While taking a break from studying, I decided to watch the first 10 minutes of the forum. After listening to all 6 of them, these are my opinion on the 6 speakers and what it reflects on their respective parties.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam (PAP)
 Firstly, he spent too much time on unimportant stuff. In such a debate, you have limited time to bring your points across and although he had double the time of each of the opposition speakers, there was not much on proposed policies. If this was an essay, I would say he spent too much time on the introduction paragraph and rushed on the main body.

The first point brought up was to create better jobs by working with the businesses and unions to provide better pay and improve the quality of work. There was a lot of unnecessary repetition on how this is for all Singaporeans, which includes the average and the lower end of jobs. I was left unsatisfied due to the lack of direction on how he intended to create these better jobs. Was he thinking of an incentives system for business? Was he thinking of legislative minimum salaries for different types of jobs?

The second point brought up was to create one of the best education systems in the world by financially investing in the education system so that students have the opportunities to be the best regardless of ability. Once again, besides suggesting to begin by investing financially, he does not bring up how he intends to do that. More streaming at different levels (like at primary 1?), or less streaming? More subjects to be introduced or cut? Different system of grading?

The last point brought up was investing in the elderly so that they can live long and good lives through investing significantly in long term care. This seemed the most promising of his points but was cut short by his lack of time.

Overall, he provided a moderate amount of what, an (at times) excessively redundant amount of why, and very lacking in how. If I were to grade him based on this 2 minutes, he would get a 13/30 for content, 8/10 for delivery, 4/5 for language and 1/5 for time management for a total score of 26/50, a "barely passed" score.

Mr Mohamed Nazem Suki (SDA)

My overall impression of him was that he had some good ideas, but due to problems in delivery, a lot of them is lost. Unlike Tharman Shanmugaratnam who has many such speaking opportunities before, this lack of experience speaking at such a platform resulted in a perceived lack of confidence and an incomplete transference of ideas.

His main point was that for Singapore to remain a credible competitor in the global market, Singapore has to invest in new niche markets. He proposed the use of new technology to compensate for the reducing supply of fossil fuels as a means for energy. Like Tharman Shanmugaratnam, he repeats himself several times, however, it is most likely due to nerves (whereas Tharman Shanmugaratnam was trying to emphasize that the proposed idea was to benefit all Singaporeans). There was a good development of idea, and I was for more satisfied with this point, than with any of Tharman Shanmugaratnam's three points.

His second point was to invest in (younger) workers to become more innovative, to "come up with more than one unique answer". While he roughly spent 20 seconds on this point, I was slightly surprised by the lack of development of this idea.

Overall, he had one good point and one very unsatisfactory point. Delivery was not very smooth and language was fair. If I were to grade him based on this minute, he would get a 16/30 for content, 4/10 for delivery, 2.5/5 for language and 2.5/5 for time management for a total score of 25/50, another "barely passed" score.

Dr Vincent Wijeysingha

With articles like "SDP emerged clear winner in CNA political forum", as well as friends saying that SDP was quite well represented in this forum, I had high expectations that was sadly not lived up to. He comes across as a good orator with a very good vocabulary and delivery, but severely lacking in substance.

He spends all the allocated time picking out some of the problems facing Singaporeans today, but only a vague shadow of an idea on how to tackle some of these problems. the only thing that I felt came close to being an idea, was when he mentioned the need for Singapore to have policies that were "Constructive, Competent but also Compassionate". It is either he mistakenly thought he had all the time in the world (as opposed to the 1 minute he actually had) and did not have enough time to bring up what were some of his ideas of constructive, competent but also compassionate policies, or he is all fluff and no substance. I really hope he brings his game for the rest of the forum.

If I were to grade him based on this minute, he would get a 4/30 for content, 9/10 for delivery, 5/5 for language and 2.5/5 for time management for a total score of 20.5/50.


Mrs Lina Chiam (SPP)
 
Completely opposite to Vincent Wijeysingha, she has so many points, but with a halting delivery with very poor transitions between points. With an astounding 10 points delivered in under a minute, Lina's strategy seemed to be on quantity and not quality, a strategy which does not pay off in such forums.
 
The points she brought up included providing SPP as an alternative voice which led to her next point on democracy, an inclusive society, promoting racial harmony, transparency in policy making, the physical safety of Singaporeans, Singaporeans to have a stake in their country, for Singaporeans to become more gracious, compassionate and humble, as well as the creation of jobs. However, she failed to elaborate on any of them, how she proposes to achieve these, or even what some of them mean (what does it mean for Singaporeans to have a stake in their country, or what is her definition of an inclusive society as definition can vary from people to people). She spent the longest (9 seconds) on the point to develop Singapore as a financial hub by attracting foreign investors through modern technology.
 
