MS Commentaries: Covering GE2020 during Covid-19
And so it has all kicked off. With the noise and bluster of Nomination Day out of the way, Singaporeans will once again go to the polls in 10 days’ time, in the midst of an unprecedented crisis.
Five years ago, it was the Covid-19 pandemic and the daily threat to our lives and livelihoods.
This time round, it is the “profound turning point” of US-imposed tariffs, as Prime Minister (PM) Lawrence Wong called it, and what appears to be an alarming shift in the world order in the face of a now unpredictable United States.
GE2020 was a special one, thanks to Covid-19
Looking back now, nothing will ever quite match the experience of covering GE2020 as a journalist amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the first time ever, there were no physical rallies, and candidates, journalists and voters alike were fully masked up at all times and voting hours were extended.
A second Group Representation Constituency (GRC) fell to the opposition and an historic 10 opposition Members of Parliament were elected.
This was also the election where Workers’ Party (WP) chief and one-time firebrand Pritam Singh, led his party into an election for the first time, as he was appointed Singapore’s first-ever Leader of the Opposition.
It was a wild, wild ride.
‘Would he have done that if it was PM?’
Having been assigned to cover the WP for Yahoo News Singapore, I followed Pritam and his colleagues closely.
Pritam had a habit of holding doorstop interviews next to hawker centres or equally noisy venues, but with the candidates all masked up, this made hearing what they had to say exceedingly difficult.
As a result, the assembled journalists often found themselves creeping ever closer to the speaker, in spite of social distancing rules that meant we were supposed to keep at least one metre away.
On one occasion, a Social Distancing Ambassador (remember those guys with their tape measures?) repeatedly interrupted a doorstop with Pritam to warn reporters to keep their distance.
This prompted a journalist to mutter darkly:
Would he have done that if it was PM?
Photo courtesy of Nicholas Yong for MS News.
Everything culminated on Polling Night, as my colleagues and I scrambled to cover different counting centres and keep track of the constituencies that were in play.
Criss-crossing different venues in private-hire vehicles, I encountered some, shall we say, interesting drivers.
Like the woman who said she was going to vote for the opposition in her ward — not just because she was unhappy with the status quo, but because she wanted to ensure they got their election deposit back.
Or the man who wasn’t terribly sure of which ward he was voting in, nor of the parties or candidates contesting, but intended to vote for the opposition entirely based on his father’s views.
Do you hear the people sing?
As polls finally closed and counting of votes began, I headed to Hougang, which gradually began to resemble a live production of ‘Les Miserables’, with raucous WP supporters chanting and waving flags with no thought of social distancing, while police stood by.
“Pandemic? What pandemic?” asked a fellow reporter ironically.
A loud cheer went up as news of the WP’s victory in Hougang filtered through, and the noise only got louder and louder as the night wore on.
Photo courtesy of Nicholas Yong for MS News.
It was no surprise to see a large pile of empty beer bottles, as Singaporeans chafing under the weight of months-long safety measures finally let loose.
“I’ve been supporting WP 30 years! Ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole! I teach my granddaughter to carry a hammer now,” yelled a man wielding a large inflatable hammer, the symbol of the WP.
At the end of the night, I took my final PHV ride home. The driver exulted in the opposition’s electoral advances — then started spouting dark conspiracy theories about the powers that be.
I was so drained that I simply closed my eyes and let him drone on.
A Changed World indeed
Covid was the making of Lawrence Wong in his role as the Multi-Ministry Task Force co-chair.
This time round, it is his turn to lead his party into an election for the first time, and with no less than 32 new candidates.
As an untested neophyte PM, in the face of discontent over the GST hike – Singh asserted that it had “turbocharged” inflation – and other issues, it already looks like an uphill task for PM Wong.
Analysts have told me that they expect the PAP’s vote share to fall, but to what degree?
Online sentiment about the PAP appears increasingly negative.
But the Internet does not always reflect reality, despite the chatterings of keyboard warriors and armchair critics, and the authorities have also rightly warned against being duped by deepfake videos and trolls.
In 2020, the much-touted flight to safety never materialised. Will history repeat itself? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out.
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Featured image courtesy of Nicholas Yong for MS News.
