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Singapore opposition dents PAP juggernaut
Straits Times - May 8, 2011
Zuraidah Ibrahim, Singapore – The People's Action Party secured 81 out of 87 seats Saturday against an opposition tide that dragged down its share of the popular vote by 6.5 points to 60.1 per cent and swept the Workers' Party to victory in Aljunied GRC.
Low Thia Khiang's bold incursion from his safe haven of Hougang into neighboring Aljunied GRC was rewarded with the opposition's first-ever capture of a group representation constituency.
Foreign Minister George Yeo was the highest-level casualty of an historic election day that dented the People's Action Party's dominance in Parliament. This will be the first time since 1966 that Parliament will have six elected opposition members, besting the record of four seats in the 1991 polls.
In what was a landslide victory for the PAP by any international marker, its 6.5 percentage point decline was smaller than the 8.7 per centage point swing it saw in 2006.
At a 3.20 a.m. press conference, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is secretary-general of the PAP, said: "The voters have decided. I'm honored that they have once again entrusted the PAP with a clear mandate to form the next government.
"I thank Singaporeans for their confidence and the strong support and we will serve responsibly and humbly to the best of our ability... We will do our utmost to improve the lives of all Singaporeans as one people, one nation."
The 81-6 scoreline, which would have sounded improbable a few years ago, was within more recent expectations. Although Singapore has been enjoying double-digit growth, the opposition was able to tap into simmering anxieties about affordability of housing and cost of living. The Workers' Party seized the moment most decisively, with Low, 54, leading a team that included party chairman Sylvia Lim, 46, and high-flying corporate lawyer Chen Show Mao, 50.
The other opposition MPs-elect of Aljunied GRC are Faisal Manap, 35, a family counsellor, and Pritam Singh, 34, a post-graduate law student.
Sweetening Low's night, the voters he left behind in Hougang not only kept faith with the WP by electing his chosen successor Yaw Shin Leong, 34, but also bettered his own score from 62.7 per cent to 64.8 per cent of the vote.
The WP, a tight ship of disciplined party members that ran a campaign that stayed firmly and consistently on message with its call for a First World Parliament, was the biggest beneficiary of the nationwide swing against the PAP. It scored an average of 46.6 per cent of the vote in 23 seats it contested.
The party, founded in 1957 by Singapore's first Chief Minister David Marshall and led for decades by the late J.B. Jeyaretnam, will now have all six elected opposition seats in the Republic's 12th Parliament.
It will also be eligible for two Non-Constituency MP seats, with its candidate in Joo Chiat, Yee Jenn Jong, 46, losing by a mere 382 votes in a ward made up almost exclusively of private housing. As one of the best-performing losers, its East Coast GRC team, led by businessman Eric Tan, 54, will also get an NCMP seat.
Asked in Mandarin if there were now "signs of a rupture" in the electorate, with 60 per cent going for the PAP and 40 per cent rooting for the WP, Lee replied: "It's not about the percentages. It's about how the two parties will work together, their dynamic, and whether we can find a constructive relationship in policymaking.
"In some countries, you see the two parties being able to work together and find bipartisan areas of agreement. In others, it's gridlock. The PAP has always worked in the interest of Singapore. The WP has said it will too."
At Hougang Stadium, amid a sea of bubbling blue as the crowd surged and swayed and sang "Ole, ole, ole." a beaming Low, flanked by his team members, took to the stage. "You have made history tonight," he declared. "This is a political landmark in modern Singapore."
While it was victory for Low, the other veteran opposition leader, Chiam See Tong, 76, ended his run of 27 years as Singapore's longest-serving opposition MP.
His Singapore People's Party team failed to unseat the PAP in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.
The 6.5 percentage point swing was not as drastic as some had predicted, and it showed that where the ruling party came up against weaker opposition teams, it had little problem beating them resoundingly.
With several high-caliber candidates coming out against the PAP, there were high expectations of a major breakthrough for Singapore's opposition.
There were other signs of a turning tide, such as huge rally turnouts and more openly expressed sympathy for the opposition and antipathy for the ruling party when politicians went on walkabouts.
Indeed, the swing against the PAP might have been more drastic but for a mid-campaign intervention by PM Lee, in which he said sorry for the mistakes of his government and pledged to do better by the people.
Analysts believe the apology helped shift the ground – especially in Aljunied, but clearly not enough to move it back into PAP territory.
George Yeo followed up with promises to be the internal voice of reform for the party if he was re-elected. The voters' verdict ends a 23-year political career of a former Brigadier-General in the armed forces before joining the government in 1988. Yeo was the first Minister for Information and the Arts and earned a reputation for being a liberal in the Cabinet.
Erudite and urbane, he has served as Foreign Minister since 2004, in which his notable achievements included engineering a tougher-than-usual line on Burma when Singapore was chair of Asean.
The PAP's losing team also included incumbents Lim Hwee Hua, 52, Singapore's only woman minister, Zainul Abidin Rasheed, 63, the affable Malay community leader and Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs who had been slated to become Speaker in the new House.
There will be many conclusions drawn from the battle of Aljunied, but one must be that the voters liked what they heard from the WP. The party had kept consistently on message on the need for a more transparent government with greater checks and balances.
Elsewhere, many other PAP candidates were given much easier rides into Parliament. The best-performing candidate was Amy Khor, 53, who scored 70.6 per cent of the vote.
And some contests that were cold stayed that way. It was all victory for the PAP on the western front, as it scored anywhere from Ms Khor's high of 70.6 per cent to West Coast GRC's in 66.6 per cent.
If there were any patterns to be drawn, it is that the opposition seemed to do best in the north-east and east, with its lure fading the further west one went.
Voters rewarded PM Lee with 69.3 per cent of the votes in his Ang Mo Kio GRC, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam with 67 per cent of the votes in Jurong GRC, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang with 66.6 per cent of the votes and Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean with 64.8 per cent of the votes in Pasir Ris-Punggol.
Together, they and their teams lifted the overall score for the ruling party.
Heavyweight ministers in constituencies which polled significantly lower than the party's national average included Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng and National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan.
What were voters saying with their vote? Lee said early this morning: "Many voters, including some of those who voted for us, have also expressed their significant concerns. We hear all your voices, whether expressed in person or over the Internet...We will put right what is wrong, improve what can be made better and also improve ourselves to serve Singapore better."
"We respect the decision of voters. We hear your voice. We will study the results of the election and we pledge to do better."
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