Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam (RP) and Mr Chiam See Tong (SPP) working the ground jointly in 2010
By Thomas Yeo
Correspondent
The polls are over, the votes have been counted, and the new Parliament is expected to be sworn in very shortly. But for some of Singapore’s opposition parties, the preparations for the next general election – likely to be in 2016 – have already begun.
Mr Chiam See Tong’s Singapore People’s Party has announced the formation of a 15-member policy working group, headed by former government scholar and administrative service officer Benjamin Pwee. Mr Pwee also said before the election that the SPP was looking into setting up a charity fund with $2 million already having been pledged by a generous donor, which will focus on giving revolving loans to the needy.
The SPP is in dire need of renewal, seeing as the party fought its campaign almost entirely based on the personal charisma of Mr Chiam – who is now 76 and not in the best of health.
The party was wiped out of Parliament in the general election, with Mr Chiam’s Bishan-Toa Payoh team losing to the PAP team led by Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, while his stronghold of Potong Pasir fell to the PAP by a razor-thin margin of 114 votes. Mr Pwee, who is widely expected to take over the reins of the party, has said that the SPP’s focus will be on attracting more members.
Despite this, the SPP was the highest-scoring opposition party after the Workers’ Party, with an average vote share of 41.42% among the three constituencies that it contested. It will also be the only opposition party other than the WP to have a representative in the next Parliament, with Mrs Lina Chiam qualifying for a Non-Constituency MP seat.
Singapore’s newest political party, the Reform Party, scored an average vote share of just 31.78% in the two constituencies it contested. Quite clearly, it is itself in dire need of reform. The RP burst onto the scene three years ago when it was founded by the opposition stalwart J B Jeyaretnam, who passed away shortly after the party’s formation.
His son Kenneth Jeyaretnam made headlines for attracting a slew of high-calibre members – including Tony Tan, Hazel Poa, Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, Nicole Seah and Alec Tok – only to have them resign and defect en masse because of “personality differences” with the party leader.
Mr Jeyaretnam, who originally wanted to contest in either the Pioneer or Radin Mas single-seat ward, found himself squeezed out by other opposition parties and was forced to withdraw his candidacy or face a three-cornered contest. He eventually led an RP team in West Coast GRC, but only managed to obtain 33.43% of the votes.
Following his party’s poor showing, Mr Jeyaretnam has faced calls from netizens to resign as Secretary-General or leave politics altogether. He has been criticised as being “deadpan”, “boring”, “out of touch” and being unable to step out of the shadow of his late father, whose name he invoked countless times during the RP’s campaign.
Mr Jeyaretnam, however, has remained steadfast in the face of the intense criticism, declaring that he would move to the West Coast area so that he could get a better feel for the issues facing the residents there. He has already announced on his Facebook page that he is looking for a house in Pioneer.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Democratic Party – the “most-improved” party of the 2011 general elections, has announced that it will be conducting a post-mortem of the election results and discussing the implementation of various schemes, including tuition help for needy students, free legal clinics and free meals for the elderly poor. The SDP managed to obtain an average of 36.76% of the votes in constituencies which it contested – up more than 10 percentage points from 2006.
The SDP will need to try to connect more with the ground in the next five years
Despite this drastic improvement, however, the SDP has been criticised for being “too Westernised” and “too intellectual”, resulting in the party losing the critical heartlander vote.
During the campaign, it was also suggested by candidate Dr James Gomez that home visits were a thing of the past, and that campaigning through the internet and social media would be more effective. The party seems to have acknowledged that this was a mistake.
Calling the results “disappointing”, the official SDP announcement said that the party would build on the foundation which it has laid at this year’s general election. One area in which the party excelled was the recruitment of high-calibre candidates, such as Mr Tan Jee Say, Dr Ang Yong Guan, Ms Michelle Lee, Dr Vincent Wijeysingha and Mr Alec Tok.
The party was strongly supported by segments of Singapore’s professional and intellectual elite, as seen by the fact that it has formed a panel of healthcare advisors who are all senior and respected medical practitioners. In addition, the SDP is also known to be very popular within the arts community, with the likes of Lim Kay Siu, Neo Swee Lin and Glen Goei showing up at its rallies.
Whether or not these parties manage to make any headway in the next general election will depend on what they do in the intervening period between now and then. With the WP leading the way for the opposition at this election by finally reaping the fruits of its hard work on the ground, it is evidently clear that none of the other parties are going to be twiddling their thumbs.
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The author is a practising lawyer. He is a graduate of the National University of Singapore and has previously spent two years working abroad.
Teo Ser Luck & Foreigners First Initiative by Govt On TV
Teo Ser Luck came on tv news on CNA yesterday night promoting new sports fund set up worth S$200k to promote sports. But first sports Teo S L, Puthucherry and Senkang MP Micheal Palmer choose & endorse out of this SG funds was on live tv news is sports popular with Indian expats, new citizens and PRs from Senkang -Cricket.
