Post GE 2011 Analysis – Introduction

One month after the General Elections, Singapore is now gearing up for its next elections – the Presidential Elections. Now that the heat for the parliamentary elections has been turned down somewhat, this is the best time for rational discourse on the performance of individual parties and the challenges each party faces in the future election. This post will be divided into 4 parts, focusing on the People’s Action Party, the Worker’s Party, the Singapore Democratic Party (the 2 main opposition parties in this writers view), the National Solidarity Party and the Singapore People’s Party (the parties with vast potential to grow). As this writer did not follow the performance of the Singapore Democratic Alliance/Singapore Justice Party and Reform Party there will not be a post regarding the performance of these two parties.

Politics is not a game, that much is true and Singapore has been blessed in that the years preceding and after Independence in that it had a serious (some would say excessively so) government. At that time of development, Singapore faced a serious challenge from the militant Malayan Communist Party and elements that were supportive of its militant actions spun around communal action. Politics was a matter of life and death, and an authoritative government was needed at that time.

In the generations past, Singapore required strong leadership at the top (something the other 3 tigers of Asia did not because of the external support they received from various countries). A time has arrived in the political history of Singapore that this writer would contend requires Singapore to move from a one-party dominant parliament to one with multiple voices in parliament. Some say that the PAP caused this state of affairs, yet what cannot be argued was that the Barisan Socialis (essentially a PAP breakaway faction) walked out of parliament and left the field to the PAP.

Singapore is a clearly capitalist state and has also been one since her early days. From the time Singapore was Temasek under the Malacca Sultanate to when she was a crown colony under the British Empire, even today Singapore survival is dependent on being open to the world. Unlike the 1950s and 60s she will not be falling into communism anytime soon. Communal politics will only destroy Singapore, and where would Singaporeans go? Most Singaporeans know only this island nation and nowhere else, unlike their fore-fathers who were immigrants from another society. The basic tenets of society are not the issue questioned – race-based politics, religious based politics are not something anyone in Singapore will even contemplate at least publically, in part due to the success of the national propaganda. The battle of the soul of the country is not what the politics of Singapore now demands, it is now a battle for the head and heart of the country.

The clear path to future success is no clearer, Singapore is now travelling the path that all other developed nations are feeling their way around. Singapore needs to have ideas debated and suggested from all parts of society so that the most considered view can light the path in the dark road ahead. The Singapore model was a blueprint for success from third world to first, but the same blueprint cannot be used when required to thrive in the first world. What is undeniable is that Singapore’s state of social and economic development now requires that different ideas are required to bring Singapore forward, different ideas along the same tenets of society.

To this end, this writer finds its extremely important that any serious political party sees its aims as getting into parliament as a serious political party in opposition, with the view of taking over as government of the country. A serious political party is one that seeks to promote the national agenda (of how to bring the country forward) over the communal and that adheres to the fundamental ideals as pledged every day in schools. This writer’s analysis of each party’s performance will therefore be guided by this paradigm.

Part One – The Worker’s Party

Part Two – Singapore Democratic Party

Part Three – Singapore People’s Party and National Solidarity Party

Part Four – People’s Action Party