Mountbatten SMC: Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss

Today, Mrs Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss came to have an informal session with the residents of Haig Court, the condominium where I'm staying now.

She was accompanied by her campaign manager and assistants, fellow party members, and even Mr Ravi Philemon, editor at The Online Citizen, who was there to support her personally.

I was clearly excited when I got to know that Mrs Jeannette Chong was coming to my place! Tung was there too. After an hour of hot debate (or sort of), I can just say that I'm slightly disappointed. She's good, but, not good enough.

For one, Mrs Jeannette Chong could not hold her ground as I thought she could as a lawyer. I probably expected her to be more eloquent, more composed, more "well-thought" in Tung's words. However, instead of defending herself fully, she allowed her fellow campaigners to step in on her behalf, perhaps sidelining her, painting a picture that she's not in control. I would like my MP to be someone who is able to stand up for his/herself.

Secondly, she doesn't sound like she is ready to become an MP for Mountbatten. When asked where she will get her funds to fund her various projects and her Mountbatten plan that she intends to unveil tomorrow or Tuesday, she cited fellow lawyers who are friends, some others, and even calling upon former Mountbatten independent candidate Mr Kannappan Chettiar who "could" support her cause. "Could" is not the most certain answer I would like to hear from a candidate who is going to be my next MP.

On why she defected from Reform Party (RP) to National Solidarity Party (NSP), Mrs Jeannette Chong did not quite answer it herself. The moderator of the session, Mr Justin, who is also a fellow party member, interceded for her, repeatedly saying that the issue is like "water under the bridge" and there were differences in ideology and methodology. According to Tung (I don't quite remember this part), in essence she even mentioned that WP and NSP are the same, just that their working styles are different. Ultimately, Mrs Jeannette Chong did not show much sense of party unity. She consistently mentioned "NSP's manfesto", which I thought seemed like she wanted to distant herself from NSP. If she said, "OUR manifesto" instead, by claiming it as a party, she could strike a different chord.

Yet, to contradict herself, Mrs Jeannette Chong replied to a question asking her why join NSP and not other opposition parties, that the other parties, namely Workers' Party (WP) and Singapore People's Party (SPP), had Mr Low Thia Kiang and Mr Chiam See Tong in parliament already. NSP does not have a seat, and so she felt that NSP should also have a seat in parliament. This came across as her simply trying to get into parliament, and perhaps, the more opposition in the parliament, the better? The more alternative voices, the better? But, does more voices equal to better policies being implemented?

I think the funniest segment of the session was when a resident asked Mrs Jeannette Chong on her take on the government's decision to build the 2 IRs. She replied with hesitation, "Of course not la!" She tried to add in humour by saying the government said it would only build one IR but then after came two! Anyway, she just doesn't have a strong opinion on the issue on the casinos and IRs, and probably wasn't prepared to answer the question. As a lawyer or at least my future MP, she could at least have done a bit more homework, to earnestly fight for issues that truly impact the ordinary citizen. Worse, she forgot NSP's manifesto a couple of times.

It is unfortunate, though normal, that Mrs Jeannette Chong appeared to be nervous, inexperienced and ill-prepared. She has only been in politics for 2 years, having joined in mid-2009.

I must give her credit for personally writing to the condominium management to seek approval to meet with us residents. Effort marks, really.

I also like the way Mrs Jeannette Chong challenged to foster active citizenry through more common town hall discussions similar to this session, against the conventional Meet-The-People Sessions. Midway, I got lost in her words though. She talked about citizens being a pushing force to reach the authorities with their cause, and she would bring them to the citizens to question him why certain policies are not implemented or not working. Honestly, I don't know what she's saying, really. I want to elaborate on this point, but I keep deleting, because I don't know what to say. Fail.

I had a list of questions to ask Mrs Jeannette Chong. In the end, I did not ask even a single one. The questions posed by the other residents were too good. Most of my questions were answered in some way or another, but new questions arose. Why did NSP want to reduce NS from 24 months to 15? Why downsize the Army? Why subsidise transport costs? Why freeze rents? I need to do my homework!

Amidst the tension in the room throughout the session, it ended on a bright note. The chairman of the management committee commended Mrs Jeannette Chong on her sincerity in writing in, unlike PAP that tried to write in through the RC. This followed by applause.

About close to a hundred residents attended the session. I'm surprised at the level of political interest that Singaporeans have. Present were the residents mostly aged between 30 to 50, some old enough to be my grandparents, and also a small group of young adults, us being the youngest.

I believe we need to keep the nation in prayer, to pray for wisdom and discernment of our political leaders. I think we need to look beyond our self interests (not that our needs are not important), and put the nation before ourselves. As the saying goes, 没有国哪有家，没有家哪有我.