strip club.

And something changed. People saw his photograph and realized how big the crowd was. That photo is now the most iconic photograph of the 2006 elections.

In 2011, newspaper photographs routinely show the sheer numbers attending Opposition rallies. At this rally, everyone took photographs and shot video with their cameras and smartphones, to be shared with others online.

In fact, when I tried to take my own iconic election photograph, I ended up with a photograph of other people sticking their cameras up taking their own iconic election photographs.

The crowd at my rally was so numerous, it brought the mobile network of the three telcos down. Their networks could not cope and most of us had no signal on our iPhones and assorted mobile devices.

So if a politician had taken off his pants and mooned the crowd, no one could have shared that photo right away. The Facebook upload would have to wait till you were at least a couple of kilometers away from the rally site, when your signal returned.

The rally I attended did not have any mooning politicians but that was OK. I bought a little Workers’ Party flag as a memento for my kids but quietly tucked it into my bag when I walked back to the car, parked far away. I do not know why I felt a little shy about it.

Later, I went up to one of the blocks of flats near the field to get a better view of the rally. As I climbed up the stairs to the fifth floor, camera in hand, I heard a lady with her family, talking on her phone.

Change, change, change

“Do you want to come down and join us or not? You support Opposition or PAP? If you are not Pro-Opposition you better don’t come. My whole family is here and we are all Opposition supporters!” she said with a hearty laugh.

A decade or two ago, you wouldn’t talk about being an Opposition supporter so openly, for fear of being marked. But here we are, in 2011, talking loudly about it in a public place, and laughing about it too. And some are even driving around with Opposition flags proudly sticking out of their cars, chanting their party's name.

No matter which party wins however many seats on May 7, I think as a nation, we already won.