Review: Rumours

I was excited to watch this play. The publicity wasn't that good, or at least, I don't think it is. The posters of the characters rather put me off, what with their bruised and battered faces. The other posters were average. What attracted me to it, however, was the description. It's synopsis was rather well written, and being a play by the Junior College section of the English Language Drama Debate and Film Society, I wanted to go and support them

Rumours is a farcical play written by Neil Simon, and is set in the deputy mayor of New York City's suburban residence. One by one, four pairs of couples arrive, and with each being the upper class of society, the first couple tries to hide the truth, - that the hostess is missing and that the deputy mayor has been shot through the earlobe - as they could not get any information from the unconscious host, from the second, but they soon find out about the truth, and they in turn try to hide it from the third and fourth couple, resulting in each couple's perceived truth contributing to an unbelievable deception. Soon however, all of them know of the truth, and agree that there is a need to hide the truth from the police until the whole truth is known. The police, however, after arriving from a report that a gunshot was heard in the vicinity, demand to see the host, and the husband of the second couple has no choice but to disguise himself as the mayor and tell an unbelievable story which all the facts fit... only to realise at the end that the story he had spun up could very well have been the truth.

I felt that the acting was rather good, the characters extremely believable. The fast-paced plot of the play, along with the various humorous situations which the characters find themselves in, expected of a farce, made the play rather exciting and interesting to watch, and one can't help being riveted to the stage, even during the more passive moments. However, I felt that the constables were too stiff and wooden, making their interactions rather dull and interesting, though the strength of the other actors manage to save them somewhat. Yet, such a difference in skill is glaring, and one can't help but feel that the acting of the constables could be greatly improved. The set was elaborate and the props maximalist, with the stage looking extremely like a house with the fourth wall removed - there were even stairs and doors - and filled with what one would expect to find in the home of an upper class member of society.

Being a farcical play, one cannot expect there to be really any expect any themes in it, after all, a farce is a comedy where characters are placed in unlikely and improbable situations, the characters themselves usually being two-dimensional and meant to represent certain stereotypes of people, in order to create as much humour as possible. A farce is watched not for its significance and messages, but is instead watched for entertainment value. However, farces, usually relying on misinterpretations and misunderstandings in order to generate humour, can teach us about the importance of communication and considering everything before making a justified decision. All in all, I enjoyed the play very much and would not mind watching it again, though there are some areas where it can be improved.

Review: Macbeth

I was not really enthusiastic about the performance. I mean, I wanted to see how a play in a park would turn out, and having read Macbeth for an assignment the previous year, I was quite familiar with the story and wanted to see how it turned out on stage. However, the thought that they would be speaking long Shakespearean verses for the entire two-hour duration of the play was rather unattractive. Unfortunately, I cannot say that the play turned out surprisingly pleasant to watch. It was not. If I had not read the play before, I would not even have understood what was happening in the story, and in fact, some portions left me confused. Also, being a Shakespearean play, it was rather long and dreary, the period between Macbeth’s assassinations of the King to the standoff with Macduff occupying nearly an hour. The plot was also rather simple when compared to other Shakespearean plays, with only one main antagonist, unlike say, King Lear, which has several antagonists and has a rather complex plot. However, I believe that the simplicity of Macbeth also contributes to its popularity, as the audience would be better able to understand the play.

Macbeth is a tragedy, about how the main character and antagonist, Macbeth, after being prophesized by three witches that he would be promoted from Thane of Glamis to the Thane of Cawdor and finally become King of Scotland. Soon after, he learns that he has been promoted to the Thane of Cawdor, thus feeding his greed and ambition, ultimately assassinating the King of Scotland and ascending to the throne. However, under his tyrannical rule of killing of anyone opposing him, the other thanes defect to join the Thane of Fife, Macduff, and the King’s son Malcolm in gathering an army to overthrow Macbeth’s regime. Macbeth, having received another prophecy from the three witches that he was safe as “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”. Thinking that no one could be not born from woman, Macbeth had confidently fought against Macduff’s forces, only to realize that Macduff was born by Caesarian section and was thus, not of woman born, and in the end, was defeated by Macduff.

I thought that the acting was quite good, which is to be expected since it was performed by a professional theatre company, however, due to the nature of the placing of the audience and the stage, with the audience being close to the stage and able to view it from many different angles, the backs of the actors was occasionally facing my direction, as a result obscuring the actor’s actions. The set was rather interesting, as it was quite large and one wonders how it was transported. The set served quite a number of purposes, and the props the actors used were rather realistic, such as the guns, however, those were not enough to save the show. In fact, I found the guns too loud and winced whenever they were fired, contributing to my negative impression of the performance.

