GE 2011 Conclusion... (blog post #6)

The general election this year is the most meaningful one by far, for this is the only one in which the PAP faced a strong opposition, which won one GRC in the end. Ever since the GRC system started, Worker's Party is the first political party to win at least one GRC to their side and a total of six seats in parliament. They finally managed to break through the GRC barrier which was first set up by the 'kiasu' PAP to help them secure more seats in the parliament through lots of hard work and numerous persuasive rallies. The final result was PAP winning a total of 81 seats, WP winning 6 and none for the rest of the political parties.

Personally, I feel that SDP losing Holland-Bukit Timah GRC to PAP was kind of unfortunate. One of the members of the SDP team competing for Holland-Bukit Timah is Mr Tan Jee Say, who was formerly SM Goh Chok Tong's private secretary. In one of SM Goh's speeches, he launched a personal attack on Mr Tan for 'betraying' PAP ad joining the opposition. I have seen Mr Tan's rallies online and his plans were detailed and far-sighted, especially his $60 Billion National Regeneration Plan. He was one of the potential candidates SDP had, but still lost to Mr Vivian Balabalakrishnan, fielded by the PAP.

According to The Straits Times, there will always be four scenarios in an election.

1: Opposition wipe-out.

In this scenario, PAP will continue to think that its policies are correct and perfect and there will be disagreeing voice in the parliament, which means PAP will continue on whatever policies it has, even the wrong and detrimental ones. In this case, the next election will be extremely dangerous as the people of Singapore will be extremely unhappy about PAP's dominance.

2: Only SMCs to opposition.

In this scenario, there will be an opposing voice in parliament but not strong enough to effectively resist PAP's wrong decisions. If this happens, PAP might continue with its wrong policies despite the opposing voice and might earn the public's unhappiness too.

3: One GRC to opposition.

This scenario is the optimal one, as one team from the opposition has already broken through the GRC barrier. This would mean a voice in the parliament strong enough to resist the government's decisions. This will also mean both political parties in the parliament will strive to do their best to improve the lives of the people in Singapore in order to secure their places in the next election so it benefits everyone.

4: Large portion to opposition.

In this scenario, there might be cabinet change, which is extremely undesired by everybody as it would mean a great loss of talented ministers already in the parliament, which will be extremely detrimental to Singapore in the long run.

In this election, the result came out as the optimal one, with six seats in total to Worker's Party. This will ensure that there is enough opposition in the government to resist or stop any wrong decisions by the PAP which would result in detrimental effects.