Netizens: We know why PAP won big
September 12th, 2015
Singaporean netizens think they know the reason why PAP won big in GE2015: the addition of massive numbers of new citizens to the electorate since GE2011, coupled with expert gerrymandering.
A quick scan through the 300+ comments in this TRE editorial – ‘GE2015 results (final updates)‘ – and The Online Citizen’s Facebook page shows that many netizens subscribe to this theory.
There is ample evidence to back it up. Take this webpage from none other than the Prime Minister’s Office for example [Link].
As early as July 2012, a year after GE2011, in welcoming new citizens that saw comfortable victories in their constituencies late last night/early this morning, PM Lee Hsien Loong gave the following speech [Link]:
Singaporean netizens think they know the reason why PAP won big in GE2015: the addition of massive numbers of new citizens to the electorate since GE2011, coupled with expert gerrymandering.
A quick scan through the 300+ comments in this TRE editorial – ‘GE2015 results (final updates)‘ – and The Online Citizen’s Facebook page shows that many netizens subscribe to this theory.
There is ample evidence to back it up. Take this webpage from none other than the Prime Minister’s Office for example [Link].
As early as July 2012, a year after GE2011, in welcoming new citizens that saw comfortable victories in their constituencies late last night/early this morning, PM Lee Hsien Loong gave the following speech [Link]:
In the above photo, DPM Teo handed the “certificate of citizenship” to Chong Kuin Sheong, 37, and his family on 2 August 2015. It is not known if Mr and Mrs Chong, who are clearly of voting age, were “in time” to vote in the GE that took place barely a month later.
In any case, it is a given that new citizens will vote for the party that gave them citizenship.
Also, new citizens that hail from, as PM Lee puts it, “many different parts of the world” will not give two hoots about Singapore’s culture, from a historical perspective. In other words, they will not care that Singapore has or used to have 4 main races and 4 official languages representing each of the 4 races.
Pinoys will continue to speak Tagalog and Myanma will still converse in Burmese, while not a few new citizens from India speak Hindi. New citizens from China – of which there are many – speak putonghua or Mandarin, one of Singapore’s 4 official languages, more by happy co-incidence than design. They could not care less that Singapore has 4 official languages and probably secretly wished their own native tongue was one of them.
New citizens – who were not born nor grew up in Singapore – are unfamiliar with names such as JBJ, Tang Liang Hong, Francis Seow and Dr Lee Siew-Choh. Even “current” politicians like Chiam See Tong, Dr Chee Soon Juan, Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim, Kenneth Jeyaretnam and Tan Jee Say pose a mystery to them.
All these new citizens know is to vote for the party that kindly gave them the nice certificate, the baby-pink IC, and the red passport that is recognised throughout the world.
Many GE2015 phenomena make complete sense
A number of things in GE2015 now make perfect sense in the light of this theory.
For example, it is now easy to understand why the PAP logo and PM Lee’s grinning face, especially, were plastered all over the island this election. It was to remind new citizens who it was who granted them Singapore citizenship, and to whom the favour ought to be repaid.
PAP’s campaign slogan – “With you, for you, for Singapore” – also makes perfect sense. It is, firstly, telling new citizens PAP was “with you” on your journey towards Singapore citizenship; secondly, that Singapore was built “for you”; and thirdly, that now, having obtained Singapore citizenship, you must vote PAP to do what is right “for Singapore”.
Seen in this light, PM Lee asking for a “strong mandate” makes complete sense too. He asked for a “strong mandate” not because he was desirous of one, but because he knew he would get it.
The periodic reports PM Lee got about how many new citizens were added to which precinct or constituency gave him the confidence that he would receive a “strong mandate” from the people. The only question was: how strong?
Do you agree with the theory that loyal new citizens caused a 10% swing in votes from the Opposition to PAP, despite what many native Singaporeans perceived as the incumbents’ poor governance since GE2011?
What do you think?
http://www.tremeritus.com/2015/09/12/netizens-we-know-why-pap-won-big/