Macbeth’s most obvious theme is that of greed for power which results in corruption. It has shown that a person who has been exposed to a little power will be corrupted by it and keep seeking more, ultimately ruining the person. However, the play of course does not only hope to show people the evil that power and greed can do, if not, Shakespeare would not have had Macduff defeating Macbeth, though of course, that was necessary in order to have a resolution. The play also shows the difference between kingship and tyranny, as can be evident from the fact that the King of Scotland, King Duncan, was always referred to as “king” and had the loyalty of his many subjects, whereas Macbeth was referred to as “tyrant” and portrayed as a maniac who loses respect from all his subjects, only managing to keep them there through fear.

I think that these themes are still extremely relevant in today’s society. Even though the situation may not be that extreme, yet they are in essence the same. Take for example, Marxism in the U.S.S.R. Power corrupted, and absolute power corrupted absolutely, with Stanlin using the KGB to kill off opposition, and ruling the Soviet Union with tyranny. Even now, we hear of how people with power are misusing them, for example, the phone hacking scandals of News of The World, or the various scandals which many celebrities are caught up in. Therefore, although this play may have been written quite long ago, but it is evident that Shakespeare’s themes and messages can still be applied in today’s context.

Commencement of Comments

Commencing with commenting on comments (and other blog posts), here are my 10 comments, with my identity being "C.K.E.":

1) Newspapers, Leonard

http://leonard-languageartsblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/newspapers.html

2) Essays, Language and Their Applications, Ivan

http://ivanlablog.blogspot.com/2011/05/essays-languages-and-their-applications.html

3) Education System Duel: Japan vs Singapore, Nathan

http://nathanang.blogspot.com/2011/04/education-system-duel-japan-vs.html

4) Thoughts on Hwa Chong on Stomp, Kenneth

http://lablogbypar.blogspot.com/2011/04/thoughts-on-hwa-chong-on-stomp.html

5) War Poetry, Nathanael

http://loonathanaellablog.blogspot.com/2011/05/war-poetry.html

6) How is life going to be like in the future?, Nicholas

http://nichtey.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-is-life-going-to-be-like-in-future.html

7) Debate Topic 1, Leonard

http://leonard-languageartsblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/debate-topic-1.html

8) O.K, Kenneth

http://lablogbypar.blogspot.com/2011/04/ok.html

9) Nuclear power plants in Singapore, Nicholas

http://nichtey.blogspot.com/2011/05/nuclear-power-plants-in-singapore.html

10) Japan Earthquake, Wen Hong

http://language-artist.blogspot.com/2011/04/japan-earthquake.html

Of Wars and Newspapers

At least two of my previous posts have linked concepts which have been taught in Term 1 and Term 2. Two links have been made between three concepts, all that is left is one more. I have made a link between war and prejudice, as well as of how newspapers display prejudice in their way of advertising. Now I am going to make an even more harder link, two concepts which seem so distant there could possibly be no link between them: war and newspapers. Of course, one can argue that newspapers report on wars and during wartime, people read newspapers to find out about the war. However, these are not links, these are merely examples of the uses of newspapers, which is to find out about current events. Initially, I was hoping to find out about newspapers which caused wars, but it appeared that humans were more intelligent than to start a war over trivial matters. Instead, I shall discuss something much more light-hearted: a newspaper war.

The birth of tabloids started in a rather intense journalism war between two parties: Joseph Pulitzer, the person who created the Pulitzer Prize, and William Randolph Hearst. The war begins in 1895, when newspapers throughout the world were all respectable, unless they were corrupted by the government. In 1895, William Randolph Hearst bought the Journal, which ironically, was founded by Joseph's brother Alfred in 1882 before he sold it for a profit. Meanwhile, Joseph Pulitzer owned the World, which along with the Journal, used to report respectable news. In a bid to increase circulation of the Journal, Hearst lowered its price to one cent, and increased its pages, meanwhile using his family's finances in order to support these moves. Copying Pulitzer, Hearst also made headlines bolder and more dramatic, and other than that, focused entirely on sensational news which may have no relation at all to whatever important was happening at that time. Then, in 1986, Hearst managed to persuade Richard Felton Outcault to draw a popular colour comic strip in the Journal, which only the World, happened to have at that time, and also persuaded the whole of Pulitzer's Sunday staff to work for the Journal.

