Many have said that Singaporeans are the real issue and cause for why the country is in the state it is. I'm on the other end of Canada from where nayr69 is, and I'm just tired of being active in this forum or even thinking about Singapore and Singaporeans in general. The majority of Singaporeans are happy or just do not realize that there are many serious long term issues with the country caused by their apathy and willingness to surrender thinking.
.
You know, I am thinking about this and its not as easy as you say. The reason is that I would suspect that more then 50% of the singapore work force works directly or indirectly for some govt entity. Due to the pervasiveness of the govt in the economy, the country basically functions on a socialist style set up. The number of people employed by the govt directly (teachers, police, etc), the SAF, various stat boards and GLCs is huge. anyone will tell you that the bureaucracy and govt is very bloated. Just look at how many deputy prime ministers and ministers you have in the PMO. People vote for the PAP to preserve their rice bowls. If Any competent oppo party won the elections, the first order of things would be to trim the red tape and cut the fat. Sinkies are balless, yes, but due to the octopus like reach of the govt in the economy, they know they are also employed directly or indirectly by them. this is part of the PAP plan to hold this sword over their heads. i.e. vote for me or you may not have a job.
I know some teachers that are afraid to say anything anti-PAP in the lunchroom of their school or to their fellow colleagues for fear of not knowing who will report them. The PAP basically shows all these people working for them that if you play ball, you can thrive in the system. All the ex SAF scholar generals walking around is a great example of this. Coupled with the lack of a viable opposition aka PAP Lite known as WP, its safer to vote the PAP when the consequence of voting no is too severe.
I bet that if you did a study of who these 30%-40 oppo voters are, you will find a lot of them do not have any affiliation with any governmental agency and hence have no fear of what will happen to their rice bowl if they do not vote PAP.