Some Thoughts on the Election

As we come up to Polling Day this Friday, I thought that I should just share my thoughts on the election. I've been hearing arguments from both PAP and opposition supporters, but I'm more of a fence sitter at the moment and as the different parties bring up their own individual issues, I try to evaluate them as objectively as possible, but of course, we will look at them depending on our own circumstances.

Not to say that I support WP or opposition parties in general

(Image source: http://www.theonlinecitizen.com)

I think that having an opposition presence in Parliament is important. It is excruciatingly rare to find someone who is able to self-regulate themselves. The Nominated Member of Parliament scheme is an example cited by the incumbent as an opposition presence in government, but I do not think it is sufficient, can we really trust one party to have the ability to amend the constitution (which they can do with a majority of above 2/3) Yes, they offer a variety of views to be discussed in Parliament but as they say, talk is cheap, power is king.

But that said, I'm not entirely opposed to the PAP, they've done a reasonably good job for 50 years, which by most standards is a long time and we usually refer to the past for a glimpse into the future. But that said, there's always a clause when looking at fund results, "past performance is not a guarantee for future results". This, I think stands true for many aspects of life. 

There are many more hot button issues such as the high ministerial salaries, Population White Paper, train breakdowns, which if we want to talk about it, we can argue almost all day long. I actually had an interesting conversation with someone over the idea of a minimum wage in Singapore, which lasted for almost 30 minutes on its own. I think these are issues which Singaporeans are split over, where opposition and PAP supporters rally around.

Looking at almost any society, there will be those that benefit with the incumbent and those that don't. My view of society is that everyone is selfish. All of our hopes for an idealistic society almost never work out and people will try to take advantage of whichever situation they are placed in, just look at the collapse of the Soviet Union as an example and the success of democracy and capitalism. Nothing wrong, but it's just a truth I think we have to accept.

With this in mind, we should be looking at who we think are likely to serve our interests best in the future (ideally long-term). We can refer to the track record of the parties (I think that PAP has the best one, for pretty obvious reasons), the plans of the parties or their guiding principles and lead them back in relation to us. Let's look at one issue for instance. The AHPETC saga is more likely to affect a person living in a HDB than in private housing, as the town council manages the S&CC charges for HDB estates and would naturally be more interested in it.

Anyway, that's all for my two cents worth on the election. As for the outcome and its repercussions, I think that we'll just have to wait and see. Election results have a chance of yielding unexpected results, such as the landslide Conservative victory in Britain this mid-year.

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