Again, I shall start off with a disclaimer. My personal profile is here, and i am no professional politician.
I do not support any party, and neither do I want to take sides in Singapore Political landscape(at least not in this blog post).
But what i do want to do, is to consolidate some of the more interesting and commonly used words in politics, and yet sometimes, we don't understand them.
So here goes:
Incumbent
Current Office Holders. Most of the incumbents are from PAP, and some part are WP.
Not all words with 'cum' in it are bad.
The Lighning Party
People Action Party (PAP)
The Hammer Party
Worker Party(WP)
The Ice cream logo Party
SingFirst Party. No shit, people thinks that their logo resemble Walls Ice Cream.
RP
Reform Party, not to be confused with Republic Polytechnic.
AHPETC
Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council. The Town council that combines all of WP controlled Constituency.
GRC
Group Representative Constituency. A team of people you would require to choose, which must consist of at least one minority race. You would be required to vote the whole team in, even though only one of them will be serving your region.
SMC
Single Member Constituency. One person you would require to vote for to represent you in the parliament.
Minority Race/Ethnics
Anybody who is non-chinese, in the case of Singapore.
Hara-kiri
To commit suicide when you do something wrong or dishonorable. usually only done by samurais.
Used in one parliament speech to ask people to step down after their wrongdoings.
Co-Driver
A person who is sitting beside the driver, to help the driver and "slap him awake" if the driver falls asleep.
Used in 2011, to call for more oppositions to be in the parliament to keep the Incumbent on their toes.
Mandate
Has nothing to do with man nor dates(English is a profound langauge).
To give someone the vote of confidence.
In this case, to ask for mandate is to ask for vote of confidence to the team.
Accountability
This is a pretty big word. It is to be responsible for something. Similar to accountable.
Loony Fringe
Used to describe a group of Activists for doing crazy stuffs. No names shall be named.
Suicide Squad
In the context of this election, it would mean a team of people with no chance of winning, and yet contesting for the sake of participation points, which could possibly cost them their $15k election deposit.
Anchor Minister/Man/veteran
A term used to describe the most influential person, the vote magnet and the team leader of the GRC. If it is an incumbent team, it is usually a current Cabinet Minister, hence the term Anchor Minister.
Gerrymandering
Manipulation of boundaries of the constituency to one's favour.
Manifesto
A published set of declaration, motives or views of a person or a party.
Dangling Carrots
Sorry guys, but no physical carrots are involved.(ENGLISH)
To provide benefits to attract you to support or vote for them.
Gutter Journalism
To do put it bluntly, it just meant shit journalism; journalism to sensationalized,instead of educate.
Reporting of half truths or rumours are considered gutter journalism because journalism is supposed to be "fair and unbiased and truthful"
Nomads
A group of people with no place they call home. An analogy to describe opportunists who would call any place their "home", so long there are benefits.
Orh Luak
Oyster Omelette. Seriously, I dont know how can this even be politicized.
FMSS
FM solutions and services. The people who are managing AHPETC.
Paper General
A term to describe Army General that have never gone to war.
MSM
Mainstream Media, pointing to state controlled media, and in Singapore's case, SPH and MediaCorp.
Sedition
This one big word that is kinda hard to explain.
To create a commotion of discontent against someone. Machiam like defame a person.
Grassroots leaders
Nothing to do with grass nor roots(ENGLISH AGAIN)
A person who is on the ground with the people to understand the problems faced and then help to do something about it.
IB
Internet Brigade. A team of keyboard warriors whose job is to discredit opponents.They usually act as if they are a supporter who was disappointed of the party they support, and want to support alternatives. Posts like (I used to support party A, but they disappointed me, and now I will support party B) are usually ASSUMED to be written by IB.
Hansard
Hansard is the traditional name of the transcripts of Parliamentary Debates.
This word sibei chim....
Alright,
That is all for now!
