Singapore General Political Discussion and News

[PSOL]

Isn’t the Workers Party to their Left in policy?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Isn’t the Workers Party to their Left in policy?

No, the workers party is very milequost in their policy outlook and not very dogmatic about pushing it. They mostly advertise as serving as a check on the PAP's elitest tendencies.

on another note regarding the local response to events in the US.

[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?

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

I see. I think I first heard about Chee when Amos Yee mentioned him in one of his teenage edgelord rants. This is a video of Chee giving a SDP stump speech in Taiwanese/Hokkien with some Mandarin sprinkled in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVcXYYcWjtI

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

So a pro-trans protestst got arrested today in singapore after they protested that the ministry of education building after a school issued a transphobic requirement to a bunch of student students ordering them conform to their assigned sex. The police arrested it in 5 minutes
https://twitter.com/kixes/status/1353992463057182722

I remember my sibling coming home and excitedly telling me he knew what "gay meant" I asked him what it meant and said he'd learned at school it meant "pervert".

[Estrella]

Are LGBT rights (either support or opposition) and "social issues" in general used in campaigning?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Are LGBT rights (either support or opposition) and "social issues" in general used in campaigning?

Not really, both parties have their share of pro-lgbt rights and homophobic members but the political issue isn't really a big thing.

[PSOL]

So with some time after the election, has the PAP enacted any populist policies to shore up support? Have the opposition done any flexing?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

So with some time after the election, has the PAP enacted any populist policies to shore up support? Have the opposition done any flexing?

They handled covid well and given a bunch of tourist vouchers as well as relifef checks to lower income households. They've also delayed the increase in GST(sales tax) but they haven't done anything too extreme or populist. The oppostion just doesn't seem to have been able to do anything post-election despite it's offical status and prominence.

[CumbrianLefty]

Are LGBT rights (either support or opposition) and "social issues" in general used in campaigning?

Lee was quite "enlightened" for a man of his time and place regarding such issues IIRC.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

So with some time after the election, has the PAP enacted any populist policies to shore up support? Have the opposition done any flexing?

Ironicaly it seems like we have our first right wing populist party in parliment, there's a scheme where if there arent' enough oppostion MP's the least bad performing oppostion parties get NCMP(ie sh**tty mp seats with terrible pay and limited voting rights) into parliment to provide a token oppostion.(literal purpose it to say people don't need to vote for the oppostion if they want an oppostion to exist).

Well it seems like a populist party slid in using that role, one of their members Brad Bowyer(An american immigrant) went full Qanon vaccine conspiracy theories but the other member who hold a seat in parliament. One of the things they've raised is that Hawker centers are selling too much foregin food( ridiculous given how much of our own cusine is brought in from elsewhere and it's probably caused by changes in taste).

https://unscrambled.sg/2021/03/17/psps-dangerous-flirting-with-far-right-policies-and-politics/

[2952-0-0]

So what will happen now that the PAP's planned leadership succession has been thrown into disarray?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

So what will happen now that the PAP's planned leadership succession has been thrown into disarray?

Nobody knows, this is funnily enough the second time it happend. LHL's previous succseor was going to be George Yeo until he lost his seat in an upset victory in 2011 so the focus shifted to heng swee keat, who's election roll-out didn't go too great. He won election by suprisingly narrow margins in his tampinese seat and was a gaffe machine.

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

but here's a list of some of the speculated names.

https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/mmun15/singapores_next_prime_minister/

[MoreThanPolitics]

Are there any right-wing/conservative opposition parties in Singapore?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Are there any right-wing/conservative opposition parties in Singapore?

The PSP has a conspiratorial strain and the oppostion is generarly anti-immigration with some of the one-note parties being incredibly xenophobic but most of those parties trend towards populism rather than being conservative.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Finished Making this.
Political Compass of Singapore

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Long-time SDP leader, Perennial Candidate and Former Professor of Psychology Chee Soon Juan has started a cafe. A controversial politician known for his confrontational style of politics and being subject to numerous Libel Lawsuits, a pivot to the F&B busniess espeiclay in a time like this seems a rather weird move.

https://www.asiaone.com/lifestyle/inside-chee-soon-juans-new-cafe-orange-teal-cosy-reading-nook-affordable-western-food

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chee_Soon_Juan

I decided to pay a visit to his cafe out of a sense of curioisrtiy. It's location is rather weird located in Rochester Mall which is a new but obscure mall with little foot traffic filled with the kind of business like Tution Centers and Chiropcrationers that don't normally rely on foot traffics. It seems like his name was sufficient to attract a large crowd and the cafe was quite crowded with a que outside.

