by Bertha Henson
THE Sunday Times had a four-page spread of articles on the coming General Election, which must be held by January 2017. It interviewed People’s Action Party Organising Secretary Dr Ng Eng Hen as well as various leaders of the opposition parties with the notable exception of Mr Low Thia Khiang, leader of the opposition and secretary-general of Workers’ Party.
Here are some glimpses on what the voter can expect from both sides of the political divide.
1. No more PAP parachutists?
The PAP is doing away with the practice of parachuting in its candidates into grassroots work at the last minute. There are some 30 “potential” candidates working the ground, and it seems to have firmed up its slate of five for Aljunied GRC which it lost to the Workers’ Party. But it’s unclear how this long easing-in process is going to affect civil servants and military people who intend to don whites. Won’t they have to quit their jobs first?
In any case, here are the five people in Aljunied:
Mr Chua Eng Leong, 44, is the son of former Cabinet minister Chua Sian Chin, and is PAP’s new branch chairman for the Eunos ward in Aljunied GRC.
Mr Kahar Hassan, 46, is a deputy director of infrastructure at railway operator SMRT and has more than 17 years of engineering experience in both the G and private sectors. He was a volunteer for 15 years at Tampines East CC before moving to serve at Kaki Bukit last month or so.
Mr Victor Lye, 52, is the general manager of a health-care insurance company and has served as a volunteer in Aljunied since 1999. Mr Lye has been a party member since 2001 and was a key activist with former Foreign Minister George Yeo in Aljunied GRC.
Mr K. Muralidharan Pillai, 44, is the head of commercial litigation at Rajah and Tann, as well as the chairman of the PAP Paya Lebar branch. Mr Pillai was previously the Assistant Superintendent of Police, where he focused on white-collar crimes.
Ms Chan Hui Yuh, 37, is the branch chairman of PAP Serangoon. She has had 12 years of experience as a grassroots leader, and is also a director of a construction firm.
2. No more heavy hitters in weak GRCs?
It used to be that candidates in GRCs were accused of riding into Parliament on the coat-tails of ministers. That was the big complaint of the Group Representation Constituency from the opposition, until the WP took Aljunied GRC, which had been anchored by Foreign Minister Mr George Yeo and
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Senior Minister of State Mr Zainul Abidin Mohamed Rasheed. Mr Ong Ye Kung, who was touted as minister material, also did not make it through the door. Now the PAP thinks it might not be worthwhile to field ministers or ministers-to-be in weak GRCs. It wants grassroots types who can run town councils.
Perhaps, it is thinking about the 1997 election when it wrested Bukit Gombak from Singapore Democratic Party‘s Mr Ling How Doong by fielding Mr Ang Mong Seng, and took back Nee Soon Central from SDP’s Cheo Chai Chen by placing Mr Ong Ah Heng as a candidate.
3. More private than public…
The PAP intends to field about 30 new candidates, and three in four will be from outside the public service and the armed forces. This marks a change from the the 2011 GE when only eight out of the 24 new candidates were from the private sector. Of the 16 public sector types, four made it to full ministers. They are:
Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, 46, is Minister for Social and Family Development. Before entering politics, he served in the Singapore Army, rising to the rank of Brigadier-General.
Mr Chan Chun Sing, 45, is Minister in Prime Minister’s Office and the Secretary-General of the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC). He served in the Singapore Armed Forces as a Major-General and served as Singapore’s Chief of Army from 2010 to 2011.
Mr Lawrence Wong, 43, is currently the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Ministry of Communications and Information. Mr Wong began his career as a civil servant at the Ministry of Trade and Industry and was formerly the Chief Executive of Singapore’s Energy Market Authority.
Mr Heng Swee Keat, 54, Education Minister, used to be the Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) from 2005 to 2011.
Dr Ng said that the PAP wants to field a wider range of people to reflect Singapore’s diversity, and this approach has been welcomed by analysts who were worried that a “group think” would be perpetuated in the G if new blood were drawn from the old blood bank. But, it could simply be that the PAP can no longer afford to raid the two sectors lest they find themselves denuded of talent.
