Singapore General Political Discussion and News

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Hi Given our elections are now over I don't think bumping the previous election thread would be a good idea so I've decided to start my

, Singapore is often stereotyped in the western press as being a total dictatorship and while that image does have some merit it would be more accurate to consider ourselves a flawed democracy. Our elections are free and fair but the voting system itself is mostly SNTV meaning that almost no seats are competitive, it wasn't until this decade that every parliamentary seat being contested became a normal thing. The people's action party has won every election since independence and maintains 90% of parlimentary seats giving it almost total control of the goverment .The opposition faces threats from a very strict libel law and can often face bankruptcy from these things, nevertheless, they have grown in strength and now have a small parliamentary delegation with 12 members, 10 of which are from the center-left Worker Party and 2 of which are from the PAP-splinter Progressive Singapore Party.

The main political issues have been immigration and the implementation of a minimum wage, something we lack despite having one of the highest cost-of-livings in the world. Past oppostion gains have always been fueled by discontent at the PAPs immigration policy which was seen as favouring economic growth at the expense of quality of live of residents who face crowding and public transport breakdowns. Another development is the leadershing rewneal, our incumbent prime minister Lee Hsien Loong son of former prime minister and legendary leader Lee Kuan Yew had announced plans to retire around now before covid-19 hit.

His designed successor Heng Swee Keat was faced a few snags including flubbing his nomination speech which some suspect due to him having had a stroke in the past, and also generally not being a very charismatic figure. His results in the Tampinese GRC which he was moved to at the last minute in an attempt to prevent it slipping where very underwhelming by the standards of the PAP .This has caused other names to become prominent but none of them have been established.

https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/hihkbw/heng_swee_keats_plan_for_the_east_coast_plan/

The opposition is of course in disarray, the working party which has been the only oppostion party to be consistently in parliament has completed it's renewal going from a party mainly catering to disaffect Chinese dialect speakers regionally strong in Hougang to broader compliant party popular among many younger Singaporeans. Their new candidates include well-spoken economist Jamus Lim and Activist Rasseah Khan( who openly spoke of modelling her politics on Angela Davis, a risky move in place where hatred of communism is strong) with their leader being former army colnel and lawyer Pritam Singh. The PSP formed by former PAP MP Tan Cheng Bock who came incredibly close to winning the ceremonial presidency in 2011 had a disappointing result and despite narrowing the margins in several key races only won 2 seats automatically awarded to the closest opposition party.

The ideological SDP which had promise thanks to the return of it's veteran leader Chee Soon Juan yet again failed and is still in the wilderness being too bound to it's ideology and toxicity of its a leader to ever become an electoral force of strength. The rest of the opposition parties are one-note bands led by people with more ego than sense, that only get protests votes.

As covid-19 ends, it will be interesting if the PAP's competent handling of the crisis particularly compared to western countries will allow it to reap the same electoral divident among younger voters that had started to leave the party in 2020 their transition of Singapore to a first world country reaped among older voters.

[2952-0-0]

The PAP has seen its monopoly gradually erode in the past decade. As you mentioned, the Worker's Party is emerging as a credible opposition party. When do you think the PAP will face its first genuinely competitive election? How do you think the PAP will respond when it realizes as such? Also, when that happens, will the PAP stay united? The family feud around LKY's house has created bad press abroad, and damaged the PAP's reputation for competent government that it had built up for decades.

Within Asia, Singapore has gained an aura of being the "perfect country" similar to how Norway has become the "perfect country" within the western world. It will be fascinating to see real competition for the first time in living memory.

[ملكة كرينجيتوك]

The ideological SDP which had promise thanks to the return of it's veteran leader Chee Soon Juan yet again failed and is still in the wilderness being too bound to it's ideology and toxicity of its a leader to ever become an electoral force of strength. The rest of the opposition parties are one-note bands led by people with more ego than sense, that only get protests votes.

Interesting, how is Chee Soon Juan considered a “toxic” leader?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

The ideological SDP which had promise thanks to the return of it's veteran leader Chee Soon Juan yet again failed and is still in the wilderness being too bound to it's ideology and toxicity of its a leader to ever become an electoral force of strength. The rest of the opposition parties are one-note bands led by people with more ego than sense, that only get protests votes.

