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SINGAPORE: Three out of 10 Singaporeans are political cynics and MPs from the People's Action Party said it is important to keep this number low.
They believe it is difficult to act in the best interest of the country if people doubt their credibility and trustworthiness.
They were responding to a study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) which measured political cynicism among Singaporeans.
The result did not come as a surprise to many as this level of political cynicism was evident during the watershed General Election in May and a keenly fought Presidential Election.
In the IPS study, respondents were asked whether politicians quickly forget their election promises after a campaign, whether having power is more important to politicians than catering to people's wishes, and whether people are often manipulated by them.
While the IPS study did not differentiate between politicians from the ruling or opposition parties, it is believed this cynicism is targeted, to a greater degree, at the ruling party.
But some PAP MPs are undaunted.
Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC, Mr Vikram Nair, said: "There's certainly more criticism levelled at the PAP than the opposition. Part of it is the fact that we've been in government for so long.
"But right now, the opposition is controlling one GRC and one SMC, so they are also responsible for more things. I guess the more things you're responsible for, the more they too will find themselves probably getting criticised."
Mr Baey Yam Keng, Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, said: "I think it shows people are discerning. They do have a view so they will not trust everything they hear or see.
"I think it's good compared to other developed economies. It's lower than US or Netherlands. It's a reflection of how Singapore population is more educated and more informed. Personally, it's not necessarily a bad sign."
In the US, a similar study found 47 per cent to 73 per cent of the people were 'cynical'.
Mr Baey said that Singapore's level of cynicism is not alarming, and that each society needs to be looked at on its own.
He added that Singapore has to find its equilibrium, where people, government, ruling party and opposition parties can co-exist.
But the MPs qualify that cynicism does need to be kept in check.
Mr Nair said: "Cynicism is also infectious. If someone is cynical, it's possible especially if they write a lot about it. They could get other people to be cynical so that the number may grow. That is a danger we face.
"But it's always easier to criticise than to address every criticism levelled against you. So there's a limit to how much we will be able to do to counter that."
Singapore Management University's Assistant Professor Eugene Tan said: "It's important that we keep the number of cynical Singaporeans to the political process to a minimum, simply because we're at the stage of our political development where it's important for every Singaporean to be engaged.
"There are severe challenges, and if talk about active citizenry, that cannot take place if you have a citizen who is cynical about the political actors."
The IPS study implies that policymakers should exploit the Internet and the new media in their engagement efforts. In addition, the study suggests politicians hold interpersonal discussions to reach out and convert the cynics.
Mr Nair said: "For myself, I never run away from critics. I'm actually quite happy to get involved in debates. Quite often, I'm also seeing people writing very long acrimonious e-mails, sometimes anonymously to my inbox.
"But the trouble is if you write detailed responses to every one of them, you really won't have the time to do your other work. So I think there probably needs to be some balance." Mr Nair agrees and believes that more should be done to educate Singaporeans about the work that politicians do.
Channel NewsAsia also approached opposition MPs on this issue but they declined to comment.
http://news.insing.com/news/importa...nics-a-minority-pap-mps/id-3cb13e00?nav=50100
They believe it is difficult to act in the best interest of the country if people doubt their credibility and trustworthiness.
They were responding to a study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) which measured political cynicism among Singaporeans.
The result did not come as a surprise to many as this level of political cynicism was evident during the watershed General Election in May and a keenly fought Presidential Election.
In the IPS study, respondents were asked whether politicians quickly forget their election promises after a campaign, whether having power is more important to politicians than catering to people's wishes, and whether people are often manipulated by them.
While the IPS study did not differentiate between politicians from the ruling or opposition parties, it is believed this cynicism is targeted, to a greater degree, at the ruling party.
But some PAP MPs are undaunted.
Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC, Mr Vikram Nair, said: "There's certainly more criticism levelled at the PAP than the opposition. Part of it is the fact that we've been in government for so long.
"But right now, the opposition is controlling one GRC and one SMC, so they are also responsible for more things. I guess the more things you're responsible for, the more they too will find themselves probably getting criticised."
Mr Baey Yam Keng, Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, said: "I think it shows people are discerning. They do have a view so they will not trust everything they hear or see.
"I think it's good compared to other developed economies. It's lower than US or Netherlands. It's a reflection of how Singapore population is more educated and more informed. Personally, it's not necessarily a bad sign."
In the US, a similar study found 47 per cent to 73 per cent of the people were 'cynical'.
Mr Baey said that Singapore's level of cynicism is not alarming, and that each society needs to be looked at on its own.
He added that Singapore has to find its equilibrium, where people, government, ruling party and opposition parties can co-exist.
But the MPs qualify that cynicism does need to be kept in check.
Mr Nair said: "Cynicism is also infectious. If someone is cynical, it's possible especially if they write a lot about it. They could get other people to be cynical so that the number may grow. That is a danger we face.
"But it's always easier to criticise than to address every criticism levelled against you. So there's a limit to how much we will be able to do to counter that."
Singapore Management University's Assistant Professor Eugene Tan said: "It's important that we keep the number of cynical Singaporeans to the political process to a minimum, simply because we're at the stage of our political development where it's important for every Singaporean to be engaged.
"There are severe challenges, and if talk about active citizenry, that cannot take place if you have a citizen who is cynical about the political actors."
The IPS study implies that policymakers should exploit the Internet and the new media in their engagement efforts. In addition, the study suggests politicians hold interpersonal discussions to reach out and convert the cynics.
Mr Nair said: "For myself, I never run away from critics. I'm actually quite happy to get involved in debates. Quite often, I'm also seeing people writing very long acrimonious e-mails, sometimes anonymously to my inbox.
"But the trouble is if you write detailed responses to every one of them, you really won't have the time to do your other work. So I think there probably needs to be some balance." Mr Nair agrees and believes that more should be done to educate Singaporeans about the work that politicians do.
Channel NewsAsia also approached opposition MPs on this issue but they declined to comment.
http://news.insing.com/news/importa...nics-a-minority-pap-mps/id-3cb13e00?nav=50100