Not a man to admit defeat so easily, Pulitzer hired George B. Luks to draw a colour comic strip about the same character and under the same name, "The Yellow Kid", which ultimately was what caused tabloid to be called yellow journalism. Since the public at that time were hungering for a scandal, no matter the consequences, the Journal delivered one by being not being objective in its journalism. Instead of reporting information from both sides of the party in the Cuba rebellion then, the Journal only reported information coming from Cuban rebels, claiming that Spanish sources could not be trusted. This resulted in increased circulation of the Journal, with people wanting to read more about the rebellion from a simplistic and one-sided point of view. In order to compete with Hearst, Pulitzer also lowered the standard of the World, resulting in such irresponsible journalism where both publications even ripped off stories from each other without any research. Hearst managed to catch Pulitzer at this by including a false article in the Journal. This all continued for quite some time, an era of irresponsible journalism and tainted articles, all in the name of trying to get publicity for their newspaper.

Thus, tabloids have been born, even though tabloids now do not go to such extreme means to create sensational news by providing tainted articles and questioning the words of important people such as the president. It would appear that tabloids are not really a source of reliable news, but rather a source for entertainment.

Technology - A Progressive Undoing of the Human Race

Technology has improved life all throughout the world. With technology such as email and cellular phones, one is able to contact anybody anywhere easily, thus making work more efficient and allowing people to be in touch with overseas friends or family members. With technology such as cameras and video cameras, one is able to record down an event, thus making life much more enjoyable and generally improving the quality of it. With technology such as the Internet and printers, information is easily shared with people all around the world. There are many more such examples, but unfortunately, I, being a pessimist, am not here to talk about the positive impacts of technology today. Instead, I shall talk about how technology has resulted in the quality of living being degraded as well as how it has impacted how long we live.

Firstly, the quality of life. As mentioned earlier, technology had allowed work to be more efficient. However, when we look at this from a different angle, does it not mean more work? After all, if one is able to complete work so quickly, what does one do for the rest of the day? Thus, one is forced to continue to work, and work. This work is of course usually not difficult, a routine done daily will usually become simple. However, this work would be rather tedious and if one does not work fast enough, it results in a great amount of stress on a person. Even if a person does not feel stressed about work, people around that person would. They would not be able to spend time with that person and with the lack of social interaction, the quality of life would also thus decrease.

Next, life expectancy. I shall not talk about life expectancy in its usual sense, because surely, with more healthcare services, and technology being advanced enough to cure most illnesses, sickness and diseases, I shall instead talk more about accidents. Technology has definitely increased the severity of accidents. The accidents I am talking about, of course, is health-related, and not for example, accidentally spilling a cup of water. Cars crashing together certainly does much more damage than two horses crashing into each other. In fact, horses are less like to crash into each other, unless it is done purposefully, than cars are. Technology has also resulted in a greater of life-taking accidents. Recently, there has been quite a lot of similar events where a person who is messaging, taking a call or listening to music gets crashed into by a car and thus, result in that person's death. Technology has definitely made humans more vulnerable to accidents.

Thus, in conclusion, while technology has improved the standard of living for most people, except possibly extremely poor people, the quality of life and vulnerability to accidents of humans have certainly degraded.

The Importance of learning about newspapers

How is learning about newspapers and newsworthiness important? Sure, they may have resulted in one looking at newspapers differently, for example, being more critical when reading tabloids, due to the fact that tabloids aim to be as sensational as possible in order to attract its customers. However, is that really important? Furthermore, what is the point of learning that the news that one reads has gone through a series of "checks", that the news must be recent, the people involved should be rather well known, and that there must be a relevant and important impact?

Firstly, learning about newspapers will allow us to be better able to understand what we want to read, and buy the newspaper that we want. Some people have no clue about what they truly want to read about, thus, they buy great amounts of newspapers and end up only just reading one page of each newspaper. Tabloids and Broadsheets have different focuses and different tones. So, if, for example, a person mainly wants to read about articles that would interest him, not necessarily sensational news, but wants to buy at least one paper a day in order to keep up with current events, that person could buy tabloids on weekdays, unless an interesting event happens which that person would like to read in detail, and buy broadsheets on days when there are feature articles, usually the weekends. A greater understanding of newspapers will also result in a greater understanding of how the world works, as the different advertising styles of the different types of newspapers which target different audiences display clearly the prejudice behind each person's mind, which is manifested consciously, or subconsciously.