Interesting, how is Chee Soon Juan considered a “toxic” leader?

I'm too young to know about it personally, but he was very confrontational yelling in public about how the pap leaders had loaned billions to Suhatro. He also betrayed his mentor Chiam see Tong which splits the opposition, and has a lot of baggage. He also had a nasty habit of badmouthing Singapore to the international press.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chee_Soon_Juan

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

The PAP has seen its monopoly gradually erode in the past decade. As you mentioned, the Worker's Party is emerging as a credible opposition party. When do you think the PAP will face its first genuinely competitive election? How do you think the PAP will respond when it realizes as such? Also, when that happens, will the PAP stay united? The family feud around LKY's house has created bad press abroad, and damaged the PAP's reputation for competent government that it had built up for decades.

Within Asia, Singapore has gained an aura of being the "perfect country" similar to how Norway has become the "perfect country" within the western world. It will be fascinating to see real competition for the first time in living memory.

I think the Oxley House Saga has mostly faded from public memory and is pretty much a non-issue these days. I don't think I'll expect the PAP to face a competitive election before at least 2030, but who can tell with the rapid pace of change in today's politics.

The PAP's aura of competence was damaged due to their early mishandling of covid for example warning people not to wear masks and visit malls to stimulate the economy along with ignoring covid spread in foregin worker dorms but their success after those initial problems compared to continued failure in the west has helped restore some of that aura.

[CumbrianLefty]

It was surely pretty fair to describe Singapore as a de facto dictatorship for much of the Lee era?

[Samof94]

It was surely pretty fair to describe Singapore as a de facto dictatorship for much of the Lee era?

Quite true indeed

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

It was surely pretty fair to describe Singapore as a de facto dictatorship for much of the Lee era?

Well Lee was always more a spokesperson for the collective PAP cabinet meaning power wasn't as concentrated in one person as you it would seem. However it was definitely more towards the dictatorship then democracy part of the axis.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Here's a series of articles discussing the various ministers in parliament and the problems they bring towards the succession.

I think one of the major difficulties in discussing politics is just how opaque the PAP's internal politics and the way the party is tied to the state makes it hard to separate out politics and goverment. The actual PAP party organization is organized on extremely centralized lenninst lines with membership being extremely limited.

The paper below is the only good description i have been able to find of the PAP's internal selection process which works more like a corporation where candidates prominent in fields such as busniess, medicine or law are approached for interested. They are then tested using an array of tests first designed by Shell before then either being accepted or rejected.

Ultimatley the end result is that the PAP has never run on being "normal singaporeans" but rather openly as far smarter and more intelligent than average singaporean who will be able to bring the country to prosperity.



https://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2009/Tan.pdf
https://sudhirtv.com/2020/12/23/singapores-leadership-crisis-will-heng-swee-keat-be-our-next-pm/

[2952-0-0]

To what extent do you think the PAP's success was a product of Singapore's small size and other unique circumstances?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

To what extent do you think the PAP's success was a product of Singapore's small size and other unique circumstances?

It's always easy to dominate the politics of a small city, Democrats have held numerous cities of similar size to Singapore for more than a century. Alberta was also held by conservatives for more than 40 years.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

The island is currently going through a cold snap and I've been forced to wear a jacket indoors, temperatures have fallen to 22 C. In political news, the oppostion is experience a bit of a split. Fringe opposition parties attract fringe figures and one of them snuck into a more respectable party and is now posting a bunch of covid and anti-vaccine nonsense . A shame given how much promise the PSP showed as an opposition party.

Also a bad look for one the few immigrant naturalized political figures.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/psps-brad-bowyer-chided-by-party-mate-for-dangerous-opinions-on-covid-19-measures

[2952-0-0]

Wearing a jacket at 22C??? Wtf???

I remember when I was in Hong Kong, that 16C is a cold snap, and the rich would use it as an excuse to flaunt their fur coats.

Here, people will be in their shorts and sunglasses and lazing around the park.

Luckily, the idiocy expressed by Mr. Bowyer will gain zero traction in this part of the world. People in East Asia are much more aware of contagious diseases than in Western Europe or North America.

This thing is really stupid, though:

Last November, Singapore's fake news law was used for the first time with Mr Bowyer being asked to correct false statements he made about investments by GIC, Temasek and other government-linked companies.

