Many Singaporeans are disenfranchised with the ruling party which, in their eyes, are becoming inceasingly elitist, and disconnected from the people on the ground.
What would Singaporeans give to have an MP like SDP's Damanhuri Abas?
Damanhuri, a former PMET who graduated from NUS and later completed his Master's degree from NTU/NIE, is earning an honest living as a Grab driver.
He wasn't worried how becoming a Grab driver would affect his political reputation. Instead, he took this as an opportunity to get himself closer to the ground.
For him, the decision to bcome a Grab driver was worth it.
This stint has given him a view of Singapore at its raw, unfiltered, best.
It has helped to reaffirm his political convictions to "right the wrong for the common folk", who have to slog, with "no retirment in sight".
Damanhuri remarked that he "will relish the day this Grab driver stands in parliament to ask for answers from those overpaid millionaires for the many unanswered woes my countrymen patiently seeks".
What Damanhuri has done is very commendable. How many from the incumbent party will do this in a real setting? Credit must also go to SDP for not giving up on Damanhuri when he chose to be a Grab driver.
The experience is invauable. The millionaire ministers can get comfortable with the rich and famous but how many will do this. Do you even see the PAP recruiting a Grab driver as a politician?
The experiences in other democracies area very clear. Arrogant, authoritarian governments, who have forgotten their constituents have been voted out.
Will Singaporeans grab this chance that will come their way to show the kind of politicians they want to serve them?
