Singapore's rulers suffer
by-election loss By Simon
Roughneen
SINGAPORE - In a surprise
result, Singapore's long-ruling People's Action
Party (PAP) at the weekend suffered a second
consecutive by-election loss since winning the
2011 general election, ceding the island state's
Punggol East seat to the main opposition Workers'
Party.
The result saw opposition
politician Lee Li Lian take the Workers' Party's
seventh seat in parliament, a small but
significant win for proponents of a more pluralist
political system in the wealthy city-state.
The PAP, which has governed Singapore
mostly unopposed since 1959, holds 80 of
parliament's 87 seats, a majority secured at the
2011 elections where only 60% of eligible voters
turned out.
Lee, a 34-year-old sales
trainer, took the contested seat in a
northeast constituency,
close to one of the island state's main border
crossings with Malaysia. By winning 54.5% of the
vote on Saturday, Lee outpaced PAP candidate Koh
Poh Koon by more than 10 percentage points. She
also received 13 percentage point more votes than
at the 2011 general election, when she finished
second to a PAP candidate.
Though the
result came as an electoral surprise, the PAP may
have erred in choosing a candidate without a solid
constituency base - in keeping with the party's
long-standing method of choosing highly educated
and qualified candidates from across the
city-state rather than local politicians known in
particular constituencies.
The
down-to-earth Lee "was able to identify with the
Punggol East voter," said Reuben Wong, a political
scientist at the National University of Singapore.
"She is the closest among the four candidates to
the demographic profile of this ward," he told
Asia Times Online.
The by-election was
called when PAP incumbent Michael Palmer, who was
parliamentary speaker, ceded the seat he won in
2011 after admitting he had cheated on his wife.
A 2012 by-election in the nearby Hougang
constituency was called when Workers' Party
incumbent Yaw Shin Leong was forced from office
and from the party in another of Singapore's
increasingly common sex scandals. The Workers'
Party retained that seat, however, which the
opposition party has held since 1988.
Though ballot-casting was restricted to
just over 31,000 eligible voters, the by-election
had the trappings of an early-term local
plebiscite on the performances of PAP in office
and the Workers' Party as opposition. Singapore's
next national election is more than three years
away.
Since the PAP returned to office in
2011, it has had to deal with public gripes over a
fast rising cost of living, housing shortages and
anti-immigrant sentiment in a country where
foreigners now make up 40% of the 5.3 million
population. Foreigners buoy several crucial
business sectors, including electronics, chemicals
and financial services in the US$250 billion
economy.
They are all issues the
opposition Workers' Party is using to challenge
the PAP's legitimacy. To the cheers from party
supporters and Punggol East onlookers, the
Workers' Party's Secretary General Low Thia Khiang stumped for Lee
at a pre-election rally in Punggol East by
reminding them of the first-world woes of living
in Singapore.
"We all have to deal with
rising food prices, rising transport costs, rising
healthcare costs," he intoned, raising cheers from
the estimated 3,000 or so light blue-clad Workers'
Party supporters who attended a rally in a sodden
field behind a Chinese temple in the constituency.
On the other side, the PAP was not able to
capitalize on the power of incumbency. In the
run-up to the vote, the government announced new
incentives to goad Singaporeans to have more
children, pledging to spend $2 billion on
incentives such as childcare, longer parental
leave periods, cash gifts to parents to try
increase Singapore's 1.3 fertility rate, a figure
that lags well below the natural 2.1 replacement
level.
Several voters interviewed by Asia
Times Online said that, though welcome, the scheme
is unlikely to offset the baby deficit unless
living costs drop and housing shortages are
managed.
In the run-up to the vote, the
final two Workers' Party rallies last week were
notable for attracting much larger crowds than PAP
events.
"Everyone knows what the PAP
says," said Steven Lim, a pro-PAP voter who runs a
watch shop in Punggol East. "They have always been
in government and are always in the news, so more
people are more likely to attend a Workers' Party
rally as they don't know as much about them."
Workers' Party events for the by-election
were also notable for pulling in party supporters
from across the island, boosting numbers and
generating an enthusiasm that the PAP could not
match. To a much smaller crowd of around 600
onlookers on the Thursday night before the vote,
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sought to
remind voters of the PAP's record in office, which
has presided over a jump in gross domestic product
per capita from $516 in 1956 to today's $60,000 -
a level among the world's highest.
"Why
does Punggol East look like this?" asked Prime
Minister Lee, pointing to the intricate
infrastructure around the neighborhood. "Because
the government did it," he said. He also warned
against what he termed "divisive politics", which
he characterized as when "we slap one another and
call it checks and balances."
Whether or
not the Workers' Party win signals that the
country is finally transitioning into a genuine
two-party political system remains unclear. The
Workers' Party appeared to acknowledge as much
even with the electoral win.
"Despite this
victory, the Workers' Party is still a small party
with much to do and improve upon," party
chairwoman Sylvia Lim told reporters. Putting a
brave face on Saturday's result, Prime Minister
Lee reminded that by-election dynamics can
sometimes work against the incumbent. "The
governing party always has a tougher fight," he
said.
Simon Roughneen is a
freelance journalist covering Southeast Asia. He's
on twitter @simonroughneen
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