Singapore does not need cooling-off day due to lack of genuine political competition
December 4th, 2009 | 
Author: Written by our Correspondent
A Singaporean by the name of Joshua Selvakumar had written to the Straits Times Forum today sharing his views on why Singapore doesn’t need a cooling-off day yet.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced lately that a cooling-off day on the eve of polling day when all forms of public campaigning will be banned to allow voters to reflect on their choices “calmly”.
The opposition has lambasted the latest move as a ploy to score an unfair advantage for the ruling party as the mainstream media is still allowed to report on the elections on the cooling-off day.
The Singapore media is tightly controlled by the ruling party and is largely pro-government.
Mr Johsua wrote that the cooling-day is unnecessary because compared to neighboring countries, Singapore’s “democracy exercise is a quiet one” due to the lack of genuine political competition between the different parties.
He poured scorn on the opposition’s ability to give the PAP a run for its money:
“You weigh the PAP players’ strength, teamwork, game strategy, professionalism and brand image against the opposition players’ lack of strength, teamwork, strategy, brand image and track record on the national front with only emotional support from fans. You know the winner even before the game has started,” he said.
Very few Singaporeans dare to join the opposition to challenge the ruling party due to its inherent risks and “dangers”.
The boundaries between the state and party are blurred in Singapore which is ruled continuously by the same party – the PAP for five decades since 1959.
MM Lee Kuan Yew said in an interview with Petir in 1984 when he was the Prime Minister that he is not afraid to admit that the PAP is the government of Singapore and vice versa.
With the ruling party in control of all major institutions such as the media, police and civil service, it is nearly impossible for any other political party to challenge its monopoly on power.
The litigious nature of Singapore politics which saw a few opposition politicians being bankrupted by ruinous defamation lawsuits also deter potential candidates from joining the fray.
As such, it is hardly surprising that the caliber and quality of opposition candidates are always a notch below the PAP’s though there is some improvement in the last election.
The PAP’s accomplishment of transforming Singapore from a third to first world country within one generation is also difficult to match.
While there are growing calls from the ground to have more opposition voices in parliament, most Singaporeans who only know the PAP government in their entire lives still prefer the status quo to remain.
The recent reforms introduced by Prime Minister Lee to allow more non-PAP voices into parliament may work against the opposition, with or without the cooling-off day.
Pragmatic Singaporeans will be more inclined to vote for the PAP knowing that they will still get the opposition candidate as the “best loser” in parliament to speak up for them.
Mr Joshua seems to epitomize the mindset of ordinary Singaporeans in the last paragraph of his letter:
“We should not have opposition parties for the sake of having them, but rather different voices from a cross-section of society. The move to have nearly one-fifth of non-PAP voices in Parliament is good enough. Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
Despite its clear-cut advantage, it is obvious that the PAP still does not feel secure about its position given the emergence of the new media as a “wild card” which is capable of throwing up surprises on the eve of polling day.
Posted in Editorial
pap feel insecure probably due to their internal polls showing that a few GRCs are showing a surge in opposition support and one of them is tanjong pagar.
don’t know how accurate these polls are because as time goes by,things can change. anyway,pap the “better safe than sorry” mentality comes up with redrawing GRC and introducing more NCMP and a cooling period to prevent too much loss if really election is “freaky”.
pap did not worry,they will still be the ruling party because there’s still a lot of apathetic singaporeans around and opposition is having a harder time than pap in finding minority candidates.
Indonesia and Australia has been quoted as illustrative example of parallel of cooling off period – HOW SELECTIVE OF INVALID CHOICE OF COMPARATOR.
Australia has a very strong tradition of independence of Judiciary upholding justice ruling against the Government and even the nation’s interest. The famous landmark Mabo decision disadvantage the Crown and mining industry but it is justice for aboriginal.Justice there is NEVER dependent on WHO is the litigant or defendant – JUSTICE DEPENDS ONLY ON MERIT OF JUSTICE.
Australia don’t have “thoughts” policing but crime policing. This cooling off period is intend to frivolously oppress and policing our “thoughts” and serve no definable proven advantages to country. It offends the freedom of thought. We don’t need any BOGUS MIND-READER to tell us what to do with our mind thoughts processes and decision-making regarding our own future.
If they really went through the motion of passing this legislation through Parliament, IT WILL SEND AN IRREVOCABLE MESSAGE TO ALL SINGAPOREANS AND FOREIGNERS OF THE INCUMBENTS’ DETERMINATION TO RULE OUR “THOUGHTS”, and not passing legislation to rule this country any better.