With regards to what she proposed, I felt that some of these were meaningless to bring up as they were relevant policies already in place, like promoting racial harmony, the physical safety of Singaporeans and for Singaporeans to become more gracious, compassionate and humble. Points such as the creation of jobs was redundant as that is something every government (should) already be constantly looking at. On the whole, I felt that Lina wasted the opportunity to let us know more about her (or SPP) fresh ideas on policy-making in Singapore.
 
If I were to grade her based on this minute, he would get a 9/30 for content, 4/10 for delivery, 2/5 for language and 3/5 for time management for a total score of 18/50.
 
Mr Gerald Giam (WP)
 
He may not be the most eloquent among the five speakers, or have the most captivating delivery, but Gerald has the most substantial content among all.
 
The first point he brought up was the need for an entrepreneurial and creative economy, and he further develops it by proposing reforming the education system to achieve this, particularly during the formative years, to cultivate a love for learning, as opposed to obtaining good grades. His subsequent two points were to provide affordable but quality health care and a needs based social security net.

His allocation of time was also much better than the other four speakers. I felt that there was a good balance of what needs to be introduced, why and how. The second and third point can be further developed but is understandable due to the overall time constraint. If I were to grade her based on this minute, he would get a 20/30 for content, 6/10 for delivery, 3/5 for language and 4/5 for time management for a total score of 33/50, not yet an A, but far better than the other four speakers in my books.

1

I wander all night in my vision,
Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping and stopping,
Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers,
Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted, contradictory,
Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping.

How solemn they look there, stretch'd and still,
How quiet they breathe, the little children in their cradles.

The wretched features of ennuyes, the white features of corpses, the
livid faces of drunkards, the sick-gray faces of onanists,
The gash'd bodies on battle-fields, the insane in their
strong-door'd rooms, the sacred idiots, the new-born emerging
from gates, and the dying emerging from gates,
The night pervades them and infolds them.

The married couple sleep calmly in their bed, he with his palm on
the hip of the wife, and she with her palm on the hip of the husband,
The sisters sleep lovingly side by side in their bed,
The men sleep lovingly side by side in theirs,
And the mother sleeps with her little child carefully wrapt.

The blind sleep, and the deaf and dumb sleep,
The prisoner sleeps well in the prison, the runaway son sleeps,
The murderer that is to be hung next day, how does he sleep?
And the murder'd person, how does he sleep?

The female that loves unrequited sleeps,
And the male that loves unrequited sleeps,
The head of the money-maker that plotted all day sleeps,
And the enraged and treacherous dispositions, all, all sleep.

I stand in the dark with drooping eyes by the worst-suffering and
the most restless,
I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them,
The restless sink in their beds, they fitfully sleep.

Now I pierce the darkness, new beings appear,
The earth recedes from me into the night,
I saw that it was beautiful, and I see that what is not the earth is
beautiful.

I go from bedside to bedside, I sleep close with the other sleepers
each in turn,
I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dreamers,
And I become the other dreamers.

I am a dance--play up there! the fit is whirling me fast!

I am the ever-laughing--it is new moon and twilight,
I see the hiding of douceurs, I see nimble ghosts whichever way look,
Cache and cache again deep in the ground and sea, and where it is
neither ground nor sea.

Well do they do their jobs those journeymen divine,
Only from me can they hide nothing, and would not if they could,
I reckon I am their boss and they make me a pet besides,
And surround me and lead me and run ahead when I walk,
To lift their cunning covers to signify me with stretch'd arms, and
resume the way;
Onward we move, a gay gang of blackguards! with mirth-shouting
music and wild-flapping pennants of joy!

I am the actor, the actress, the voter, the politician,
The emigrant and the exile, the criminal that stood in the box,
He who has been famous and he who shall be famous after to-day,
The stammerer, the well-form'd person, the wasted or feeble person.

I am she who adorn'd herself and folded her hair expectantly,
My truant lover has come, and it is dark.

Double yourself and receive me darkness,
Receive me and my lover too, he will not let me go without him.

I roll myself upon you as upon a bed, I resign myself to the dusk.

He whom I call answers me and takes the place of my lover,
He rises with me silently from the bed.

Darkness, you are gentler than my lover, his flesh was sweaty and panting,
I feel the hot moisture yet that he left me.

My hands are spread forth, I pass them in all directions,
I would sound up the shadowy shore to which you are journeying.

Be careful darkness! already what was it touch'd me?
I thought my lover had gone, else darkness and he are one,
I hear the heart-beat, I follow, I fade away.

2

I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid,
Perfume and youth course through me and I am their wake.

It is my face yellow and wrinkled instead of the old woman's,
I sit low in a straw-bottom chair and carefully darn my grandson's
stockings.

It is I too, the sleepless widow looking out on the winter midnight,
I see the sparkles of starshine on the icy and pallid earth.

A shroud I see and I am the shroud, I wrap a body and lie in the coffin,
It is dark here under ground, it is not evil or pain here, it is
blank here, for reasons.

