A possible public holiday that comes every 6 or 12 or 18 years or more
This seems to be phenomenon I notice during the hype over the recent possible Presidential Election in Singapore.
Well there are a lot of sounds and voices complaining about whether there is a need for such an election since we only had one election since the Law was enacted. Well I am not going to talk about it.
The interesting phenomenon is this. One of the grouses that were made because of the walkover by our present President was the cancellation of public holiday that will be declared if there was more than one eligible candidate.
Haha! Are we Singaporean so deprived of rest days? Hmmm… We have only 11 days of public holidays per year. If my memory did not fail me, we have one of the lowest numbers of public holidays in developed and developing nation. Although Singapore has implemented 5 day working week for more than half a year already, but it seems like people in the retail industry are still working the usual 6 day working week. So if a public holiday is declared, the employer will usually have to compensate the worker by giving them an extra day off or some form of monetary compensation. This is good news to the many people who are working in the retail industry. Well who would reject more rest days or more pay without working extra hours?
But are Singaporeans concerned about politics because of the public holidays that are declared if there is an election. This would really be a sad thing for the country if that is the case. Is Singaporeans concern about politics for the wrong reasons? Or is it because like I mentioned in my previous entry that since most of us do not get to vote, we lack of a sense of belonging to this land that we live on, and the only thing to look forward to in an Election is the public holiday that is declared?
This is something I read yesterday night in a Chinese Newspaper. The obvious difference between a citizen and a permanent resident is the right to vote and take part in the decision making process of the country. If that right is not exercised, does that make us any difference from permanent residents?
(By the way, I was wondering how many staff are there in the Election department? Anyone can shed some light?)
Cheers! And congratulation to our President on his second term!
Well there are a lot of sounds and voices complaining about whether there is a need for such an election since we only had one election since the Law was enacted. Well I am not going to talk about it.
The interesting phenomenon is this. One of the grouses that were made because of the walkover by our present President was the cancellation of public holiday that will be declared if there was more than one eligible candidate.
Haha! Are we Singaporean so deprived of rest days? Hmmm… We have only 11 days of public holidays per year. If my memory did not fail me, we have one of the lowest numbers of public holidays in developed and developing nation. Although Singapore has implemented 5 day working week for more than half a year already, but it seems like people in the retail industry are still working the usual 6 day working week. So if a public holiday is declared, the employer will usually have to compensate the worker by giving them an extra day off or some form of monetary compensation. This is good news to the many people who are working in the retail industry. Well who would reject more rest days or more pay without working extra hours?
But are Singaporeans concerned about politics because of the public holidays that are declared if there is an election. This would really be a sad thing for the country if that is the case. Is Singaporeans concern about politics for the wrong reasons? Or is it because like I mentioned in my previous entry that since most of us do not get to vote, we lack of a sense of belonging to this land that we live on, and the only thing to look forward to in an Election is the public holiday that is declared?
This is something I read yesterday night in a Chinese Newspaper. The obvious difference between a citizen and a permanent resident is the right to vote and take part in the decision making process of the country. If that right is not exercised, does that make us any difference from permanent residents?
(By the way, I was wondering how many staff are there in the Election department? Anyone can shed some light?)
Cheers! And congratulation to our President on his second term!
posted by Strategist at 9:50 AM
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