VOTERS WILL BE CONSCIOUS THAT THIS IS A LEGISLATION BORN OUT OF FAILURE TO GOVERN COMPETENTLY AND CONFIDENTLY, not born out of law and order needs or for the social and economic development and future of this country.
Singapore will become a pariah state not far from Cuba, North Korea and Iran. And in any crisis in the future, who dares to risks stepping in to help when we don’t trust ourselves to rationally decide our own future?
Let them enforce their will through Parliament, voters shall enforce their will through the ballot boxes in reply.
Guard the polling station on cooling day…….
You must make sure nobody will get into it. Be vigilant if you see anyone suspicious moving in and out of the the station make sure you report it to the opposition. You can use your mobile phone or your camera to take some photos and report it to Temasekreview.com.
Oh no, TemasekReview may not be able to report it, its cooling day, what to do…. what to do…
What should I do if I see people moving boxes on cooling day? Who to report since it is cooling day?
Why do you think there is such a special day? YEEEHHEEEEEYEEE…….Evil is lurking……..AHHHHHHAAAAAHAHAHHA…………….
Australia also has a rigorous press who bashes BOTH GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION POLITICS almost like a daily diet – COOLING DAY OR NO COOLING DAY,
There is a COMPETITIVE MARKET PLACE for information and all political thoughts of any acidity.
Do we have these advantages here for cool calm reflection of thoughts of any voting value consideration??
Of course, Indonesia’s democracy is close to pariah wayang.
Hypocrites and angels don’t mixed very well just like oil and water or do they??
“We should not have opposition parties for the sake of having them, but rather different voices from a cross-section of society. The move to have nearly one-fifth of non-PAP voices in Parliament is good enough. Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
But if the non-PAP voices in the parliament are chosen by the PAP, it is not meaningful. Let’s see what will happen after the next election.
” cy on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 8:21 pm
pap feel insecure probably due to their internal polls showing that a few GRCs are showing a surge in opposition support and one of them is tanjong pagar.”
Wow! Is *TANJONG PAGAR* really showing a surge in opposition support? Not very good for its minister there!
Extract from Morgan stanley report on singapore economy
My note: it confirms my view that election will be held before June 2010 (because world cup in june and unemployment will be heading up after june 2010 when job credit withdrawn and uncompetitive industries start to close shop or retrench)
Separately, we suspect job creation could remain weak for a while amid the macro recovery. The recent downturn has been a ‘job-rich’ one, as aggressive capacity expansion plans commissioned during the bull years were still being completed during the depths of the downturn and hirings had to take place in areas (such as pharmaceutical, chemicals, retail and hotel segments, etc.) where previously committed capex plans have come on-stream. Additionally, the government also operated as an employer of last resort and the Job-Credit Scheme also helped provide a cushion. However, this will have implications for the labour market going forward. A more resilient job market did not prevent adjustments from being borne out on the wage front as well as in terms of retail spending momentum. Going forward, to the extent to which corporates did not shed excess capacity, the incremental need to take on extra manpower during the upturn is also correspondingly lesser. Indeed, in our view, if hiring is ultimately tied to final external demand and with that capex expansion, the excess slack in the system and the time needed for capacity utilisation to normalise, we think that even when job declines eventually reverse, job creation could likely stay weak. With new labor market entrants every year, job creation has to reach a certain level below which the unemployment rate will still continue to rise.
J on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 9:20 pm
“The move to have nearly one-fifth of non-PAP voices in Parliament is good enough. Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
This FALSE PROPHETS of EMPTY HOPE and HOAXES OF CURES.
What is the difference of no opposition – not even one member in Parliament – and one of 20% opposition voice? When a Government’s agenda is “fixing” the opposition rather than managing country and economy, and they got 80% voting control, do you think anything will change???
I think they will spend 99% of the time, focus and energy “fixing” ALL the 20% opposition breathing down their neck and screwing up this country into even deeper quagmire of a phalanx of policy failures now impacting on us.
In that situation, you get exactly what you preached against – opposition for the sake of opposition on one side of the Parliamentary benches and on the other side, oppressing for the sake of oppressing.
NOW, HOW GOOD DOES THAT DO FOR YOU AND SINGAPORE, Blogger J ????
And if the Government won all the seats (and they now have 82 out of 84) IS IT NOT EVIDENT THAT TOO MANY COOKS ALREADY SPOILING THE BROTH causing so much distress and anguish among citizenry now??
There is no prescription documented from divine heaven which says that if this “colour” composition change, too many “cooks” spoilt the broth or too many “crooks” spoilt the broth which ever you may prefer of your suitably descript???
