I’ve lived in this town called Ang Mo Kio almost my entire life. It's the kind of place where politics doesn’t feel like something you experience but part of the air. Steady, quiet, handled. The People's Action Party (PAP) does a decent job here, and for the most part, life moves on.

So when I heard that The Workers’ Party (WP) was holding a rally at Anderson Serangoon Junior College, just a 15-minute bike ride from home, I went out of sheer curiosity. I wasn't intentionally hunting for a new political voice; it was the last day of political rallies and it was a public holiday where I didn't have to work into the evenings. If you lived in my area you'd understand a broken washing machine had more substance than any opposition we've had try. So, it's just rare to see this kind of thing up close, and even rarer still where I lived. I took the one chance to go see something.

What I walked into was loud. It wasn't chaos; I'd call it conviction. People with something to say, and others who wanted to hear it. There was energy I hadn’t felt in a long time. Not since before COVID, and maybe not even then. Some were waving inflatable hammers, others held their mobile phones high. There was cheering, laughter, heckling, silence. All of it was real, unfiltered.

At one point, after darting through the crowd trying to steal a couple shots, I stood still amongst them, and I found myself wondering what it might be like to live around people like this all the time. Not because I agreed with everything said, but because of how alive it all felt. A kind of alertness. Like people remembering they’re part of something bigger than just themselves.

It wasn’t my first time feeling the weight of politics. But it was the first time I’d seen this many strangers gathered for it, this engaged, this loud.

I’m writing this a few hours after getting home, just past 1AM on May 2. I cannot post this because it's officially Cooling Off Day where political parties and voters alike are highly encouraged by law not to post anything that might seem like an endorsement or advertisement. I'm very clear what my post is about, but I'm not about to risk it especially when anybody these days will take everything to mean anything.

The last week with all the rallies, speeches, highlight videos and a smorgasbord of creative memes has cracked something open. I don't think it was very dramatic relatively; just enough to notice. Enough to care.

Country over party. I keep coming back to that. It means different things to different people. But tonight, it meant showing up, looking around, and taking it all in even if you’re not sure where you stand.

I don’t know if this changes anything for me long term, but I am finally moving away from Ang Mo Kio later this year to a home my wife and I can finally call our own, to a wholly different district for both of us, and where our votes will begin to feel even more real than ever for us both as a new unit. So I’m glad I went to this rally.

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Update: May 4, morning:

The results are in. No surprises to anyone, really. The incumbent party PAP holds on. But for a brief moment, I saw a blue sky.

And it meant something.

November 19th, 2023

November 19th, 2023

December 17th, 2022

March 26th, 2022

September 29th, 2020

Not forgotten

November 19^th, 2023

November 19^th, 2023

December 17^th, 2022

March 26^th, 2022

September 29^th, 2020