🇸🇬 With long traditions, some history made
Will the 4 Gen find support among the Y Gen?
Hello friends!
Well, there we go. The People’s Action Party is happy but could be happier. Tan Cheng Bock and the Progress Singapore Party is proud, regardless of going home with just a couple wins. Pritam Singh of the Workers Party isn’t happy at all even though he probably should be.
The PAP is keeping its supermajority (whoa!) but has seen a significant drop in its popular vote from 69.86 percent in 2015 to 61.24 percent this year. This is, however, an increase on the 60.1 percent return in 2011 which had been the worst showing since independence.
The island’s smarties have been hard at work with analysis this weekend, but Singapore’s thinkers are at their best writing on length well after the event (bless you, Epigram) and I’m looking forward to following this for a long time.
We’ll certainly be revisiting the election soon, but for now, here’s what’s making the headlines.
Here’s a bit of history — for only the second time ever, the PAP has lost a Group Representation Constituency (in which a small group of reps are elected for an area with enforced racial quotas). The Worker’s Party picked up 52.1 percent of the Sengkang GRC vote. The GRC now joins Aljunied and the Hougang SMC to see 10 opposition MPs head to Parliament with the PAP making up the other 83.
Today Online spent Saturday morning cutting about the Sengkang GRC, in the north-east of the island, speaking with voters about the win. Largely, residents pointed to costs of living and a lack of facilities as reasons to take a punt on the challengers.
But, the more compelling responses look at the belief that the WP is better suited to represent Sengkang in Parliament than the PAP. Sengkang is a newly established GRC this year and the demographics skew younger and many of these young Singaporeans want change.
“Since 2015, there's been plenty of instances of how the Government had used its 'strong mandate' to pass controversial laws such as the reserved presidency and Pofma (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act),” 24-year-old Tay Zhi Qian told the outlet.
“As a young voter, I think they’ll best empathise and represent the concerns that other young voters have. All of them, as young parents, can understand the concerns of many households here as well,” Cherry Tan, 23, said.
Jamus Lim, the wonky 44-year-old team leader of the WP in Sengkang, thanked the local PAP for their efforts before signalling the future the party is reaching for. "We hope that we've inspired you — all of you — to believe that the dream of an alternative future is only as far away as the courage to seize the opportunities that come your way, only as difficult as the passion you bring to pursue what you believe to be right, and only as difficult as your willingness to put your nose down to the grind and make it happen," he said after the win, as reported by Mothership.
Fellow team-member Raeesah Khan has made history in her own right. At just 26, she’ll be the youngest MP to take a seat and is the first Malay woman to win in opposition. I’d expect to see some profiles on her and Famous Jamus in the next few years as their stars continue to rise!
The WP win has put a bit of a dent in the planned PAP succession, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Saturday. “They gave it their all, but Sengkang voters have spoken and we respect their decision. It is, however, a major loss to my team and to the 4G leaders, especially as Ng Chee Meng is the secretary- general of the NTUC,” he said, as reported by the Straits Times. Ng, of the National Trades Union Congress, has been an important figure in the Cabinet as the chief facilitator between the government and the unions and other businesses.
Reading list:
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the 68-year-old son of the nation’s founding father, said he would stay at the helm until the coronavirus crisis passed, and he acknowledged his weakened mandate.
“The results reflect the pain and anxiety that Singaporeans feel in this crisis, the loss of income, the anxiety about jobs,” Mr. Lee said early Saturday morning.
If calling an election during a pandemic was meant to showcase the steady hand of a party that has used Singapore’s greatest strengths — deep coffers, technocratic professionalism and a belief in science and technology — to battle the coronavirus, the campaign also highlighted divisions in a society that, like many others in the developed world, is struggling with a changing geopolitical and economic landscape.
Singapore election: hard truths for the PAP as voters deny ruling party an easy ride into power (SCMP)
It was the Workers’ Party that had the most reason to celebrate last night. The only opposition party with a presence in the unicameral legislature, WP retained its six seats and added four more with its Sengkang win. Its average vote share in the 21 seats it contested was 50.5 per cent.
Party leader Pritam Singh maintained the dignified and unflappable demeanour that had won him many admirers during the campaign.
“I’m not feeling euphoric at all,” he said. “In fact, I think there’s a lot of work to do and I think we’ve got to work hard.”
Stability and predictability define Singapore’s politics, dominated by the PAP since independence in 1965, proving crucial in developing the city-state into a global finance hub and regional trading centre.
But analysts said the unexpected setback for Lee’s party likely means tighter rules on foreign employment and other changes to social policies to assuage concerns raised by opposition parties.
“Policymakers will have a tighter line to walk on foreigners in the labour force and to double-up efforts on the economic wellbeing of lower-income groups,” said Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB Private Banking.
Workers’ Party’s performance a ‘pleasant surprise’, but not quantum leap, says Pritam Singh (Today Online)
Not only did WP retain its prized seats of Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) and Hougang Single Member Constituency with larger margins than in the last election, it prevailed over the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) in the newly formed Sengkang GRC.
Mr Singh said early on Saturday (July 11) that he was grateful to voters in the three constituencies for trusting his party with their vote, adding that he was very humbled by it.
“I’m not feeling euphoric at all… There’s a lot of work to do and I think we’ve got to work hard,” he told reporters outside Teambuild Centre along Geylang Road, where the party’s headquarters is.
GE2020: The Wrap-Up (We, the Citizens)
Then there was the mess about the gloves. Ideally, the gloves were meant to be handed out at the same time as the ballot paper: people would then sanitise their hands, put the gloves on, and go vote. But this was taking too long at my polling station, so the presiding officers started giving out the gloves to people in the queue outside the polling station. That sped things up, but also meant that people were doing things like taking their masks on and off (which often involved touching their faces) for ID verification with their gloves already on, thus defeating the point of having gloves.
Other polling stations reported running out of gloves. In the end, the Elections Department just nixed the idea, saying the gloves would be optional. (I wonder how they arrived at that decision, and what risk assessment was made, if the gloves were considered necessary for health and safety at first? 🤔)