Next, learning about newsworthiness will allow us to better understand what people want. Newsworthiness is not just about attracting people to read newspapers, it is also about attracting people in general. People are not just interested in sensational news, people are also interested in sensational people, sensational products, sensational food, et cetera. The extent of the fame of the people involved affects newsworthiness, however, the more famous a brand is, the more expensive a branded product is! Newsworthiness comprises of many factors which humans are interested in, and is the essence of what humans what. A greater understanding of newsworthiness will allow a person to be more successful in promoting products, promoting oneself and persuading people.

In conclusion, the things we learn are always important, no matter how small their importance may be. Learning about newspapers and newsworthiness may seem to be pointless at first other than getting to know how the news industry works, but in actual fact, the applications of this knowledge is much more than just that.

Different types of newspapers

What is the difference between broadsheet and tabloid newspapers? Does one always deal with more respectable news / produce more professional journalism than the other? Are there in-between types of newspapers?

Broadsheet and tabloid newspapers have quite a number of differences. Firstly, broadsheets are larger, usually about twice the size of a tabloid newspaper. An example of a broadsheet in Singapore is The Straits Times, whereas an example of a tabloid in Singapore is Today. Broadsheets usually tend to report more respectable news and produce more professional journalism than tabloids, which focus more on sensational news. A broadsheet tends to focus more on articles which are more important and relevant to our daily lives, for example, new policies being enforced by the government. As a result, much more details, points of views, et cetera are reported in a broadsheet. In contrast, a tabloid focuses less on important news. If a law was being passed by the government, it would usually only occupy one page of a tabloid, whereas it may cover three to four pages in a broadsheet. The tone of a tabloid is also much less formal and less factual, tending to use slangs and colloquial terms more frequently then broadsheets. Broadsheets are more often than not read by people living in the suburbs, especially those more affluent and educated, as the news it covers have more relevance to them, and because they would be more interested in current events going on in the world. In contrast, tabloids are more usually read by the working class, which are easier to carry and read when going to work on buses and trains. Broadsheet, generally being more upper-class, also tend to have fewer and more subtle pictures, as well as a plainer layout (less colourful, smaller words, et cetera), making it look clean and thus, being better able to attract its main target audience. Tabloids, generally being for the lower social classes, tend to have more pictures, more colour and bold typeface in order to make it look more dramatic and more sensational, thus appealing to its main target audience.

However, there are some exceptions to these generalizations. Some tabloids such as New York Daily News deal with respectable news which has in fact won 10 Pulitzer Prizes. Also, from this analysis, one can find that prejudice exists everywhere and is so common that it manifests itself in the formatting of newspapers. From the way publishers design their newspapers to attract its main target audience, prejudice can clearly be seen. For example, the fact that tabloids have more sensational news and a bolder layout suggests that the working class is ignorant of global and important affairs, as well as that the working class “judges a newspaper by its cover”. In contrast, the broadsheet that is plainer, more in-depth and has more important regional and global affairs being reported suggests that those in the upper-class have a finer culture and are more intellectual and more understanding of global events.

From Learning to Experiencing

How has learning about newsworthiness and types of news articles (straight news articles and feature articles in different sections of the newspaper) affected the way you read newspapers?

Learning about the different types of articles and newspapers has led me to be more critical about what I read. For example, when reading a tabloid, I now know that I have to be more critical of what it says. Tabloids tend to report on more sensational news, thus they may leave out some important information in order to make the article more interesting. Thus, when reading tabloids, when has to be more critical of its information and not believe everything it says. However, when one is looking for a light an interesting read, and just wants to de-stress, one can try reading tabloids. When reading straight news articles, it is much more believable, however, the news may not be as sensational. Even if the news has some sensational factor, the factual tone will make someone looking for a light read bored rather easily. When reading a straight news article, one truly has to be interested in the topic. If the particular topic is given extensive coverage, many details will be often repeated, which puts off disinterested readers. Thus, one truly has to be interested in the topic before reading the news article. The main focus of feature articles is not really about current events. Instead, it is about interesting topics which have become more important over the ages, or it may also be a commemoration for an important event’s anniversary. Feature articles will appeal to a wider range of readers, due to its storytelling style, which usually induces a certain sense of suspense. Feature articles also usually talk about topics which are extremely relevant to people’s daily lives, such as prejudice. Even topics such as a country’s 100^th anniversary will be a break from all the other articles which are almost similar every day, that it will be a welcome break for disinterested readers.

