As Singapore gets more politically liberal, I will discuss why I believe that voting for the opposition may bring you more benefits than if you were to vote for the PAP.
Rivervale Plaza: Checks and balances: to counter the PAP’s incompetence?
Rivervale Plaza has finally been opened slightly less than a year after the by-election. The significance here is that the poor state of the mall in 2012 has been put under scrutiny at the electoral debates. For those who don’t recall, the main contractor went bust while the newly appointed contractor did not seem to have resolved tenant’s complaints satisfactorily. For such an issue to have happened is unacceptable in the first place.
Despite promises from the PAP that it would be completed in less than 6 months, the whole duration took one year. Nevertheless, two points can be made. Firstly, the fact that the opening took twice as long as promised illustrates that the PAP is a party which overpromises and under-delivers even for something that was clearly their fault. Next, the need for more opposition voices to present the PAP’s inadequacies to the electorate should also be key factor in a new political paradigm.
PAP’s complacency pales in comparison to the efforts of the new party?
In addition to the Rivervale Plaza issue, the efforts that the PAP has put in other areas such as transport has been quite lacking as well. Despite complaints that there has been a lack of bus services, nothing much has been done under the PAP’s care. Instead, 2 essential services - 371 and 624 – will connect the residents to their town centres and the CBD more effectively. Such efforts can be attributed to both the new party’s efforts as well as the PAP’s fear. This aptly quells resident’s fears that voting for the opposition would mean the deterioration of their estates as life has been better for them under the WP.
Too little, too late?
The grassroots at Punggol East has recently launched a service to provide vouchers to needy families. It disgusts me to see that such a simple measure was only initiated after so long. By contrast, the WP had initiated their programme of distributing household necessities long ago and is in the midst of starting a new scheme to involve giving tuition services to needy children. It is quite sad that such measures strongly seem to be an election strategy than a sincere measure to help out.
Is such tokenism enough to swing votes?
Looking at the current sentiments of the electorate, many of them are no doubt pleased that the grassroots are doing something. However, there are bigger issues on a national level which frustrate the average person; these includes competition from foreigners as well as inadequate infrastructure and fare hikes. Given the Singaporean mentality, accepting such gifts are no doubt welcome with open arms but are otherwise unlikely to sway voters by much.
Concluding Remarks?
Moving forward, more problems are likely to surface within the next few years with a few dollars’ worth of goodies unlikely to provide much ease to voters. Instead, Singaporeans should get used to a new paradigm where voting for the opposition may benefit you more than the PAP does.
Joseph Kheng-Liang Tan
*The author is a 21 year-old polytechnic graduate who is currently pursuing his law degree in Australia. A believer of the free press, he has contributed extensively in his personal capacity to popular socio-political sites such as TRS and TRE. Supremely homophobic, he would rather vote for the PAP if the opposition sends in a homosexual representative.