He was issued a correction direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) for implying that the Government controls Temasek and GIC's commercial decisions.

The problem with such "correction directions" is that they will only work if the public trust the government more than the poster, otherwise it's the Streisand Effect.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Wearing a jacket at 22C??? Wtf???

I remember when I was in Hong Kong, that 16C is a cold snap, and the rich would use it as an excuse to flaunt their fur coats.

Here, people will be in their shorts and sunglasses and lazing around the park.

We're just not very used to the cold. I imagine most people from less tropical weather would struggle during our sunny days.

Luckily, the idiocy expressed by Mr. Bowyer will gain zero traction in this part of the world. People in East Asia are much more aware of contagious diseases than in Western Europe or North America.

This thing is really stupid, though:

Last November, Singapore's fake news law was used for the first time with Mr Bowyer being asked to correct false statements he made about investments by GIC, Temasek and other government-linked companies.

He was issued a correction direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) for implying that the Government controls Temasek and GIC's commercial decisions.

The problem with such "correction directions" is that they will only work if the public trust the government more than the poster, otherwise it's the Streisand Effect.

I was actually involved in the hearings around the fake news law and did testify in a parlimentary hearings with regards to people distrusting the goverment. I've also heard plenty of idiocy around the virus and a pandemic. I don't think we're that much smarter than the est of the world just better managed.
 

[PSOL]

Is there any evident foreign policy differences between the parties in Singapore?

[xelas81]

The main political issues have been immigration and the implementation of a minimum wage, something we lack despite having one of the highest cost-of-livings in the world. Past oppostion gains have always been fueled by discontent at the PAPs immigration policy which was seen as favouring economic growth at the expense of quality of live of residents who face crowding and public transport breakdowns.

Is the opposition to immigration about rich expats or poor migrant workers?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Is there any evident foreign policy differences between the parties in Singapore?

In recent years, no. SDP has generally advocated for a less mercenary foreign policy with more emphasis on human rights but they aren't very specific and Dr Chee their leader did loose defemation case when he accused the goverment of loaning money to Indonesia dictator Suharto

The main political issues have been immigration and the implementation of a minimum wage, something we lack despite having one of the highest cost-of-livings in the world. Past oppostion gains have always been fueled by discontent at the PAPs immigration policy which was seen as favouring economic growth at the expense of quality of live of residents who face crowding and public transport breakdowns.

Is the opposition to immigration about rich expats or poor migrant workers?

It's about both generally though poor migrant workers typically faceless opposition in the political sense mainly because singaporeans don't really want to work construction and other blue collar jobs they occupy but probably face more petty discrimination day-to-day.

Rich Expats are disliked by some because of perceived better treatment by companies and allegations of prefertial hiring by companies over locals.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

A new one-note oppostion party doomed to fade into irrelvance emerged over some petty dispute.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/former-reform-party-cec-members-and-others-set-new-opposition-party?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/tracetogether-data-use-police-restricted-very-serious-offences-says-shanmugam

Well this happend, the goverment has recovered a lot of popularity by having successfully managed to mostly reopen the economy while still keeping covid at bay. Part of this success has been through a widespread contact tracing system required to access pretty much any space outside of one's home. Adoption of a contact-tracing app able to track people whearbout  that they promised would only be used for covid-tracking purposes.

Suprisingly they seemed to have forgotten about a law giving the police access to it and have used it to find a murder.

[PSOL]

Can you tell us the demographic makeup of each party? Who do different ethnicities, nationalities, and religious groups vote for? What’s the class composition of each party?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Can you tell us the demographic makeup of each party? Who do different ethnicities, nationalities, and religious groups vote for? What’s the class composition of each party?

oh god that's pretty sensitive information, pretty much anything regarding demographics is pretty hidden.

PAP: broad majorities of every race and ethnicity, fairly broad support but particularly strong among middle-class voters. remembr they got 60-70% of the vote giving them strong majorities among most groups. Ironically they tend to be more popular among females than Males. Dominates among established groups including civil servants, busniess owners and essential center-right counstieunces.