4. Voters will be partying a lot more…
Voters now have Singaporeans First, which was launched in August 2014, and, if its application made on May 15 is approved, also a People’s Power Party. That means that Singaporeans will have nine opposition parties to choose from in the next poll, beating the 1984 GE record of eight. But it’s still the same familiar faces all around. Mr Goh Meng Seng, formerly from the National Solidarity Party which stood in Tampines GRC, is behind the People’s Power Party (PPP) while Mr Tan Jee Say helms Singaporeans First. He contested under the SDP ticket in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC in the last election and was a candidate for the last presidential election as well.
Voters will have a few more rallies to attend this time around it seems.
5. Some places are more popular than others…
The opposition parties seem to be scrambling for the same wards. Among those eyed by more than one party are Tanjong Pagar, Tampines, Marine Parade, Pasir Ris-Punggol and Bishan-Toa Payoh GRCs; and the single seats of Whampoa, Mountbatten and Potong Pasir. The Democratic People’s Party, Reform Party, SDP and SingFirst – have indicated interest in or held walkabouts in Tanjong Pagar GRC. Why? Because Mr Lee Kuan Yew is no longer there and they think the ward will be a pushover?
Here are who’s left in Tanjong Pagar GRC, besides the above-mentioned Mr Chan Chun Sing, who takes care of Buona Vista.
Dr Chia Shi-Lu, 40, in charge of the Queenstown area, is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Singapore General Hospital. He is from the 2011 batch.
Ms Indranee Rajah, 52, takes care of Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru and Tanglin-Cairnhill wards. She is also the Senior Minister of State for Law and Education, and entered politics in 2001.
Dr Lily Neo, 62, runs Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng. The medical practitioner entered politics in 1996 and was elected to Parliament as a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1997.
6. But where will the boundaries be?
All that walking around wards is going to come to nothing if the electoral boundaries are changed, opposition politicians noted. But perhaps some light will be shed as two MPs will be asking questions in Parliament on July about when the Electoral Boundaries Review Commission has been formed. Why is this important? Because whole GRCs have been split up in the past, disappeared or merged into other wards. The time between the publication of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee’s report and the calling of an election have ranged from one day to 56 days.
7. The fate of Potong Pasir
After how many years, Potong Pasir returned to the PAP fold in the last GE. Its veteran MP Mr Chiam See Tong, 80, of the Singapore Democratic Alliance, had his wife, Lina, contest the seat. She lost by a mere 114 (0.72%) votes to PAP’s Mr Sitoh Yih Pin. Mrs Chiam is now a non-constituency MP.
It seems that SDA would like to wrest it back but others are also looking to take it, like the DPP.
8. The PAP gets touchy-feely
At the grassroots level, the PAP is moving away from mass events to more intimate, smaller meetings with constituents. MPs spend more time going door-to-door and engaging residents over social media. The party branches even shift their Meet-the-People sessions to various places. Opposition politicians will probably say it is just taking a leaf from their playbook. They too have been upping the ante at ground level with constituency visits that they broadcast through social media platforms.
9. The SDP gets professional
Since SDP chief Chee Soon Juan was discharged from bankruptcy in November 2012, his party has been taking pains to spruce up its image. It’s been churning out papers addressing the concerns of the Malay community and future policies and professionalising its political work. For example, it came up with its own paper on managing town councils on May 16 while the WP leaders were under attack for mismanaging theirs. More recently, the party penned a quick piece in response to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s comments on the need for a “natural aristocracy” in Singapore.
10. And the GE will be held in….
Dr Ng didn’t give anything away except that the PAP is ready, which is the standard answer to questions of this nature. He said that if the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong decides to call the polls soon, “we shouldn’t hold him back”. “If he wants to go, we’ll be ready.” This is so odd. That call has always been with the PM. You wouldn’t think anyone could hold him back! That aside, the betting is that it would be held within six months, perhaps after PM’s biggest platform, the National Day rally, in August.
Tea, anyone?
Featured image by canopic via Flickr.
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