GE2025: Cool down, consider, and cut through campaign fog

In the flurry of rallies, walkabouts and online noise, it's easy to lose sight of what's at stake. Time for some reflection.

- Mubin Saadat

Who is standing in your constituency? That was the question I overheard in a conversation between adults. Sheepish laughter followed the answer: "I only know the minister..."

A reasonable state of cluelessness at the onset of the hustings — especially in an election campaign that saw strategic shifts and a record number of fresh faces. By now, the hope is for greater familiarity — not just with the names on the posters, but with what each candidate and party has put on the table.

By the end of May 1, the curtain will fall on more than a week of fervent campaigning, with voters across Singapore treated to the full spectacle of democracy in action, after a decade.

Walkabouts, rallies, fiery speeches and impassioned appeals delivered under floodlights, through downpour or in the sweltering heat. Party flags fluttered and horns blared as candidates took to the stages to exhort, cajole and — at least in one instance — even plead for enough votes to retain their deposits.

It was politics delivered at breakneck speed — a blur of seriousness laced with pantomime.

The rhetoric grew sharper as the finish line approached, with barbs turning personal and the back-and-forths taking on a more combative edge. The terms "negative politics" and "negative attacks" entered the fray.

As the campaign reaches its noisy crescendo, Cooling-off Day on May 2 offers the electorate a chance to do what we might be doing less of in the heat of campaigning: to think. Not feel, not react, not cheer or jeer — but consider more deeply what would make a strong and effective government.