Post Punggol By Elections

And the voters of Punggol East has made their choice.  Expectedly, WP expanded their presence and undoubtedly established themselves as the main threat to the ruling party.  What is unexpected is the margin that WP won over PAP.  It was expected to be a close fight, but it turns out otherwise; WP thrashed PAP by a good 10.5% votes. 

I was pondering why the voters would choose a MP with a humble background as a private trainer over a Surgeon who has a long list of accolades colouring his medical career. Perhaps, or my strong beliefs from the results is not about the voters electing Ms Lee Li Lian to be their MP but WP to be their voice in parliament.  The branding of WP has grown tremendously under the stewardship of Mr Low Thia Khiang; seen as a calm, logical and sincere person. Also, the outspoken ex-law lecturer Ms Sylvia Lim and Harvard graduate Mr Chen Shao Mao further strengthens WP brand of intelligent political conversation. But, are these solely sufficient to warrant this incredible feat? I was reading Yahoo news and saw this interesting perspective and readily agree with the author on the national erosion, but perhaps over the last decade.

“It is not just about demographics but a national erosion of support sustained over the last four elections. The trends indicate that the PAP is in deep trouble – it’s efforts to win over the electorate are not working,” said Welsh, who is from Singapore Management University’s Political Science faculty.
“This is more than a wake-up call, it’s a fire alarm.” WP’s margin of victory ‘devastating’ for PAP: analysts

The erosion in my opinion is a result of various factors centering on tough livelihood of ordinary Singaporeans. 

(1) Rising cost of living that accelerate beyond the means of average Singaporean families. The wage of low income families fails to move in tandem with the rising cost and made living a pain on a regular basis.  Unfortunately, with the declining birth rate over the last few decades, more young families would have to cope with sustaining both their families and their elderly parents. Even though it appears that more middle aged working professional are getting fatter pay packets, the increased cost of raising their families and huge medical bills that their elderly folks require when they fall ill, makes their monthly income look small.

(2) While I do not need to compete with foreigners for jobs, I understand from conversations that the competition for jobs got incredible intense over the last decade.  The rapid influx of foreigners, which account for third of our workforce, increases the competition for job for a lower pay.  While our unemployment rate score one of the lowest in the world, our people felt squeezed out by cheaper labour and increased competition.

(3) Policies disharmony between the Ministries.  It is somehow appears that the Ministries failed to harmonise their policies that results in high immigrations beyond our political and societal digestion. This is further aggravated by the fact that our transportation infrastructure appeared not able to cope with increased human traffic and thus breaks down on a regular basis; thus directly affected our daily commuters and deepen their anger with the government.

(4) Social Media allows better and faster information connectivity amongst netizens. While information sped to social media user, the anonymity also allows minority voices to amplify louder than before; regardless whether the information is factually accurate.  Negativity will naturally resonates with people who are suffering “hardship” and these people will “assist” in the proliferation through their groans and complains.

(5) Our younger electorate getting disconnected with the tough growing years.  A product of our own education system and culture, younger electorate generally are used to pampered upbringing, fails to understand the importance of political stability (one of the factors that draws investors; thus creating jobs) in a resource-less country and expects government to do everything for them.  DPM Teo’s episode with the young undergraduate of profanity goes to show how much they expect the answers from government.

(6) Stronger opposition candidates with better credentials comparing to those in the 90s and early 2000s. People will be more willing to put their stake on opposition and worry less that these will eventually become clowns of the parliament.

(7) Lastly, scare tactics of the past.  Tactics like using upgrading as a carrot, the ward becoming a slum does not work well with the bolder younger electorates.  In fact, judging from social media like FB (TRS), the more the ruling party uses scare tactics, the stronger the people retaliates.

The government is already trying their best to put the Singaporeans first, but results takes time.  I hope that the electorate would understand this and come 2016, we would not “accidentally” throw out the government and destabilised our political arena.