Political scandals - abundant in this age of internet, mobile telephony and 24/7 news channels - repeatedly lay bare the biggest problem plaguing developed, democratic countries: emotional attachment of the masses to political camps.
This is one of the main reasons why the West is getting so dysfunctional, and it would be a shame if Singapore followed the same path into the abyss.
Politics is not a place for emotions - neither among political leaders, ministers and parliamentarians nor the regular voters.
Many people in Singapore are suffering a terribly painful cognitive dissonance today because they find it hard to reconcile the facts of Raeesah Khan's case with how they view the Workers' Party and its leadership - who now appear to have been complicit in her lies.
Some have reached such a high state of denial that they started speculating whether RK was simply a mole planted by the PAP to destroy political opposition :)
Literally any story that will bring them emotional comfort and salvage their belief in WP is better than accepting that they have been misled not only by the newbie MP but also by the party's leaders.
This is because they have fallen in love with them, and now they are going through what spouses who have been cheated on are.
Understandably, if someone has invested years of his life supporting, in good faith, a particular political camp, praising its leadership, their world has now quite literally collapsed.
You see, if you judge politicians as you should - by hard facts, figures, evidence of tangible actions and accomplishments - then you simply evaluate their performance and, should they begin failing, exchange them for someone else. Simple.
But when you assign value to someone on the basis of their appearances, promises, slogans or values that you merely believe they represent, then finding out they're not quite as noble as you have thought is downright earth-shattering.
They have a job to do - they're not there to be loved. Performance matters only as long as it's delivered but love is forever. It's a big bet you're making on someone you don't really know well.
So, don't do it.
The problem is, of course, that many (most?) people still do - because believing a comforting lie is still better than confronting the truth that you loved the wrong people (and likely hated the wrong ones too).
To see where it leads, just look at America.
Millions keep electing left-wing officials to run their cities, states, and even the country, despite a mountain of evidence that they are inept at combating crime, keep spending money they don't have (burdening future generations with debt) or that their high taxation and bureaucracy are making lives and business activity more expensive and difficult.
But the allure of moral superiority and the belief that you're among the "good guys" who are fighting racism and inequality is simply too strong. And there's always a Republican you can blame for all the evils of this world, right? Or Donald Trump.
Just a few days ago, a 30-year-old PhD student at Columbia University in New York was randomly stabbed to death on his way home by a black criminal with a long record, who later attacked a tourist (non-fatally, fortunately) and tried robbing another man the same evening.
Yesterday thousands of Columbia students and staff organized a vigil for the slain Davide Giri - but if I were to guess what their political preferences are, I'm pretty sure 80, maybe even 90 percent would parrot the same left-wing slogans that enabled this crime to happen in the first place that it's all the fault of "white supremacy", slavery, European colonization and, likely, capitalism.
To understand just how immense this human capacity for self-delusion is, let's not forget about George Floyd.
An ex-convict with multiple substance abuse was pretty much canonized as a martyr of the "progressive" left. Violent riots became "mostly peaceful protests"; public gatherings leading to destruction and looting were being excused even by medical professionals; police were told to stand down and watch amidst a rise in calls to defund it and replace officers with social workers (lol).
Rational voters would reconsider their choices in the face of evidence - like skyrocketing murder rates, crime, looting or even human excrement left on the pavements in San Francisco.
But because politics has become so emotional, many will still vote in favour of human poo, as long as it's not someone from a different political party. It's completely bonkers.
And, for the record, I think loving PAP is as dangerous as loving WP, PSP, RP, PVP, the Democratic Party or the GOP in the US, Labour and Tories in the UK or any other anywhere in the world.
They're not your buddies, friends or spouses. They're not to be loved, they're put in charge to deliver measurably good results in areas that matter - employment, safety, economy, housing, education, infrastructure, maintenance - in a financially sustainable way.
For the same reasons, don't fall victim to ideology, no matter how good it sounds or how nice it makes you feel. Cut emotions out of politics, they're a poor advisor.
If you need to love and feel loved, get a dog.
