--
--
The results were shocking! Even to political analysts... Most of them attributed it to several reasons: feel-good effect of SG50, LKY's passing, PGP, AHPETC incident, lack of viable opposition, wearing off of the opposition novelty, left-leaning of PAP outflanking other parties' position, Tharman-effect, increasing hostility in the region, and many just generally felt that PAP really did worked hard over the past 4 years. And one factor that struck me the most is the psychological effect of having a large rallying crowd for WP: people who were politically "neutral" the previous round and voted for opposition to "have a voice in parliament" were scared off by the large opposition number turnout that they all turned to the incumbent to make sure the government can still be formed. It was a potential threat the last time, now shit just got real, and suddenly "checking" is less important than "doing" in the real world. "Neutral," in inverted commas, because I believe a lot of these swing votes belong to a group called "apolitical". And this, I think, despite the Whitewash, is worrying for the government; there's little unity in this if so many people are just swaying from side to side.
Oppositions were shocked too, and went back to do their thorough AAR. Amongst the many factors listed, there's probably little they can offer to improve; much of the swing, in my opinion, were PAP's pull instead of Opposition's push. However, if they do wanna go about "improving," just make sure your further leftward shift remains on an economically sound domain.
One thing I found very comforting, however, is the reaction of the opposition supporters: they scolded the Singaporeans' silent majority and want to "hear no more complains," (which sounded exactly like the threat to "repent" PAP have 4 years ago - what a turn of events), they blamed other oppositions for lowering the overall opposition standards (yes, in-fighting), and they even said they lost faith in democracy (they were just not prepared to accept the dark side of democracy when they fall into the "minority" portion). Truth is, they found faith in the democratic process - no one cried foul. No one suspected a blackout incident. No one accused the PAP of rigging (at least I have yet to hear it). They believe
in the process; they believe in the transparency; they believe in our civil service being corrupt-free. Even as they oppose the government, they agreed on our "cleanliness" and opposed on rational terms. However "backwards" some people say our democracy is, truth is, I believe, the system here is one of the most trusted ones. At least we don't have sponsors lobbying and backing us up financially (cues the US)
--
National Swing. Using Sun Xueling's analogy, the husband has been complaining but he chose to remain faithful
--
It'll be interesting to see what strategy this wife will use the next time round though; and of course, the next few years to come.
Oppositions might wanna reconsider having large crowd for rallies too haha
--
And to end off with some randomness, I have this one friend who saw the politician side of me and asked me to start volunteering and learning Malay. Right.
--
Sudden reflection: Singapore has always been ran like a Singapore Inc. but some things have changed...
