And so in a few days, we will know who will lead that big, powerful country – either Joe the Plumber’s fan or the Salleh Yaacob lookalike. I have never been so fixated with an election, not even when I was covering it as a journalist – until now. Growing up in Singapore, an election is a boring event of seeing the main party spewing rhetorics of ‘more good years’, when the hammer is seen as the devil and the lightning as the saving grace. Singapore was ruled by a major party for so long and so successfully, that it is hard to fathom the idea of an opposition. And when we did open our minds and let them in, the gap of quality politicians between the major party and the opposition is so wide – that I wonder when they will ever catch up.
Anyway, this post is not about Singapore. It is about the US, and Canada – a place I now call home. I was never introduced to the concept of optional voting until I move here. I never knew you can choose not to register yourself as a voter , and therefore not vote.
Coming from a law-abiding society, and I really mean law-abiding in its full glory – voting is a given in Singapore. You go for the rallies, read all the pro-major-party articles written in the media, squeeze your brains by an ounce to make an intelligent judgement – and end up still voting for the major party anyway. That is the drill. For decades.
So when you have an election that someone told me is a cross between Survivor and American Idol, you get hooked. CNN or ‘Senenen’ as DH and I fondly call it now, is on in our apartment at breakfast, before dinner, during dinner, and after dinner. On some days when we are not disciplined, the station is on right after Fajar prayers, just before breakfast. We were so hooked to the US elections that the Canadian one, which was two weeks ago – came and swiftly went. DH almost treat it like a chore, I would too if I had to vote. The day of the Canadian election, DH arrived home from work at 6.30 pm, half an hour before voting closes. He then rushed out with me tailing behind and reach the voting centre at 6.45 pm. Then he realised he went to the wrong centre, and we sped to another voting centre hurriedly. He casted his vote just five minutes before voting closes. And he was not the last one.
When we reached home, we were back into the Senenen world. Sometimes we do remember that we were supposed to switch on CBC instead to catch up on who won the Canadian election, but we were not loyal to the Canadian networks. Senenen was like dope. Shame on us.
And so like everyone else, I am waiting with bated breath for this US election to be over. I want to go back to my non-Senenen addiction days. I need to flush this US elections out of my system. It makes me worry that when we do manage to peel ourselves from the TV, we end up reading Huffington Post instead.
I do believe this US elections addiction is becoming unhealthy. I need to get back to the OTHER addiction. That little-do where 10 men run around on skates, chasing each other with sticks.
The hockey season has started and I need to be loyal to the true, non-partisan president called The Puck.