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When Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called early elections amid the pandemic, he had almost everything for him. Its People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore since independence in 1965, has been warned of the next nine-day crusade. THE COVID-19 regulation also meant that physical meetings, a primary means of raising awareness and raising funds for opposition political parties, were banned in this year’s general election. Walking and home visits were allowed as long as the rules of safe distance were followed, but much of the crusade was moved online. With classical local media known for adopting a pro-PAP stance (Singapore is not ranked 158th in the Global Press Freedom Index), resource asymmetry and fear of a “flight to security” mentality among voters, opposition parties are involved as the PAP win each and every seat in Parliament.
But that wasn’t the case. By contrast, the vote share of the components increased from 70% in the 2015 election to 61%, and the Workers’ Party won 10 of the 93 seats. This is the largest opposition presence Singapore has ever noticed; The leader of the Workers’ Party, Pritam Singh, will be officially identified as leader of the opposition and will be staffed. This is a primary concession of the government component, as this role was in the past only a casual and insecure role.
Most other political parties in democratic countries would consider a vote-61% to be respectable, especially since it resulted in 83 seats, which would allow the PAP to maintain its super-majority in Parliament. But Lee admitted his disappointment: “We have a transparent mandate, but the percentage of the popular vote is not as high as I expected,” Channel News Asia said at a press conference.
The PAP needs a controlled and docile democracy in which the opposition acts as a parliamentary showcase. Singaporeans for a more competitive political scene than PAP favors are happier than Lee. While the PAP still massively dominates their lives, this general election marked adjustments that bode well for the option of a physically more powerful democracy in the city-state.
Singapore’s elections are commonly seen because of “essential problems”: problems such as the housing charge, space charges and control of the Central Pension Fund, a system of savings for forced retirement. While these problems remain applicable in this election, they have been supplemented by debates on diversity and plurality in politics: to fear the man of the impasse of stagnation, more Singaporeans spoke of the need for more votes in Parliament than I did. I’ve never noticed it in last election.
This is especially true for young voters. The same old talk is that young Singaporeans are less involved than their parents and grandparents in the disorders of bread and bread and instead resort to less “tangible” considerations such as racial inequality and political rights. That is true, but it also does not identify the genuine link: young Singaporeans, myself included, care about disorders such as racism, inequality and civil liberties, because they recognize that they are inextricably connected to people’s well-being and their ability to Deal with weekend arrangement It is more difficult to impress them with unique transfers and documents; they need to see deeper discussions about structural disorders and the dismantling of institutionalized injustice.
The most exciting triumph of the Workers’ Party was the representative constituency of the Sengkang Group, a newly eliminated mega-constituency in which its four consistent team members eliminated a PAP team that included a minister, a minister of state and a high-level parliamentary secretary. Sengkang is home to many young families and more than 60 percent of the population is under the age of 45, which is more consistent with the national average.
The government has responded fiercely to the challenge it faces in Sengkang. Amid the crusade period, Singapore police announced that, following the data and the Prosecutor-General’s workplace recommendation that a crime had been revealed, they had opened an investigation into Raeesah Khan, one of the Workers’ Party applicants at the Sengkang RCMP. by old Facebook comments that allegedly encouraged hostility between racial teams and devotees. Raeesah, an activist who, unlike any previous candidate, identifies as an intersectional feminist, had questioned differences of remedy among other class, racial and devoted teams in Singapore. Following the police statement, the PAP jumped on her case, retracting her as a racist and asking, “Why is the WP still worthy of being appointed deputy? This is a serious issue, which touches on the basic principles on which our country was based. Built. »
This comes directly from the old PAP manual to demonize political opponents. Raeesah is also not his only goal in this election; The party also accused Singapore Democratic Party leader Chee Soon Juan of spreading lies, criticizing the party’s president and infectious disease expert, Paul Tambyah, for making “unfounded” claims in his complaint about the handling of COVID-19’s PAP government.
However, the attack on Raeesah, and by extension to his party, made paintings about the sengkang RCMP electorate. Some argued that the Workers’ Party’s triumph in this race showed that pap’s negative crusade had failed.
The raids on Chee and Tamthroughah, which were accompanied by the use of the “fake news” law passed by the PAP in 2019, also had limited effect. Although none won a seat in Parliament, they got a decent percentage of the vote. Chee’s 45% is a notable improvement over the 39% he won in the same constituency in the 2016 general election, while 46% of Tamthroughah’s votes are impressive, as he only revealed that he challenged the constituency on nomination day.
I’ve painted a very positive picture of the stage so far. If I were to push that optimism a little further, I hope that this election has taught the ruling party that its old radical tactics are not as effective in Singapore as they would have been in the past. But I know that this trajectory towards a more open democracy remains only a possibility, not a promise.
When asked about his party’s performance, Singh was incredibly circumspect, despite his victories. “I don’t feel euphoric at all. In fact, I think there are a lot of paintings to be done,” he said, reminding participants that if winning 4 more seats than in 2015 is progress, “it’s not a leap forward yet.” “
The strength of the PAP is still rooted in Singapore and there are many tactics to further complicate matters for the opposition and civil society. Being elected to Parliament erases the fact that Raeesah Khan is still under police investigation. Singh himself, along with party president Sylvia Lim, and former Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang, are also still awaiting appeals in a civil case brought to them in connection with their control of the city councils. There is no guarantee that pap is open to classes that many Singaporeans expect to learn.
It is too early for Singaporeans, young and old, to welcome the improvement of their country’s political climate. But in the wake of an intense electoral pandemic, it is forgivable to take a moment to be discouraged and hopeful.
Kirsten Han is a Singaporean journalist and independent activist in politics, human rights and social justice. Twitter: @kixes
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