Imagine an empty field shown on tv in Sengkang with only majority of Indian FTs playing cricket other than our Singaporean MPs and PR cum new citizen MP Puthucherry on TV.Furthermore the FTs went on TV to say they are planning a major league as many have started and news went to mention Senkang area is popular with large amount of foreign Indian FTs, expats,PRs and new citizens.This has left me and many Sengkang Punngol residents fuming as worst insult is to launch a major sports fund meant for Singapore with first a India Indians only partonised sports cricket (we have nothing agst the sports or FTs) over other Singaporean or SG sports like basketball, soccer,table tennis or anything with Singaporean in it.And that is taxpayers money made Sports Fund isn’t it.
Next No Singaporean want another foreign – India Indians/foreigner enclave in their neighbourhood like East Coast where the government gave hands off & had told cannot do much as most are private property purchases.
How come Sengkang/Punngol which is redenominately HDB flats is being transformed into a foreign enclave. What happened to the ethnic/racial laws which were supposed to prevent such enclaves being developed in SIngapore’s estates.Other than many Indian Fts buying flats in Sengkang/Punggol areas (thanks to “open-free for all” service of HDB Minister-Mah Bow Tan), many have rented flats here to transform our area into a foreign enclave.
What is Teo Ser Luck, Michael Palmer, Puthucherry and govt doing about it as Singaporeans are not amused.
And don’t choose Singaporeans over new FTS and foreigners as Singaporeans who put you in your jobs as MPs and will not hesitate to remove you if choose foreigners over us.
I live in the UK it is refreshing to see some clear cutting messages and statements appearing in the blogs above. Ofcourse we have to live with the incorrigible Nani’s who have not lived through or experienced of the wrought of the PAP. In his hey day the former Priemer Lee made sure that everyone in the country lived in a climate of fear. All you had to do in the 70s was say that the government should look at public transport and you were given a vist by the ISD. I am speaking from personal experience. This happens to you when you are 22 and a student. That is the climate of fear I believe that many a good Singaporean had to decide to step away from. That explains why we have lost talent. So when given half a chance many decided to part. I sincerely hope that the Nani’s of this world can be a little more knowledgeable when they begin to roll out all this flack at the brave folks who hve stuck it out and are there to stand up against all the odds.
The government’s loss of six seat is significant. This followed by the token gestures of stepping aside to make way for the leadership of the young generation is far short of what is needed. We need a nation where people live without fear of reprisal for disagreeing with the selection of hymns made by the overbearing state which is running almost every aspect of the lives of the people only falling short of telling you when you should go to bed.
The nation needs creativity and this will not be bred by conformity. So my fellow country folks air your views and fire the imagination of the people of Singapore so that a truly democratic country can emerge from under the noses of Lee Kuan Yew and his menions.
All the opposition should naturally take stock of what has happened and be pragmatic, like all Singaporeans are and chart the course for the next five years and go firing from all barrells into the next election to give the government a run for their money. You do have a public that has been pampered and cultured by the PAP and the way forward is to not fight it but use it to your advantage. Of course you do not have the machinery behind you, but the people have spoke you have to work for the 40% that have said no to PAP and make in roads to the yes lot by demonstrating that opposition is not only right but actually essential for the development of a caring and progressive nation that is successful, fair and based on justice and equality. That was our pledge and it has to become our reality.
Oh, really? Now we have a QUITTER choosing to take issue with me?
Please have a good hard look at the real issues before resorting to name calling. First of all, what makes you think that I didn’t live through the 70s? I was born in the 60s and I can tell you that I am very grateful and appreciative that we have enjoyed such tremendous growth in such a short span of time.
What other government in the world has managed this?
All this talk about the ISD is completely moot and irrelevant. Do you think that really matters to Singaporeans more than their quality of life? In the 1960s, we were living in slums and kampungs. Now, we are living in air conditioned, high-rise flats.
My father came from a poor family but he was able to do well enough to start his own business, and in turn I did well enough to go overseas for my education and secure a good job. In just one generation, my family has come from living in a dingy, cramped walk-up apartment to living in a 2,200 sq ft condominium apartment on Grange Road.
In what other country would this have been possible? The fact is that Singapore has a meritocratic system that allows for social mobility IF YOU WORK FOR IT. The “if” is a big caveat because the system does NOT support those who are lazy, unambitious or irresponsible. In countries like the UK, Australia and others, handouts are given to the unemployed. In that case, what gives people an incentive to work hard and advance in their careers? You tell me the answer please.
You chose to leave because you could not handle the pressure here. You could not handle the competition and decided to go somewhere (most probably UK or Australia) to lead an easy life of entitlement and dependance. In the words of our former PM Goh Chok Tong, Singapore needs stayers, not quitters.
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All these parties are hopeless. They should just disband. There is no point in what they are doing. Work so hard still can’t win any votes. This just shows that the people of Singapore have thoroughly rejected them. They should not be so thick skinned and simply CALL IT QUITS.