Learning about newsworthiness has also made me realise that events are reported due to their importance, as well as due to how interesting the event reported is. Thus, I have realised that it is important to truly read a newspaper instead of just skimming over it. Previously, I had thought that half the articles in a newspaper were uninteresting, while the other half was of no relevance to me. However, after learning about newsworthiness, I have realised that many articles inside are actually very relevant to my daily life, and the only reason why they are uninteresting is because they have to be factual in order to get their message to readers clearly.

Racism - more than just what it seems

Racial Prejudice is one of the themes in To Kill A Mockingbird (TKAM), and one of the major themes that have been discussed. However, what has been discussed thus far has been mainly about white supremacy, which is the prejudice of white people against Blacks, as well as racial purity, which is the discrimination of all other races by one race. In general terms, racism is the belief that a certain race possesses certain characteristics and traits which make it inferior or superior to another. However, racism has become so common in the present context that terms such as “horizontal racism”, “reverse racism” and “internalized racism” have come up. In order to keep up to date, where the severity white supremacy and racial purity as forms of racism have lessened somewhat, I shall be talking about these other forms of racism.

Firstly, reverse racism. Reverse racism is basically racism against the majority group. For example, in a context with white people and Blacks, reverse racism would be racism practiced by the Blacks against the white people. However, even though the minority race is able to practice racism on the majority race, which most minority races probably do as a result of racism practiced on them by the majority race. However, even as the minority races try to make a stand for themselves by practicing reverse racism, they do not have the power to do so. Sure, they may be able to take a gun and shoot several people from the majority race; however, they do not have the power to practice discrimination without being arrested, such as allowing more people of a certain race have privileges like being given priority for a job. Also, by practicing racism themselves, the minority race would also be spreading a bad image of themselves, thus increasing the severity of prejudice practiced by the majority race.

Next, horizontal racism. Horizontal racism is racism practiced by a minority race against another minority race. For example, in Singapore, racism practiced by an Indian person against a Malay person would be horizontal racism. Horizontal racism occurs mainly because of two reasons. Firstly, the minority race practising horizontal racism would want to feel more powerful, instead of just being prejudiced against by the majority race, thus, they would practice racism on the other minority race. Horizontal racism also occurs because the racism practised by the majority group on the minority group may have resulted in generalizations and views being rubbed off on the other minority races, thus, these other races would also be racist against the minor-minority group.

Lastly, internalized racism. Internalized racism is similar to horizontal racism, except in this case, it is even worse, if possible. Internalized racism is when a minority race believes that that the majority race is superior, and thus, practice racism against one's own race. For example, in a western context, a Black choosing to hire white people rather than black people, even if they have the same credentials, is internalized racism. Internalized racism is practically admitting defeat, by believing that they are truly inferior. However, this may be due to the fact that the minority race have been exposed to racism against them for such a long time that it becomes ingrained in their mindset, so much so that they practise racism against their own race.

In my opinion, even though there are so many forms of racism, the root of the problem is still the same. Instead of judging people based on other people's opinions, one should instead not be bias and let a person prove for himself what he or she truly is capable of.

Social Media

What is social media? Social media includes anything from videos to posts on websites such as wikis and blogs. Social media has allowed the common man on the street to tell other people about his experiences, or also to tell readers and viewers about interesting things that the person has seen. Another common form of social media in Singapore is the Straits Times Online Mobile Print, or STOMP for short. It is mainly used in Singapore to comment about short pieces of sensational news, including bad behavior displayed by Singaporeans.

Social Media provides a lot of advantages. It allows people to share their feelings and experiences to people. Thus, this will allow them to release their emotions and be heard. This apparent attention will result in the person feeling better, resulting in that person’s emotional security. It also allows people to find out more about the things happening in Singapore, and when the person realizes how easily bad behavior is reported onto STOMP, the person will try to improve his behavior, thus resulting in an improvement in Singapore’s image. Also, social media will promote active citizenship. Those using social media such as STOMP, when trying to find out bad behavior in Singapore, will actively seek out those with bad behavior, thus, they would be active citizens in Singapore by seeking out people who would bring a bad reputation to Singapore and publicizing in order to lessen such bad behavior from occurring again. Thus, they would help improve Singapore’s image.

