Letter: Political landscape and challenges for opposition parties in Singapore

by Teo Kueh Liang

I read with interest, The Independent Singapore’s Opinion, “Heng Swee Kiat: PAP must continue to win the trust of Singaporeans of different generations” & “Analysts: next GE could be held as early as November 2024” (Nov 7 & 8 respectively).

Generally, most Singaporeans especially the Snowflake Generation (Millennials) and some Strawberry Generation (Gen Z and Alpha) are satisfied with their social status and current living environment and do not want politics to change overnight.

These groups of Singaporeans are generally well-educated, tech-savvy, demanding, idealistic, and ambitious (in terms of their own career path development or business-mindedness). So, as far as they are able to secure a reasonably ideal job, get a HDB flat or condominium accommodation of their preferred choice and location for raising their families. In due course, they are not so particular about who and which political party will form the government.

This situation/scenario is also applied to most academics and professionals.

For businessmen or entrepreneurs, their priorities are generally established upon searching for business opportunities and securing reliable, lucrative business contracts in and out of Singapore based upon the conducive business environment. Hence, these business people are more interested or concentrated in making money, and be apathetic in the spectrum of politics.

Anyway, it is the strategic move adopted by the People’s Action Party (PAP) to target and place its vital focus on the aspirations, interests and priorities as well as the difficulties or plights (such as high costs of living, exorbitant prices of HDB flats and cars, high rental of commercial properties and utility bills) of Singaporeans of different generations.

If the PAP government keeps continually heading towards this right direction, and most importantly, trying hard to resolve all the predicaments of living faced by the different tiers/social classes and different generations of Singaporeans, I am confident that the PAP will achieve its amazing and sizeable results in the next General Election.

On the other hand, the opposition parties in Singapore are relatively weak because there are several political parties, their organizations are small in size, and their financial resources and talents are insufficient. The general impression they give to voters is that they are independent in their own affairs and have their own agendas, lacking of close cooperation among themselves like a piece of loose sand.

Recently, some of the political parties have formed their political coalitions ahead of next GE; this move is to improve strength by integrating resources.

For example, the People’s Alliance (the combination of Peoples Voice, the Reform Party, People’s Power Party and the Democratic Progressive Party) and another opposition coalition which was formed by the National Solidarity Party (NSP), Red Dot United (RDU), Singapore People’s Party (SPP) and Singapore United Party (SUP). However, the Workers’ Party and The Progress Singapore Party still remain individually independent.

The PAP has been the dominant political party in Singapore, it is simply because its political achievements are impressive, henceforth, re-elected continuously since 1959.

It is precisely for this reason that it has always been difficult for the opposition party to recruit outstanding talents to serve and stand guard for their GE.

Furthermore, some political analysts believe that the reason for the long-term weakness of the opposition parties in Singapore is the lack of alternative policies, while others believe that the opposition parties do not have alternative policies.

Thus, small opposition parties must cultivate party members and candidates and improve their “unreliable” image; they must avoid conflicting remarks and attract voters with rational arguments.

At the same time, the opposition party should use another strategy : move the main battlefield to the online world to expound their political parties’ platforms and future governing policies during the election campaign and try to significantly reduce campaign costs.

Editor: The letter does not represent the publication’s views, and we strongly disagree with the reasons the letter writer put forth regarding the difficulties faced by political parties in Singapore, without addressing the hurdles imposed by the incumbent political party.