SINGAPORE, July 4 — Amid the sharp barbs and heavy policy debates of the hustings, a few candidates in the 2020 General Election (GE) are choosing to woo voters through poetry instead.
Since Monday (June 29), three candidates from the People’s Action Party (PAP) and the Workers’ Party (WP) have posted or recited poems that they had written themselves.
The first to do so was Poh Li San, one of the new faces from the PAP who is contesting in Sembawang Group Representation Constituency (GRC).
She penned a five-stanza poem on the PAP’s manifesto and the party’s aspiration to bring Singapore through the Covid-19 crisis.
PAP’s Amrin Amin, who has been fielded in the new Sengkang GRC, also took to Facebook yesterday to share a Malay “pantun” — a Malay poetic form — he had composed himself about his team’s promises for the residents of Sengkang.
His poem came after Fadli Fawzi of the Workers’ Party, who is standing in Marine Parade GRC, won a lot of praise online for a poem he recited in both Malay and English on Nomination Day.
Since Nomination Day, some online users have also taken his recitation and added beats to it to give it an R&B twist.
Speaking to TODAY yesterdat, Poh said that the poem came to her in the wee hours of the morning before Nomination Day as she could not sleep after drinking too much coffee.
She added that she was inspired by what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had written in the PAP manifesto and it struck her to express what she thought in the form of poetry.
“When I wrote it, it wasn’t so much to engage anyone. I just had these sudden thoughts and I wanted to put them down before I forget… I was quite surprised that there were a few responses (the next day),” she said.
Amrin said that he frequently writes poems and posts them on his Facebook page, though he stressed that he is not a professional.
“Poetry is very much part of the Malay culture where sometimes, we deliver hard messages in a very gentle way… saying things in a graceful manner, having different opinions but at the same time being civil,” he said.
“More than anything else, it is a statement of cultural pride and identity. To say that this is who we are, this is our heritage and I value and respect it, and I’m proud of it.”
TODAY has also reached out to Fadli for comment.
Voters told TODAY that they found the WP candidate’s linguistic performance refreshing especially since political speeches are usually quite serious.
Home-based baker Nurul Liyana, 31, said: “I’m so happy that our Malay candidates are doing this. Political speeches can get boring, so adding poetry into the mix makes it more fun.”
Agreeing, Syunnazry Sufriady, 27, who works in the media industry, said that though it can be a bit “cringe-worthy” for some younger voters to see politicians try their hand at penning works of art, she felt that poetry makes politics more relatable to the older generation and makes them feel included in the political scene.
Fadli’s poem also caught the attention of undergraduate student Lim Jia Ren, 24, who found it refreshing.
However, he felt that it should not be a trend for politicians to rely only on poetry to get their views across because during the GE, “people want clear messages, not to interpret prose”. — TODAY
