Goh Meng Seng got big ego!

Goh Meng Seng said:

Political situations changed extremely fast. For last elections, voters do not consider TC management as main problem and even WP will confidently say they have the experiences in TC management to run their TC if they win in Aljuied GRC. This might sound convincing during last GE, but now, no more.

When you can gain confidence from voters, naturally it is logical to contest more seats to project your strength. Similarly, it will be counter intuitive to contest more seats when you have shown that TC management can be screwed up! Just simple as that.

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Goh Meng Seng said:

More small parties or not, doesn't really matter to voters. This has been shown in 1997 when Uncle Chiam left SDP and joined the newly formed SPP to contest.

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tanwahp said:

I predicted you will use the changed political situation argument. But whether this "change" is real or imaginary, your argument is flawed. Has WP's standing gone down below all other opposition parties because of TC management? If no, why should WP field less candidates since people believes it still has the best abilities to run a constituency compared to other opposition?

If yes, what is stopping other parties from contesting against PAP and WP and cause WP to lose their deposits? In history, no third party candidate has split votes and caused a change of results by contesting, except in the latest Presidential election.



Unfortunately not. Uncle Chiam lost 15% of his votes by going to SPP. No other opposition candidate would have survived a 15% cut had they not gained much goodwill.

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Goh Meng Seng said:

It doesn't really matter. May the strongest team win!

However, situation doesn't look bright for all opposition parties though. Most likely we will end up with one or two SMCs for opposition only. The ever lasting, never ending Town Council saga has inevitably damaged opposition as a whole, eroding middle ground voters' confidence in all opposition parties.

Whether we like it or not, WP's credibility has been severely dented, so do all other political parties' by virtue of the fact of "opposition affiliations". PAP just need a mere 5% swing against WP and thus, they will win back Aljunied GRC. When LTK declared "Nobody wants to work for me, Prime Minister!", that's the end of opposition. How can WP convince middle ground voters in other constituencies to vote for WP if they know WP will face problem in getting people to work for them to run their Town Councils?

Thus, I think WP's intended expansions into other people's territories will only be destructive to the progress of democratic development. Even if WP managed to win all the 23 seats which they have contested in last GE, it will be doubtful that they can handle all the Town Councils which will come with such victories!

Thus, it is only logical for WP to keep it small and not intrude into other people's territories, lest it would be seen very negatively by both voters as well as other opposition parties. It just cannot swallow more than it can eat, else it risks choking itself to death. What WP needs to do now is to consolidate itself and defends its current turfs that it holds.

If WP has performed well in parliament, maybe then middle ground voters would still consider to continue to support them, despite of their poor performance in TC management. I would have supported them as well by giving way to them. However, it has both poor or mediocre performances in and out of parliament, I do not think it is justifiable for us to support its expansion effort. WP should just focus and concentrate on those places which it has contested in GE2011 instead of expanding into other places unnecessarily. It has lost the moral ground to do so and it should not try to go into unnecessary multi-corner fights with other parties.

It would be even wiser for WP to reduce the number of seats it will contest in the coming GE. This will reaffirm itself as a "responsible" opposition party which will not try to win more seats when it has shown its weaknesses in managing its current ones. This may help WP to gain back confidence from the middle ground voters and win more seats instead.

PAP will have a field day using TC management as their KEY Election issue in the coming GE, exploiting it as the Natural HIGHER ENTRY BARRIER for all opposition parties. PAP will not want to debate on all other key policy issues and will be happy to use this TC management as a diversion tactic. Thus, it is only in the interests of all opposition parties that WP scale down its number of contests so to convince voters that TC management will not be a problem if WP only focus on running just a few constituencies.

In fact, it would give voters more confident in voting in any opposition parties if they are not too ambitious in too many candidates. With the introduction of a couple of new parties, this may mean that all seats will still be contested with all parties maintaining small number of candidates slated for contest.

Town Council management has never been a problem for opposition in the past 25 years, why is it an issue now? At its peak, SDP has run THREE Town Councils concurrently and we did not see any problems arising with it. So why now?

Opposition should not let PAP to exploit the TC issue as the key elections issue. This can only be done when all opposition parties are not too ambitious in fielding their candidates. Big number of contests will no longer be a show of strength but rather, will become a source of FEAR for the voters: Can you handle all the TCs if you win all the seats? Thus, I am still hoping that opposition parties will cut down the number of candidates so that possibilities of multi-corner fights will be reduced tremendously.

Goh Meng Seng

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Cerebral said:

And your research is from......?

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xpo2015 said:

Vote PAP lah! Only one option to choose!

Oppositions got ten!!!! Choose which one?

So confusing!! If no good how?

You buy cars you choose familiar brands right?

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Pek Kim Lui said:

which politician does not hv big ego?

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GoldenDragon said:

Chen Show Mao.

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