Post GE 2011 Analysis – Part One: The Workers Party

Pre-GE

Quiet, mysterious, yet intriguing all the same. It began with The New Paper breaking a story on Chen Show Mao as a possible candidate for the Worker’s Party. His credentials, which far outstrip even many sitting Cabinet Ministers drew a lively response from the public. Chen’s entry was then followed up by the high profile candidatures of Benjamin Pwee (SPP), Tan Jee Say & Dr Ang Yong Guan (SDP).

A common bugbear that many had of the WP was its secretiveness and responsiveness, or rather the lack of it. It was possibly even more secretive in the run up to the GE than the ruling PAP and its response to media queries was slow in coming. The only time the WP was prompted to respond faster was when the PAP began a barrage of attacks on its manifesto, attacks led by Mah Bow Tan (then Minister for National Development) and K Shanmugam (the Minister for Law and Home Affairs), which even then came in the form of written rebuttals signed by members of the WP CEC.

What was notable was the discipline shown in the Worker’s Party right from the start. There was no loud outburst like that by Sin Kek Tong on Chiam See Tong (both SPP)[1], there was no mass exodus like that led by Tony Tan and Hazel Poa (both NSP) from the Reform Party[2], there was little public wrangling for seats with other parties unlike Goh Meng Seng (NSP). In fact the only response the WP would manage to the horse-trading of constituencies would be a terse ‘we will discuss this with the other parties directly’. During the televised interview and public forums in the run up to the elections, the Workers Party’s two big name members Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim were not chosen to represent the party, rather younger members like Gerald Giam and Koh Choon Yong represented the party. This was obviously a bid to be de-link the WP identity with Low or Lim and to further strengthen the WP brand. Giam and Koh put up credible performances and unsurprisingly did not sway very far from the party line (they did not impose their personality on the debate unlike usual Singapore politics), in fact a detailed look at the WP message in the televised forum on both the English and Mandarin channels would show that the message both members had were exactly the same.

As the WP began to unveil its candidates for the elections, another interesting trait emerged; each candidate was drawn from the ranks of the party and not a new member. The newest member to the party from its slate of candidates would seem to be its candidate for Joo Chiat SMC, current NCMP Yee Jenn Jong who even then was with the party for 3 months. This in contrast to the other opposition parties and even the PAP some of whose candidates were merely a few days in as party members. One could surmise that length of service was a barometer of loyalty, sincerity and teamwork for the party leadership in its decision to field candidates and obviously a key reason for party discipline.

The organisation of the WP was another surprise amplified by the fact that WP members were first in line to book rally slots ahead of even the PAP machinery.

GE 2011

A description that could be used on the Worker’s Party’s GE performance is disciplined teamwork. It was notable that every member ended his speech with the party tagline – Towards a First World Parliament – and rarely did a candidate speak outside this framework. The WP as an election team also displayed some very impressive teamwork if one does a cursory study of the way the quality of speech was divided between the team members.

The Worker’s Party had discovered powerful rabble-rousers (if that is a suitable term in the otherwise staid affair of Singapore politics) in Png Eng Huat and Pritam Singh; Eric Tan was the go-to man for speeches that gave vent against the PAP, Sylvia Lim and Low Thia Khiang were the main persons who volleyed attacks and returns to the PAP, while Gerald Giam and Yee Jenn Jong spent relatively more time explaining policy proposals that the WP had. A disturbing point was the lack of focus in hard policies (the WP was in effect responding to the PAP rather pushing its policies) at the rallies, the call to a first world parliament seemed more important than expounding on its party policies, it succeeded in setting the agenda for the elections but ideals cannot be the agenda at every election.

The popularity of the Workers Party as the main alternative to the PAP also showed itself this elections. The News Paper had conducted a survey which (in short) showed the big 3 political parties in Singapore to be the PAP, WP and SDP in that order. A survey was also conducted by an Australian firm UMR that showed the Workers Party almost neck-in-neck in terms of brand recognition with the PAP. The Worker’s Party was also regularly outstripping all the other political parties in Rally attendance numbers. However, most evidential of this observation (of the WP’s growing reputation) would be the rapid rise of the Worker’s Party in its Facebook Like’s. Prior to the GE, the Reform Party had the most Like’s for any political party with around 2000 Likes, once Singapore shifted into GE gear however, the Worker’s Party, that had only a couple of hundred Like’s to start with rapidly shot up the charts reaching around 50,000 Like’s on its page. Outstripping the PAP who days earlier saw a spike to slightly fewer than 15,000 Like’s.

That the Worker’s Party won Hougang SMC and Aljunied GRC and gain at least 41% of the valid votes in all the other seats shows how the WP brand is heads and shoulders above the other parties. Current MP for Hougang Yaw Shin Leong beat even Low’s best score by 2%, a fact that further underscored how much the Worker’s Party had improved in the public’s eye (as an interesting aside Yaw was WP’s organising secretary during the elections, the same post Low held when the first won Hougang 20 years ago). Its candidates in Nee Soon GRC and Moulmein-Kallange GRC no disrespect to them were admittedly of less popular than those in East Coast and Aljunied GRCs yet still managed some very credible scores. Li Lilian in Punggol East and Koh Choon Yong in Sengkang West also performed way above the average relative to their public popularity, while Yee Jenn Jong was around 300 votes short of becoming the elected MP in Joo Chiat SMC.