The Cafe does suffer from tettering problems with it failing to print our order and our coffe taking far too long to arrive. Dr Chee seemed rather busy and personaly attended to our table so I was able to get a photo. The Cafe also has a nice library of politica books including Nate Silvers famous book the signal allowing with the Dr's own books avaliable for purchase.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

First political drama that's not covid related in a while. Singapore's most left-wing MP Raeesah Khan, who had gotten in a bit of hot water earlier during the election for tweeting that "Everything you need to know about my politics is that i've read every Angela Davis Book" has resigned after lying in parliment regarding a rape case. She claims that she acompanied a sexual assult victim to the police station where the claim was not taken seriously and dismissed by the police even after the report was filled.

It turns out she had fabricated her acamponying the victim and search through the police databases couldn't find any reports that matched her descrption. She admits she based this on anonymous information she got online from a support group for sexual assult victims, claiming her lie was because she didn't feel comfortable telling people she was a sexual assult victim.

Well she has resigned on that matter, which is a seriously blow to the WP and it's perception of being a competence grass-roots issue focused party. No by-elections will be held as that only happens when a multi-member ward is entirley vacant.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/raeesah-khan-resigns-from-wp-and-from-position-as-sengkang-grc-mp
 

[2952-0-0]

Long-time SDP leader, Perennial Candidate and Former Professor of Psychology Chee Soon Juan has started a cafe. A controversial politician known for his confrontational style of politics and being subject to numerous Libel Lawsuits, a pivot to the F&B busniess espeiclay in a time like this seems a rather weird move.

https://www.asiaone.com/lifestyle/inside-chee-soon-juans-new-cafe-orange-teal-cosy-reading-nook-affordable-western-food

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chee_Soon_Juan

I decided to pay a visit to his cafe out of a sense of curioisrtiy. It's location is rather weird located in Rochester Mall which is a new but obscure mall with little foot traffic filled with the kind of business like Tution Centers and Chiropcrationers that don't normally rely on foot traffics. It seems like his name was sufficient to attract a large crowd and the cafe was quite crowded with a que outside.

The Cafe does suffer from tettering problems with it failing to print our order and our coffe taking far too long to arrive. Dr Chee seemed rather busy and personaly attended to our table so I was able to get a photo. The Cafe also has a nice library of politica books including Nate Silvers famous book the signal allowing with the Dr's own books avaliable for purchase.

Singapore is now much more democratic than its rival and cousin that's four hours flight away. At least political dissidents are allowed to run their private business without harassment.

[ملكة كرينجيتوك]

Finished Making this.
Political Compass of Singapore

Saved from link rot because I kaypoh

"a promise is a commitment" = Choong Hon Heng
"chong he ti tong" = Charles Yeo
"you'd don't need much space for sex" = Josephine Teo
"warms the cockles of my heart" = Jamus Lin

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

snip

Thanks.

[PSOL]

So what has happened since December 2022

[ملكة كرينجيتوك]

This is from last September, but no one seems to have posted it yet, so.....  

Singapore just took Hong Kong’s place as Asia’s top financial center—and as the new partner to London and New York

This was inevitable in the grand scheme of things, a lot of Hong Kong and Taiwan's economic preeminence was predicated on China not having its s019 together and/or being closed off from the world.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

So what has happened since December 2022

I've already posted a thread about the presidental election that has had no response. Tharman Singapore's who is most famous for his time as Finance minister has resigned to contest it, he was among the most prominent PAP ministers and reputed to be in consideration for the PM post. Busniess Man George Goh is also contesting but it remains unclear if he'll qualify. His policy views are unclear but he has emphasises his evangellical christian faith in his message so far.


The recent controversy was following a speach by Worker Party MP Jamus Lim criticsing the lack of an offical poverty line and the goverments provisons for low income singaporeans, the speaker of parliament Tan Chuan-Jin was recorded mouthing "F*ucking populist" which he subsequently apoligised for.

[PSOL]

Arrest of government minister in anti-graft probe

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Well there's been a lot of political drama, the biggest news in the investigation into transportation S. Iswaran for corruption in which he was arrested and bailed out. The fact that Hotel Tycoon Ong Beng Seng has also been arrested in relation has led many to suspect that the incident involved the F1 grand prix but few details are out in the public about it.

More juicy has been a dual scandal hitting both the WP and PAP regarding infidelity among within their MP's. Speaker of the Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin already in hot water had an affair with fellow MP Cheng Li Hui, which apparently countinued after he had assured the prime minister it had stopped leading to them both resigning this morning.

The oppostion worker party has also been hit with a scandal, a video of MP's Leon Perera and Nicole Seah seemingly romantically at a dinner despite both being married has come to light but the WP can scant afford the loss to it's already small caucus so it remains unclear what they can do.