(It seems to me that every thing in the light and air ought to be happy,
Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave let him know he has enough.)

3

I see a beautiful gigantic swimmer swimming naked through the eddies
of the sea,
His brown hair lies close and even to his head, he strikes out with
courageous arms, he urges himself with his legs,
I see his white body, I see his undaunted eyes,
I hate the swift-running eddies that would dash him head-foremost on
the rocks.

What are you doing you ruffianly red-trickled waves?
Will you kill the courageous giant? will you kill him in the prime
of his middle age?

Steady and long he struggles,
He is baffled, bang'd, bruis'd, he holds out while his strength
holds out,
The slapping eddies are spotted with his blood, they bear him away,
they roll him, swing him, turn him,
His beautiful body is borne in the circling eddies, it is
continually bruis'd on rocks,
Swiftly and ought of sight is borne the brave corpse.

4

I turn but do not extricate myself,
Confused, a past-reading, another, but with darkness yet.

The beach is cut by the razory ice-wind, the wreck-guns sound,
The tempest lulls, the moon comes floundering through the drifts.

I look where the ship helplessly heads end on, I hear the burst as
she strikes, I hear the howls of dismay, they grow fainter and fainter.

I cannot aid with my wringing fingers,
I can but rush to the surf and let it drench me and freeze upon me.

I search with the crowd, not one of the company is wash'd to us alive,
In the morning I help pick up the dead and lay them in rows in a barn.

5

Now of the older war-days, the defeat at Brooklyn,
Washington stands inside the lines, he stands on the intrench'd
hills amid a crowd of officers.
His face is cold and damp, he cannot repress the weeping drops,
He lifts the glass perpetually to his eyes, the color is blanch'd
from his cheeks,
He sees the slaughter of the southern braves confided to him by
their parents.

The same at last and at last when peace is declared,
He stands in the room of the old tavern, the well-belov'd soldiers
all pass through,
The officers speechless and slow draw near in their turns,
The chief encircles their necks with his arm and kisses them on the cheek,
He kisses lightly the wet cheeks one after another, he shakes hands
and bids good-by to the army.

6

Now what my mother told me one day as we sat at dinner together,
Of when she was a nearly grown girl living home with her parents on
the old homestead.

A red squaw came one breakfast-time to the old homestead,
On her back she carried a bundle of rushes for rush-bottoming chairs,
Her hair, straight, shiny, coarse, black, profuse, half-envelop'd
her face,
Her step was free and elastic, and her voice sounded exquisitely as
she spoke.

My mother look'd in delight and amazement at the stranger,
She look'd at the freshness of her tall-borne face and full and
pliant limbs,
The more she look'd upon her she loved her,
Never before had she seen such wonderful beauty and purity,
She made her sit on a bench by the jamb of the fireplace, she cook'd
food for her,
She had no work to give her, but she gave her remembrance and fondness.

The red squaw staid all the forenoon, and toward the middle of the
afternoon she went away,
O my mother was loth to have her go away,
All the week she thought of her, she watch'd for her many a month,
She remember'd her many a winter and many a summer,
But the red squaw never came nor was heard of there again.

7

A show of the summer softness--a contact of something unseen--an
amour of the light and air,
I am jealous and overwhelm'd with friendliness,
And will go gallivant with the light and air myself.

O love and summer, you are in the dreams and in me,
Autumn and winter are in the dreams, the farmer goes with his thrift,
The droves and crops increase, the barns are well-fill'd.

Elements merge in the night, ships make tacks in the dreams,
The sailor sails, the exile returns home,
The fugitive returns unharm'd, the immigrant is back beyond months
and years,
The poor Irishman lives in the simple house of his childhood with
the well known neighbors and faces,
They warmly welcome him, he is barefoot again, he forgets he is well off,
The Dutchman voyages home, and the Scotchman and Welshman voyage
home, and the native of the Mediterranean voyages home,
To every port of England, France, Spain, enter well-fill'd ships,
The Swiss foots it toward his hills, the Prussian goes his way, the
Hungarian his way, and the Pole his way,
The Swede returns, and the Dane and Norwegian return.

The homeward bound and the outward bound,
The beautiful lost swimmer, the ennuye, the onanist, the female that
loves unrequited, the money-maker,
The actor and actress, those through with their parts and those
waiting to commence,
The affectionate boy, the husband and wife, the voter, the nominee
that is chosen and the nominee that has fail'd,
The great already known and the great any time after to-day,
The stammerer, the sick, the perfect-form'd, the homely,
The criminal that stood in the box, the judge that sat and sentenced
him, the fluent lawyers, the jury, the audience,
The laugher and weeper, the dancer, the midnight widow, the red squaw,
The consumptive, the erysipalite, the idiot, he that is wrong'd,
The antipodes, and every one between this and them in the dark,
I swear they are averaged now--one is no better than the other,
The night and sleep have liken'd them and restored them.