However, these advantages may also have disadvantageous side effects. Firstly, if a great amount of bad behavior is shared through social media, and foreigners find out about them, it would ruin Singapore’s image. They would have a bad impression of Singapore, which, when viewed practically, would result in less tourists coming to Singapore, thus, decreasing profits for Singapore. Even if foreigners do not find out about it, many groups of people would be affected, because an individual does not represent himself, but represents his organization. If a foreigner reads about a man-on-the-street behaving badly, Singapore’s image will be ruined. If an Indian behaves badly, it will result in prejudice against the Indian community. If a student behaves badly, it would affect his or her school’s reputation. This all will result in unjustified prejudice against the organization. Furthermore, the person in question behaving badly, may not even view this particular post about his bad behavior. After all, there are tons of users using social media, and the person in question definitely will not visit all of them and find out that he or she had behaved badly.

What I think that users of social media in order to report sensational incidents should instead inform the person about his or her bad behavior instead of just reporting about it. This will prevent the person from being a hypocrite who just points out other people’s bad behavior but does not correct them. The person may still want to report about the incident, but if he added that he had corrected the person on his or her bad behavior, would that not instead make him be seen in a better light? Through actually correcting the person, the witness would also be targeting at the root of the problem and help reduce the problem of bad behavior in Singapore, thus that would truly help Singapore instead of just witnessing the incident and doing nothing about it.

The General Elections of Singapore, 2011

The recently over General Elections 2011 in Singapore has seen intense competition, the opposition putting up a stronger fight than ever. The People’s Action Party (PAP), had not seen such strong opposition for such a long time. As many said, this was a watershed election. For one, a Group Representative Constituency (GRC), has been wrested from the control of the PAP, the GRC being Aljunied GRC. Many before uncontested GRCs, such as the Bishan – Toa Payoh GRC, which has not been contested since its formation in 1997, were being contested. Votes for the PAP generally, dropped, with only two constituencies with an increase in votes – Potong Pasir Single Member Constituency (SMC) and Ang Mo Kio GRC, and only one walkover, Tanjong Pagar GRC. Whereas the PAP had attained 75.3% of Singaporean’s votes in 2001, it has dropped to 60.1% in this election. What went wrong?

Firstly, the quality of the candidates of the opposition has improved. An opposition member such as Chen Show Mao has been described as with having “credentials like no other that we have seen”. Many government scholars have also chosen to join the opposition parties, stating reasons such as that they “truly want to help the residents”. The qualities of speakers in opposition parties have also increased, for example, Mr. Benjamin Pwee of the Singapore People’s Party. Opposition parties also used social media such as Facebook in order to attract more fans. This has managed to sway quite a number of young first-time voters, who make up a large portion of Singaporean voters.

Next, the PAP has also been blamed for being too arrogant and stuck-up, and not caring about resident’s needs. The PAP has used the policy of estate upgrading as an incentive for voters, however, with many estates already upgraded, the residents seemed to have gotten tired of this bait. Furthermore, residents are dissatisfied that their opinions were not considered when upgrading the estates, for example, some residents were not given the choice to decide which colour they wanted their flats to be painted. The oppositions’ similar slogans to be the residents’ voice in the Parliament has drawn many voters to vote for them, as many Singaporeans are dissatisfied that they are not given the right to consider a policy before it is implemented. Thus, voters believe that with more opposition in the Parliament, policies that do not benefit anyone but the PAP will be questioned and thus, policies implemented in Singapore would be more beneficial to Singaporeans.

However, I think that some voters have not truly considered what the PAP has done before voting, and instead voted blindly. Some people merely think that just because the PAP is arrogant and self-centered, all that they have done is to implement policies that have only benefitted the PAP, thus whatever the PAP has done is wrong and the opposition should take its place. This is a wrong way of thinking, because the PAP has truly done a lot for Singapore. Perhaps they are becoming more complacent, but they have been effective in managing Singapore. Voters should sit back and think, which is probably what the cooling-off day is for, and consider both points of view carefully before reaching a decision. The standard of PAP may have been lackluster in the recent years, but what they need is just a wake-up call, and not an overthrow of the current government. After all, with sudden changes in the government and policies, foreign investors would be less confident and decide to withdraw their investments from Singapore, thus resulting in a financial crisis in Singapore which would definitely affect many people in Singapore negatively.

The Maycomb Tribune - Article on the death of Mrs. Dubose

The Maycomb Tribune - Dubose Dies Dreadful Death