Much can be attributed to the WP brand. It was not the WP candidates that captured public imagination (not all at least, and this is not a matter of disrespect to them) but rather the WP brand. In stark contrast, the SDP captured the public’s imagination through its high profile candidates especially Vincent Wijeysingha, Tan Jee Say, Dr Ang Yong Guan, Michelle Lee (all in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) Alec Tok (Bukit Panjang SMC). It was the SDP’s former incarnation as an ‘irresponsible’ party that  could have been a reason for the SDP’s loss in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC (more on this in the SDP section). One could say that the WP brand was bigger than its candidates while the personalities in SDP were bigger than the SDP brand, most symbolic of this was how Chen Show Mao allowed the WP brand to speak for itself instead of his high profile candidature and impressive credentials and his constant harping on the collective effort of the WP team.

Post GE

Thanks to victories in Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC the WP was able to constantly keep itself in the news both in print media and online. One month after the elections WP is still featured in the news in positive light, most recently for setting up its Aljunied Constituency Committee (AJCC). Compare this to the NSP that recently found problems because of an issue with public donations made by its Marine Parade GRC team.

The first time the party discipline was broken was when the Eric Tan quit the party over the perceived snub for the NCMP position. Interestingly the issue never blew up in the news unlike the other run-ins in other parties. WP can really thank its lucky stars that the issue never went beyond a public statement and online chatter.

The benefit of having 8 voices in parliament is that its views would be heard in the print media regularly over the next term of parliament. Unless the WP self-destructs like the SDP in 1991[3], the WP should be able to maintain its regular presence in parliament.

Commentary

Looking at the examples of multi-party democracies around the world one would be struck to notice that the two largest parties are usually not very much different. The Republicans and Democrats in the United States do have vastly different ‘ideologies’ but if one looks closer it is only because both try to pender to a different voting bloc. Eventually though in terms of the candidates that they put up, these people would not look out of place if they switched party colours. The same goes for DPJ and LDP in Japan, KMT and DPP in Taiwan, Conservative Party and Labour Party in United Kingdom. Parties with a rather more different view will find it difficult to win the popular vote even with rising discontent because voters all over have a greater fear of the ‘devil they don’t know rather than the devil they know’, the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom and the Liberals in the United States are instructive examples, its Singapore equivalent would seem to be the SDP (more on this later). The Worker’s Party has a stand and ideology that is the closest to the PAP’s in relative terms. Hence if the WP continues on its current upward trajectory, it could seriously look at challenging the PAP for government by 2020, and it could win.

The WP has formed itself as a serious political party, it should continue to work at reaching out to minority races. This should be made much easier now that there are members of the minority races in the party as Members of Parliament such as Mohd Faisal and Pritam Singh. To that end a minorities affairs branch such as that created by MP Yaw are good creative solutions to one of WPs core weaknesses.

There are some issues that this writer reckons the WP will need to deal with. In the coming years ahead the WP must strengthen its core group to show itself as forming the semblance of a potential shadow cabinet that can take over the administration of the country. Its current 8 members in parliament are made up of 3 lawyers, 1 social worker, 3 businessmen/entrepreneurs and 1 PMET (former civil servant). Singaporeans are likely to support the WP since it has become the safest alternative, but if push comes to shove and the people are made to choose either the WP or PAP for government, one would not doubt that the risk-aversion of Singaporeans would result in a poll result for the PAP. The WP hence needs to have a practising economist and a reputed journalist in their midst, the former to provide a stable hand on economic policy to convince businesses that Singapore remains pro-business & Singaporeans that the WPs economic policy is sound and the latter to help in party propaganda and giving confidence to Singaporeans to vote for it[4]. In short its first challenge is to further diversity its selection of candidates.

The rise of WP will also coincide with opportunist striving to make their way into the party, hence for the party to triumph it must guard against opportunist and bootlickers entering its midst, its second challenge would be to guard against cronyism and unpalatable elements within its ranks.

A third problem would paradoxically derive from its strength –teamwork and discipline. The WP needs to ensure that the excess of teamwork shown over the recent past does not muffle the voice of its individual members; WP must guard against group-think and the possibility of automatons in its ranks, apparatchiks with no principles and beliefs of their own, had it not been known that Giam and Koh were involved in updating the party manifesto, one could have thought of them as mere party mouthpieces. Building up the WP brand is not the same as shutting up individual personalities; this is something WP should take note of.

It must make itself out into a loud and responsible presence in parliament way above its numbers a-la the then opposition PAP against Lim Yew Hock’s Labour Front government after the 1955 elections. If it can do so, its future as a serious political party is extremely bright. To sum it up, the future for WP is in its own hands, what happens to it will be its own making.

Introduction

Part Two – Singapore Democratic Party

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

Part Four – People’s Action Party

---

[1] Sin had made an issue about Chiam not donating a portion of his MP’s allowance back to the party. The issue was broadcast in the print media especially The New Paper around Mar 2011.

[2] The G9 as they were called left the Reform Party citing differences of opinion with Secretary General Kenneth Jeyaratnam in Apr 2011. 4 of the RP’s 6 declared candidates were among the group that left, leaving the party with Secretary General Kenneth Jeyaratnam and Chairman Alex Tok as the party’s only candidates. Alec Tok was to leave the party a short while later and join the SDP.

[3] The SDP under then Secretary General Chiam See Tong emerged as the leading opposition party in Singapore after it won a surprising 3 seats, including Potong Pasir (Chiam), Bukit Gombak (Ling How Dong) and Nee Soon Central (Cheo Chai Chian). Ling and Cheo were to be voted out in the next elections, Cheo was most remembered for getting into a fight with his own activist at the grassroots office in Nee Soon Central while Ling’s claim to fame was for making the loud statement “don’t talk cock in parliament” to his party colleague Chiam.

[4] For this suggestion, this writer suggests looking at the triumvirate of Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and S Rajaratnam and how the PAP consolidated its power post 1959 fiasco for lessons.