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- Apr 11, 2011
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I thought SDP was trying to position itself as a strong third party with its whole drive to build up an "alternative elite", what with their 7-man medical experts panel and their support within the arts community etc. The fact that they managed to get TJS and Dr Ang was also seen as a huge coup and a step in the direction of creating an "alternative elite" as opposed to the common-man working-class touch of WP.
However if you look at their internal CEC elections, the entire CEC is staffed with hardcore liberals / social activists. Their new Vice Chairman is Vincent Cheng. The chairman is Mohd Jufrie. The other CEC members include Francis Yong and John Tan, and Dr Ang and Michelle Lee are conspicuous by their absence. I was also surprised that James Gomez was not included seeing as he is one of the most hardcore activists of the lot. Another hardcore Chee loyalist who is not in the lineup is Gerald Sng.
I wonder if the SDP is also made up of two factions with one moderate faction which is more focused on "bread and butter" issues like economic policy etc, while the main core remains dedicated to its liberal ideals and issues like ISA, death penalty, S377A, freedom of assembly and so on.
It will be interesting to see whether TJS rejoins the SDP and if so whether he is co-opted into a senior leadership position.
Dr Chee might be wary of TJS and the latter may indeed have plans to take over the party and take it down a more moderate (and more relevant) route. Dr Chee himself will have realised by now that all their activism is not going to resonate with the voters.
It is honestly quite hard to imagine TJS joining any party other than the SDP because all his friends (most notably Dr Ang) are there. Unless they do another en-masse defection like what the ex-RP members did. That would completely decimate SDP, but it would also seriously damage TJS's political capital and risk having himself branded as another party hopper and turncoat, especially after the fallout of the PE and the growth of the blame-TJS-for-TCB's-loss crowd.
If he were to rejoin SDP it would also be hard to imagine him being contented with remaining subordinate to Chee and his activist friends. He would surely want to lead the party at some point because
1) He will want to make it more electable, and TJS is infinitely more electable than Dr Chee
2) He will want to capitalise on his increased profile following the PE but not be seen as another Dr Chee
3) Party leaders generally poll much higher than the average opposition candidate: look at GMS's results in Tampines even though his team was spectacularly unspectacular
However if you look at their internal CEC elections, the entire CEC is staffed with hardcore liberals / social activists. Their new Vice Chairman is Vincent Cheng. The chairman is Mohd Jufrie. The other CEC members include Francis Yong and John Tan, and Dr Ang and Michelle Lee are conspicuous by their absence. I was also surprised that James Gomez was not included seeing as he is one of the most hardcore activists of the lot. Another hardcore Chee loyalist who is not in the lineup is Gerald Sng.
I wonder if the SDP is also made up of two factions with one moderate faction which is more focused on "bread and butter" issues like economic policy etc, while the main core remains dedicated to its liberal ideals and issues like ISA, death penalty, S377A, freedom of assembly and so on.
It will be interesting to see whether TJS rejoins the SDP and if so whether he is co-opted into a senior leadership position.
Dr Chee might be wary of TJS and the latter may indeed have plans to take over the party and take it down a more moderate (and more relevant) route. Dr Chee himself will have realised by now that all their activism is not going to resonate with the voters.
It is honestly quite hard to imagine TJS joining any party other than the SDP because all his friends (most notably Dr Ang) are there. Unless they do another en-masse defection like what the ex-RP members did. That would completely decimate SDP, but it would also seriously damage TJS's political capital and risk having himself branded as another party hopper and turncoat, especially after the fallout of the PE and the growth of the blame-TJS-for-TCB's-loss crowd.
If he were to rejoin SDP it would also be hard to imagine him being contented with remaining subordinate to Chee and his activist friends. He would surely want to lead the party at some point because
1) He will want to make it more electable, and TJS is infinitely more electable than Dr Chee
2) He will want to capitalise on his increased profile following the PE but not be seen as another Dr Chee
3) Party leaders generally poll much higher than the average opposition candidate: look at GMS's results in Tampines even though his team was spectacularly unspectacular
