The Workers’ Party won Aljunied GRC because they offered hope to a new generation tired of the pragmatism of the People’s Action Party policies.
Your Singapore Icons
Our highly-tamed national lions are increasingly being used as canvases by artists. Is Singapore really loosening up and letting them into the wild?
It may be YourSingapore, but not your Merlion. While the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) website encourages you to create your own version of Singapore, try using the Merlion symbol (or even a close representation of it) without permission and be prepared to be fined up to $2000 or even jailed for six months.
Other than the state flag and crest, the Merlion is the only Singapore symbol that receives such heavy protection from the authorities. Created in 1964 as the tourism board’s corporate logo, the Merlion became a “Singapore symbol” eight years later when a close to eight metres tall statue was installed at the mouth of the Singapore river. The hope was that the Merlion would come to represent this island “just as the Eiffel Tower is identified with Paris.” This has since led to this part-fish part-lion becoming a symbol of all things Singapore to tourists, appearing on T-shirts, keychains and even chocolates. By setting itself as the national icon, it has also become a lightning rod for artists dealing with the Singapore identity — and was itself struck by lighting in 2009, damaging its luscious mane.
Elections Posters: The People’s Version
With the advent of image-editing tools like Photoshop and the ease of finding images online, Singaporeans have created some very interesting visuals to express their views on the General Elections this year. Here’s a sample of some I’ve found so far:
Remiser Tan has retold the elections via the Chinese wuxia classic《倚天屠龙记》The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber:
Nicholas Lim has remade Hollywood and Chinese blockbuster movies to dramatise the opposition’s cause, very apt choices, I must say.
Mr Brown has also translated his satirical voice into visuals, making use of the form of motivational posters and comics (click to see the actual posts)
So far, I’ve yet to find any self made posters supporting the PAP’s cause. I suppose most people think the party has more than enough resources, so why bother?
Here are also two websites that have been producing a body of political cartoons about Singapore, a rare find these days. Check out Joshua Chiang’s The Dunno Cartoons and Ben Soon’s Spore Says Political Cartoon.
Finally, if you’ve come across any self made election visuals that I’ve yet to feature, do share them here!