SINGAPOREANS WANT REAL CHANGE – not cosmestic “bums in the seats” in Parliament, DO YOU?
Cooling or no cooling,my mind is made up.Will vote for Opposition.Even if the PAP win at least I know I am not responsible for their win.
There will be 2 elections coming. General elections and presidential elections (in 2011).
Hear that Mah Bow Tan will be going for President.
Watch out for more corrupt behaviour from PAP.
The line should not be blurred between NCMP/NMP with Elected Opposition MPs..
The former can voice out..but they can never vote on important decisions.just see what happens to NMP Viswa when he spoke up.
Dumb question – does this translate into an EXTRA public holiday?
Work TOO stressful – will CLOUD my judgement on election day – need COOL-OFF day to RELAX and REFLECT on our election choices!
Don’t you all agree?
*btw PM LEE – you are an AWESOME dude – not only are you full of BULLSHIT….. you’re also full of HORSESHIT too!*
@cy on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 8:21 pm
“pap feel insecure probably due to their internal polls showing that a few GRCs are showing a surge in opposition support and one of them is tanjong pagar.”
You sure or not? Where do you get the facts from?
Tanjong pager leh!?!? Mostly old retirees one lor… staunch supporters of PAP-cum-LKY leh…
Unless the demograhics have changed in recent years – i SERIOUSLY do NOT believe this is true.
I could be wrong though – have been away from Singapore for the last couple of years…. Singapore might have changed…. for the “better”? hm…………
*deep thought, followed by a looonnnnnnnnnnng pause*
ayama, exactly my sentiment.
i really hope the Minister of Upturn the Downturn get the boots this coming election. I am still suffering from nightmare after watching his performance in youtube.
The thought of it continue to give me goose pimples…..
Population
Australia 21,780,000
Indonesia 245,452,000
Singapore 5,000,000
Australia and Indonesia, both have very much bigger populations than Singapore, covering a wider geographical area east to west and coast to coast and spread across different time zone. Singapores land area is only 700 sq metre.
Although this increases of over 11% from 9 days to 10 days minimum period for a GE, it camouflages the reality of an additional campaigning day. The 1 day cooling period does not reflect the necessity for a small country like Singapore especially with a small population base. But rather, it would certainly be more beneficial for the nation to show the whole world that Singapore is in fact, truely a first world country and is matured enough after 45 years to add an additional 1 day for political campaigning rather than a day of rest.
Ofcos there is no country in this world where the ruling party is helping its oppoisition to win. But then again, the rules must be fair for everyone to allow every Singaporean to make an informed choice rather than to obstruct, divide and rule. If unattended, Singaporeans, themselves will be drifting further and further apart by an invisible widening fault line.
As a young Singaporean, even the GRC system looks questionable?
82 vs 2 is no good.
It should be 52 vs 32 (appx 66.6%) reflecting the pple wish.
Rather than call it “cooling off day” it should be called “walkover day”. I think it’s a good idea. Let Singaporeans spend a day considering how they have stood idly by watching the Lee Family destroy any chance of an alternative government while, at the same time, destroying the nation’s reserves through GIC and Temasek and then hiding the true extent of the disaster using their usual dirty tricks.
Another option is that the Constitution be amended so that the Lee Family stay in power forever BUT they promise never to speak in public. LHL’s public statements are becoming more and more stupid. That’s the problem when everyone is scared of your dad: nobody will tell you you’re an idiot.
Tony Pang on Sat, 5th Dec 2009 2:44 am
“Tanjong pager leh!?!? Mostly old retirees one lor… staunch supporters of PAP-cum-LKY leh…
Unless the demograhics have changed in recent years – i SERIOUSLY do NOT believe this is true.”
Agree. But the demographics HAVE changed. most of the old supporters most prob died of old age or emigrated to JB to retire. there are so much foreign trash littering the singapore landscape now. “Unless the demographics have changed”?
Oh Now We Get it on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 11:13 pm
Oops! The paragraph in quotations was meant to be a quote. My opinion follows after the quote. Guess I should be careful next time!
J on Sat, 5th Dec 2009 11:27 am
OK, I see it now.
Cheers.
cy @ first post
“pap did not worry,they will still be the ruling party because there’s still a lot of apathetic singaporeans around and opposition is having a harder time than pap in finding minority candidates.”
Even 1 grc to opposition is one too many enough for pap to worry. In short, they worry is not securing 100% votes!
PAP is the most KIASU political party in the world !!!!