WP: original primary based on Hokkien speaker who felt their dialect had been marginalized in comparison to mandarin. Strong local base in Hougang with their leader Low Thia Kiang having strong appele among them helping the party survive the loss of it's original Leader J.B Jetryanm. Have now transitioned to a broader party with strong support among younger voters and ethenic minorities under it's new leader Pritam Singh

SDP: Primarly supported by the disaffected among society, one of the only ideological party so does have an upper-middle class component of ideological leftists/liberals who are attracted to the opposition but dislike the more grass-root PAP-lite WP.

Rest of the oppostion: Random people who just disaffected from the PAP, tend to skew male and lower-middle income and voters tend to be mainly Chinese even if the politician are more ethenicly diverse.

[PSOL]

Can you tell us the demographic makeup of each party? Who do different ethnicities, nationalities, and religious groups vote for? What’s the class composition of each party?

oh god that's pretty sensitive information, pretty much anything regarding demographics is pretty hidden.

PAP: broad majorities of every race and ethnicity, fairly broad support but particularly strong among middle-class voters. remembr they got 60-70% of the vote giving them strong majorities among most groups. Ironically they tend to be more popular among females than Males. Dominates among established groups including civil servants, busniess owners and essential center-right counstieunces.

WP: original primary based on Hokkien speaker who felt their dialect had been marginalized in comparison to mandarin. Strong local base in Hougang with their leader Low Thia Kiang having strong appele among them helping the party survive the loss of it's original Leader J.B Jetryanm. Have now transitioned to a broader party with strong support among younger voters and ethenic minorities under it's new leader Pritam Singh

SDP: Primarly supported by the disaffected among society, one of the only ideological party so does have an upper-middle class component of ideological leftists/liberals who are attracted to the opposition but dislike the more grass-root PAP-lite WP.

Rest of the oppostion: Random people who just disaffected from the PAP, tend to skew male and lower-middle income and voters tend to be mainly Chinese even if the politician are more ethenicly diverse.

What about different religious identities?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Can you tell us the demographic makeup of each party? Who do different ethnicities, nationalities, and religious groups vote for? What’s the class composition of each party?

oh god that's pretty sensitive information, pretty much anything regarding demographics is pretty hidden.

PAP: broad majorities of every race and ethnicity, fairly broad support but particularly strong among middle-class voters. remembr they got 60-70% of the vote giving them strong majorities among most groups. Ironically they tend to be more popular among females than Males. Dominates among established groups including civil servants, busniess owners and essential center-right counstieunces.

WP: original primary based on Hokkien speaker who felt their dialect had been marginalized in comparison to mandarin. Strong local base in Hougang with their leader Low Thia Kiang having strong appele among them helping the party survive the loss of it's original Leader J.B Jetryanm. Have now transitioned to a broader party with strong support among younger voters and ethenic minorities under it's new leader Pritam Singh

SDP: Primarly supported by the disaffected among society, one of the only ideological party so does have an upper-middle class component of ideological leftists/liberals who are attracted to the opposition but dislike the more grass-root PAP-lite WP.

Rest of the oppostion: Random people who just disaffected from the PAP, tend to skew male and lower-middle income and voters tend to be mainly Chinese even if the politician are more ethenicly diverse.

What about different religious identities?

The worker party always takes a grass-root common man image, they hold their MP meetings in HDB void decks(imagine public housing common areas but 90% of people live in public housing). They run down-to-earth middle class candidates(with a few recent exceptions) and their slogand tend to be providing a check on the PAP rather actually replacing them on goverment. It's given them political success but it's not a very inspiring message for people ideological opposed to the status-quo.

Religion is similar to ethnicity in singapore with Muslims probably leaning a bit against the PAP. Chinese Christians are probably more strongly PAP than Taoists/Buddhists/unaffiliated chinese voters but the difference is probably minor.

[PSOL]

So what exactly is the SDP offering instead? What kind of candidates and policies are they offering in place?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

So what exactly is the SDP offering instead? What kind of candidates and policies are they offering in place?

It offers more ideological policies in line with social democracy, including an expansive welfare state, single-payer healthcare system similar to the NHS and ending the reliance on foreign labour along with old school left-wing anti-immigration sentiment seeing it as a tool suppress wages by big busniess.


In another news, leaders are reacting to the events in us with shock.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-leaders-shocked-saddened-by-violence-after-pro-trump-mob-storms-us-capitol