I swear they are all beautiful,
Every one that sleeps is beautiful, every thing in the dim light is
beautiful,
The wildest and bloodiest is over, and all is peace.

Peace is always beautiful,
The myth of heaven indicates peace and night.

The myth of heaven indicates the soul,
The soul is always beautiful, it appears more or it appears less, it
comes or it lags behind,
It comes from its embower'd garden and looks pleasantly on itself
and encloses the world,
Perfect and clean the genitals previously jetting,and perfect and
clean the womb cohering,
The head well-grown proportion'd and plumb, and the bowels and
joints proportion'd and plumb.

The soul is always beautiful,
The universe is duly in order, every thing is in its place,
What has arrived is in its place and what waits shall be in its place,
The twisted skull waits, the watery or rotten blood waits,
The child of the glutton or venerealee waits long, and the child of
the drunkard waits long, and the drunkard himself waits long,
The sleepers that lived and died wait, the far advanced are to go on
in their turns, and the far behind are to come on in their turns,
The diverse shall be no less diverse, but they shall flow and unite--
they unite now.

8

The sleepers are very beautiful as they lie unclothed,
They flow hand in hand over the whole earth from east to west as
they lie unclothed,
The Asiatic and African are hand in hand, the European and American
are hand in hand,
Learn'd and unlearn'd are hand in hand, and male and female are hand
in hand,
The bare arm of the girl crosses the bare breast of her lover, they
press close without lust, his lips press her neck,
The father holds his grown or ungrown son in his arms with
measureless love, and the son holds the father in his arms with
measureless love,
The white hair of the mother shines on the white wrist of the daughter,
The breath of the boy goes with the breath of the man, friend is
inarm'd by friend,
The scholar kisses the teacher and the teacher kisses the scholar,
the wrong 'd made right,
The call of the slave is one with the master's call, and the master
salutes the slave,
The felon steps forth from the prison, the insane becomes sane, the
suffering of sick persons is reliev'd,
The sweatings and fevers stop, the throat that was unsound is sound,
the lungs of the consumptive are resumed, the poor distress'd
head is free,
The joints of the rheumatic move as smoothly as ever, and smoother
than ever,
Stiflings and passages open, the paralyzed become supple,
The swell'd and convuls'd and congested awake to themselves in condition,
They pass the invigoration of the night and the chemistry of the
night, and awake.

I too pass from the night,
I stay a while away O night, but I return to you again and love you.

Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you?
I am not afraid, I have been well brought forward by you,
I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in whom I lay so long,
I know not how I came of you and I know not where I go with you, but
I know I came well and shall go well.

I will stop only a time with the night, and rise betimes,
I will duly pass the day O my mother, and duly return to you.
- Walt Whitman

Chemistry, in this Uni(versity),
Is that where, I wanna be?
With my three, best companions:
With my laptop and my (Periodic) Table and Me

Physical Chem, Sibei Jialat,
Organic, Lagi worse!
Everyday, do lab reports,
With my laptop and my (Periodic) Table and Me

(When I) ORDed, come here to study
Thought: Get degree, so happy!
But now I rather be, back in army
With my rifle and my buddy and me

Purple Light, at my finals
That is where, my CAP dies.
If I die, would you bury me
Far away from my (Periodic) Table Please!

Orchard road, Bugis Junction,
That is where I wanna be!
WHY AM I, STILL IN LIBRARY!
With my laptop and my (Periodic) Table and Me

Ok lar... After getting over it, I realized maybe I overeacted yest. Upon some investigation, I realize that the 3 or them really made very good choices that are so well matched to how they are. I know my opinion don't count for much, but for what it's worth, I raeally approve of all three of them. May this be another beginning for the three of you to grow to be even greater men of God?

Something happened yesterday, or rather i found out about three separate but sorta related pieces of news that left me really sad. despite their reassurance, or rather reassurance from one of them, i felt that i have not really done my duty and properly looked after my sheep. i felt that i really did not spend time to nurture the relationships that are important to me....

Sigh! another reminder why i think i'm not cut of for this type of stuff.... haiz~ i really was super stunned when the 2 of them asked me... i really can crawl under a rock and hide there coz really no face alr..... my 4 mentees leh! haiz~ haiz~

The evening hangs beneath the moon
A silver thread on darkened dune
With closing eyes and resting head
I know that sleep is coming soon

Upon my pillow, safe in bed
A thousand pictures fill my head
I cannot sleep my minds a flight
And yet my limbs seem made of lead

If there are noises in the night
A frighting shadow, flickering light
Then I surrender unto sleep
Where clouds of dreams give second sight

What dreams may come both dark and deep
Of flying wings and soaring leap
As I surrender unto sleep
As I surrender unto sleep