Failure of PAP = Success for Singapore

[Avantas]

In an article published titled “How will the PAP fare in a long recession“, Senior writer Chua Mui Hoong warned that the PAP may lose the popular vote in a prologed recession and it will be a ‘failure’ which both the party and Singapore have to contemplate. (read full article here)

Let me first correct the three factual inaccuracies in Ms Chua’s statement:

1. The PAP has never quite won the popular vote since the introduction of the GRC system which has seen nearly half or more of the constituencies being “won” by them without any contest.

In the last general election, only 56.6% of eligible voters were able to cast their votes. The PAP claimed it won 66.6% of the popular votes but this percentage is only a pathetic 29% of the total number of eligible voters.

2. The loss in popular vote will be a failure for the PAP, but a success for Singapore as this will usher in a new dawn in Singapore politics where voters are no longer held swayed by the “carrots” and “sticks” dangled at them by the PAP.

3. The PAP’s stranglehold on Singapore is what we have to contemplate instead: why can’t we kick it out of government after so many years?

We have to draw a clear demarcation between the party and the state. The PAP is a registered political party under the Registry of Societies. The government of Singapore is formed by the political party or a coalition of parties which won over half the popular vote in general elections held every 5 years as stipulated under the Constitution.

The PAP can fail, but not Singapore and Singapore will not fail in the event that the PAP does because I have confidence in our tiny, but highly educated population to produce another team of leaders to take over from the PAP.

The political party which is able to defeat the PAP at the polls will surely have sufficient talents in its ranks to form the government already.

It is high time the PAP fails to make way for a more deserving team of Singaporeans to run the country. In fact, it has already failed and failed miserably at that.

Read rest of article here:

http://wayangparty.com/?p=7301

 

[yellow_people]

Whatever Fang Zhi Yuan is smoking I want it.

The article is strangely titled, "Loss in popular votes is a failure for PAP..", yet how is it the PAP is still the party very much in absolute control? Mr Fang even acknowledges that the PAP only won 29% of the popular vote. Leaving aside the fact that the PAP percentage would have risen considerably had there not been several walkover constituencies; what it does prove is not a failure of the PAP but rather a failure of the electoral process.

Mr Fang then proceeds to state, "It is high time the PAP fails to make way for a more deserving team". I just can't visualize how this is going to happen. The party that takes over from the PAP is going to have the same absolute power as its predecessor. There is no guarantee that it will level the playing field or start reversing PAP's draconian state laws. All the more likely it will like the PAP consolidate it political power and act in preserving its own self-interest/?

Then again how does the process of making "way a more deserving team" come about? Through the electoral process? Remember the PAP has absolute power with just 29% of the popular vote. It like all authoritarian regimes will simply stuff the ballot boxes if it has too.

The only way I see the PAP failing is through a popular revolt. That will not happen until the people of Singapore have nothing to lose and everything to fight for.

As the former president of Singapore CV Devan Nair once wrote,"The post of no return has long passed for Singaporeans, and one fears they will perforce learn this lesson the hard way. In the ultimate analysis, this is probably best. The more painful the price paid to learn basic human lessons, the more firmly might they become embedded in the national fiber."