I Quit Being a Full-time Political Activist
Sorry guys, since I started making political videos back in 2015, the average time I’ve spent making political content is 1 month every 3 years. So I do care about politics, but not that much. I thought it might change when I came back to Singapore, but after 1 month of creating political content, I got bored and started doing other kinds of content. I’m clearly not willing to do the work needed to start a Singapore revolution and topple the PAP dictatorship.
And what really isn’t my thing, is executing the plans that I thought were needed to start a political movement, like setting up meetup groups, training people mentally to conduct a public protest etc. (you can read about the full plans I had here). So all the political meetups and organisations I started weeks ago, are now cancelled.
I could do all of that well, and all those things are important, but it’s just not something I personally care enough about to do. If I’m not interested enough to do something, it’s not the thing I should be doing that will bring the most value to people.
So yes, extremely sorry I misled a lot of people. I’ll still occasionally talk about politics, I might even march, publicly protest and get myself arrested for the millionth time if there’s a great opportunity. I just won’t be the person to work full time and directly organise and conduct mass public protests in Singapore.
And people might be disappointed, but really, based on the amount of work I put in, I haven’t done enough work in politics to even be considered a full-time or even a part-time job. Creating political blog posts and videos have basically just been a hobby (and not even one of my more popular hobbies).
Yet I’ve had more media attention and political influence than 98% of political activists and politicians in Singapore. Topics like having freedom of speech or removing national service were not discussed at all, until I got myself arrested and spoke up on those issues, and now they’re widely discussed. The discussion will eventually lead to public protests which will lead to changes in laws, so you can thank me next time (or just thank me now).
I’ve identified the 6 most important political issues in Singapore that people should prioritise that will affect elections, they are Freedom of Expression, Cheaper Cost of Living Through Taxing the Rich, Removing National Service, Less Painful Education, Less Painful Work, and finally: Equal Rights for Malays and Indians . The key to political change in Singapore is getting tens of thousands of people to be willing to publicly protest on the streets and get themselves arrested. And there needs to be consistent meetup groups, lessons and an entire program to train people to be willing to protest nonviolently. I strongly believe the plans will work, people just have to execute it, and I just don’t care enough to be one of those people (though if someone competent executes it and wants me to give the occasional speech, meetup or protest, I might be down).
So in terms of dreams and career-wise, what am I planning to do now? I’m frankly not entirely sure. Right now I’m just creating content on whatever I want, and I’ve started charging 200 dollars to people who want me to provide life advice
Maybe I’ll stumble upon a subject I’ll focus most of my attention on, or maybe this is already enough, who knows. Whatever I do is intelligent and fun, so you’ll still hear about it. Regardless, I’m happy and contributing to society. Life is good.