No. Arrogant or not, it's not up to the SDP to paint. It's up to the electorate to decide.
The arrogance - IMHO - lies in the way WP chose not to reply to SDP's e-mails. If they had responded and kindly rejected the offer, it would have been viewed differently. CSJ would not have bungled and published the e-mails.
Furthermore, CSJ approaching WP and the other parties was entirely in character. He and TSJ both believe in opposition unity.
I almost choked. CSJ's bungling is now blamed on WP.
CSJ approaching WP the way he did was entirely in character. Everybody not only WP would be extremely worried if they are approached this way. I do not know how many times he has changed his plan about "opposition unity". The candidate/TC may not have been the first proposal he would have made. Maybe the offer not to contest with territorial exclusivity in GE 2016 was the original intention. That could also be what WP was thinking when they received the first email. If this was what WP had thought and they had no plan to think so far, they would not have a desire to meet. To view that as arrogance would be to view this with green tinted eyes.
Anyway if SDP was sincere in "opposition unity" they should have just followed the examples of NSP and SSP without setting any conditions. I believe this must be in WP's mind as well. In fact, CST took the added trouble to clarify with MSM on the mistake that SSP had collected nomination papers. By setting conditions, it is as good as saying, without conditions being met, SDP would throw "opposition unity" to the wind. This showed how much SDP or rather CSJ (we now know he had acted without seeking his CEC's approval) believes in "opposition unity". And the rest of the episode that we now know was a fabrication just to save face after they had made public the first email and WP had maintained its silence. Without going public, they would not have gone into such lengths to cook up such a great story that even CSJ himself admitted eventually that he knew WP would never have agreed.
This whole episode cannot be blamed on any other party than SDP's own internal problems. There was no consensus on whether to contest and CJS acted ultra vires to make public his emails and made those proposals that had made him the laughing stock. No wonder he got voted out on the participation in the BE. I think instead of finding fault with others, SDP should look inwards to analyse how such an embarrassment could have taken place and what steps are required to prevent this from happening again. And the people who have resigned, including a Dr Ang, according to the rumour, are these the end of the trouble and what can be done to prevent further deterioration.That is probably what is of immediate priority.
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