The ground was so sweet for the picking, yet the Opposition couldn't deliver. Why? Because they did politics as defined by the PAP. No hard hitting attacks ...while the PAP fires vollies of hard attacks on the Opposition. What did the Opposition do? We are not going to sink to that low. Were they rewarded? Big NO.
US politics have shown that negative ads work. Play it long enough, the ads sink into people.
Opposition parties should just pack bag and run. If you want to duel with the PAP, you must be prepared to hit hard.
Governments lose elections. Oppositions do not win elections.
All incumbent elected governments have the natural advantage of being the incumbent, and they also have the institutional advantages conferred upon them as the incumbent. For an elected government to lose, they must have really fcuked things up so bad.
What can the opposition do? Wait. Cultivate a good image and show that you are have not been slacking while waiting. As the opposition, you have no advantage and no initiative. You do not have the power to initiate policy, make changes. All you can do is provide some social support, advice, encouragement and build friendship. And wait.
If you get lucky, the incumbent gets cocky and screws things up. If you are unlucky, the incumbent does a good job and you continue to wait. If the incumbent suffered at the previous polls but is responsive to pull up its socks while you failed to make inroads, then you blew your chance.
PAP was once the opposition. If Lim Yew Hock did a good job, PAP and Ah Gong may not be around today. But Lim Yew Hock screwed things up and Ah Gong seized his opportunity. It's a combination of patience, luck and acumen. It's more than just making speeches. The only opposition politician that has something of Ah Gong's political acumen is Low Thia Khiang. Chee just wants to be another martyr. He lacks the necessary finesse to lead SDP from a weak opposition party into a leading opposition power, let alone win a local by-election. Chee is the kind of guy that can only make things happen if his path is paved for him. He was better off joining PAP years ago and trying to reform PAP from within. Till today, his plans for "reformation" is still in cold storage, while Singapore political landscape has already evolved from the use of social media in our political arena.