Reflections on Singapore General Elections 2011 (GE2011)

This can be said as the first general elections that has caught my attention because I was probably too young to understand politics then. More exposed to such an event, this has been exciting enough to watch the results until 2.30 am at night.

Well, as far as I have been told, the opposition parties have come prepared and geared up to take over more of the SMCs and GRCs that the PAP governed for what seemed forever. All but Tanjong Pagar were contested by opposition parties. Of course, there were some strategies both the PAP and the opposition parties took to try to win support.

Firstly, let's discuss the PAP strategies. Lee Hsien Loong had apologised for various policies he had implemented. On first sight it might look that he had made a wrong move by admitting that the PAP had been making incorrect decisions, but looking on the other side, it lets the population know that Lee Hsien Loong is humble and they understand that they are not the most powerful and the proudest.

Now look at the opposition. It is very obvious that they are trying to place their powerhouses at other GRCs to gather support, namely Low Thia Kiang and Chiam See Tong. Well this is a big risk executed because if these two fail to win enough votes, they may risk losing both sides. When the results came out, it has shown that Low Thia Kiang had garnered enough support to allow him to be an MP. This was unfortunately not true for Chiam See Tong. Losing by a margin of 13%, what is the reason that he had lost? Moreover, back in Potong Pasir, he had placed his wife as the MP for the SMC. Is his wife capable of continuing the sole lifeline of the SPP? Results have shown that she had lost by a marginal 1%. We can see that it is not because of Lina Chiam that residents are voting for SPP but because of the foot mark Chiam See Tong had made in this SMC. This is why it is so close, though Sitoh Yih Pin eventually emerged as victorious.

From the above, we can see that this strategy from the opposition is quite successful. But rethink about this, maybe, this strategy is unsuccessful, maybe they were as good as dead as they tried to do so. Maybe it's because of the speech that Lee Kuan Yew "tried to help" George Yeo that resulted in this outcome. Lee Kuan Yew had mentioned that Aljunied voters had 5 years to 'repent' if the GRC fell into the hands of WP. He had also said that he will 'deny upgrading funds' to the GRC if the Workers Party governed it. This has probably created great fury on the voters as it makes Lee Kuan Yew look like he is threatening them. This has thus made all the voters support the Workers Party instead.

So, will the opposition continue to implement this strategy in GE2016? Will the same effect happen? Or will the PAP finally get 100% seats in parliament? We do not know. All we can say that if the PAP finally achieves 100% seats, many people will indeed be unhappy.

(Term 2 Post #4)