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No. I was not at Oxford. The main issue revolving around TJS are public perceptions. If, as it seems to be the case, the previous party TJS was associated with seems disinclined to have much dealings with him, then it would be a stretch to argue that his prospects improve a bit more with...

That last part I would agree with. Ultimately, I think some of the smaller parties will make a last ditch effort to get some sort of collaboration with WP so as to improve their chances, but it will not be forthcoming.

It's all about steady ground work. Nothing can replace direct face-to-face contact offline.

A lot of voters might vote on the basis of policies, but there is always a segment of voters -- a segment that is large enough to ultimately decide the outcome of elections -- who vote largely on the basis of whether they can or cannot relate to candidates. As of now, I would say that a...

In HK, a protest movement has many thousands of adherents who are prepared to step forward and be counted as can be seen even from this Hong Kong Baptist University commencement (graduation) ceremony last Friday. They are the "foot soldiers" of a movement. In Singapore, on the other hand, you...

The provision of passive, instead of active, support seems very much a Singaporean thing. The Raffles Place stabbing incident on Friday is a metaphor or further illustration of this phenomenon. In today's Sunday Times, one of the few heroes of the incident, the KPMG auditor, Mr Nazir (who...

This 10 November blog post seems a further reinforcement of the 15 October FB Note. http://thehearttruths.com/2014/11/10/i-am-tired-i-do-not-know-if-i-can-still-carry-on-the-flight-if-its-just-me/ The opining (or whining) the fact that: "The foot soldiers were never going to come."

If you are saying splinter in terms of a couple of Establishment personalities stepping forward and standing as opposition candidates, then, yes, I can see that happening. However, that is unlikely to trouble the PAP; they would view it as simply a pin-prick. It would not constitute a serious...

It is very difficult to see any split within the PAP or even the emergence of a splinter group (which really is the same thing). It is unfortunate that Dr Tan Cheng Bock (whom I respect) made the mistake of mentioning just after the Aug 2011 PE that some PAP grassroots had supported him and not...

A possible split in the PAP, which has been mentioned a few times by other people, seems quite unlikely to me. Because Tan Cheng Bock said some PAP grassroot people indicated that they had supported him during the presidential election, others think that a split in the PAP is a real...

The focus on the 1990s is to highlight the mistakes that were made then and to ensure others learn some lessons. However, judging by the actions of some civil society activists, it seems that either they are unaware of that recent history or they do not wish to learn anything from it.

In the UK, the threshold for retaining the election deposit for parliamentary elections has fallen over the years. Today it is 5%. Even then many candidates cannot retain their deposits as 5 and 6 candidate contests are very common. In fact in a by-election on the 20th of this month 13...

In the upcoming GE the contest is clearly between PAP & WP. The other parties (and personalities) have effectively been sidelined but they are not going to disappear quietly. Not putting up robust opposition to the PAP or speaking up for activists (as Teo Soh Lung had lamented) is only...

The key lesson of this relatively recent Singapore political history of 20-25 years is that the Singapore electorate is heavily socially and politically conservative. (However, you will not get that feeling in the online world which is simply a gathering place for all the very hardcore anti-PAP...

Where one is talking in terms of important lessons to be learnt, then it would be equally valid if Singapore's political history were to start from the 1980s (although the 1991 GE is equally valid as a starting point). JBJ's victory in the 1981 Anson by-election is important, but the 1984 GE was...

Netizens should focus on the 1990s, not the 1960s There has been plenty of focus on the events of 50 years ago, including those chronicled in a recently released documentary film. However, in my opinion, those events have dubious relevance in understanding Singapore’s current political...

A flood of donations might ease the hardship of not having an army October 28, 2014 at 7:56am In a FB Note on 15 October 2014, Mr Roy Ngerng bemoaned the fact that he has been “fighting on the front but without an army behind” him. As has become his custom, Mr Ngerng’s note is loosely...

Indeed, that was TJS' rationalisation in the run-up to GE2011 for his decision to stand on the SDP ticket. Maybe that was the case. I note that he gave the same rationalisation for not standing as a WP candidate in the same GE. Subsequently, however, he disclosed that insofar as WP was...

In the run-up to GE2011 it seems SDP was one of the few parties (perhaps the only one) that was prepared to give TJS an existing party ticket to stand on. In consequence, he gained some public profile, i.e., due to the SDP offering him and AYG slots in a GRC team. It also seems that SDP's...

TJS seems to have put out this statement because Netizens asked him to keep them informed of the other parties response to his letter to meet. For the most part it seems that he and SFP have been given a lukewarm response by the other parties. This is why he really does not have much to...