KJ’s decision to move to West coast is commendable. But seriously, the guy is just not cut out for politics. He is dull, boring and monotonous. And it seems he has nothing to say except for harping on his father. I mean, even LHL does not make referneces to his father during rally speeches. What the hell man? What is his motive in joining politics? Does he actually want to get elected, does he actually have plans? Or is he just doing it to pursue a personal vendetta for his father?
Whatever his reasons (and yes I agree that JBJ was a legend and was unfairly treated), he should just quit politics because he is dragging down the overall image of the opposition. He can go back to being an economist or fund manager, which I believe he did very well. In terms of his political acumen, he can’t even begin to compare with JBJ..
As long as the SDP fields Vincent, they will not make much headway in the largely conservative society in Singapore. I hope when the SDP conducts the post-mortem, it would not bury its head into the sands and ignore a vey likely cause of the poor showing (by their own expectations) in Holland GRC. The following comments were submitted for posting at yawning bread but censored for reasons best known to its moderator:
“I wonder why you consider Vincent Wijeysingha a strong candidate and not a liability to the SDP team. Commons sense and intuition tells one that at least 50% of the voters from the over-50 generations are still uncomfortable with voting for a gay, given their “conservative upbringing” biasedness. Assuming that the over-50 voters form at least 20% of the electorate, that would translate to at least a 10% vote swing against the SDP purely due to the discrimination against gays by this older and more “conservative” segment of the electorate. That means SDP could easily have won the Holland GRC if they had simply swapped Vincent with Dr.Gomez as a matter of prudence.
The problems u mentioned in your article such as the lack of face-to face engagement is not unique to Holland GRC. The opposition teams in Marine Parade and Moulmein GRCs, etc. were also put up at the last minute and yet they did better than SDP Holland despite their unknown candidates having comparatively poor credentials.
Consider these other factors which were overwhelmingly in favour of SDP Holland: (1) in terms of background and quality, the SDP Holland team is arguably the strongest amongst ALL the opposition GRC teams bar none (possibly stronger than LTK’s team and way stronger than the opposition teams in East Coast, Moulmein, Tampines n Marine Parade GRCs; (2) the background, quality and importance of the PAP team in Holland are nowhere comparable to those of George Yeo’s team, meaning that PAP Holland is comparatively weak (3) nobody has anything bad to say about George Yeo while Vivian Balakrishnan is smeared with 3 very big black marks – YOG , the “foodcourt” comment and the allegations of a suppressed video. (4) PAP heavyweights went all out to support George Yeo while Vivian was left to fend for himself; (5) while Low focused mainly on 1 issue only (need for a First World Parliament), the SDP had comprehensive programs for almost everything under the sun (eg. shadow budget, shadow health program, Tan’s economic paper) (6) all other big issues like municipal issues and national resentment towards the PAP apply equally to both GRCs and therefore could not have been a big differential factor for the opposition in either constituency.
Yet, the final result for Holland GRC has befuddled most political observers (including the SDP’s own assessment) who are all expecting a very close fight, if not a win for the SDP. In the end, SDP Holland polled way much lower than WP Aljunied and also worse than the low-quality teams such as the WP’s and NSP’s in East Coast, Moulmein, Marine Parade and Tampines GRCs (all of which were helmed by heavy-weight PAP ministers unlike Holland GRC). Inexplicable? Not if u factor in the biasedness of voters from the over-50 generations against gays.
Looking back, it is no wonder that the PAP did not regard Holland GRC as a hotspot despite the above-mentioned factors which strongly favoured SDP . The PAP must have guessed correctly that the moment Vincent’s sexuality was revealed to the public (great move from Vivian), the SDP Holland’s campaign was doomed to fail as they could not possibly overcome the huge hurdle posed by the big chunk of voters from the over-50 generations.
I feel sorry for the SDP and Dr.Chee. Banging their heads against the wall when the time is not yet ripe for a gay MP. As evidenced by the 6% swing in votes nationwide against the PAP, the ground was incredibly sweet for the opposition this GE due to the long list of cock-ups by the PAP in the last 5 years. I cannot recall a sweeter ground for the opposition in the last 30 years or so. WP grabbed the opportunity of a lifetime. SDP did not.
The sad thing is that the ground may never again be so sweet for the opposition for another 30 years or more, especially if the PAP learns from this GE and reforms itself as promised.
What is your agenda in posting this?
Do you have a homophobic agenda? Do you hate gays?
Please do not incite hatred.
Gays are entitled to equal treatment.
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As long as CHEE SOON JUAN remains as the Sec-Gen of SDP, the party will not win any seats. Any other party that co-operates or aligns themselves with SDP will be finished. SDP = Street Demonstration Party.
CHEE SOON JUAN is a poisoned chalice.
He bit the hand that fed him (CST).