Some are very disturbed by the WP’s deliberate silence and inaction

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The opposition guessing game

January 8th, 2014 |

Author: Contributions

The mystery of a ‘non’ existing opposition party in the govt can be annoying to those who wanted the opposition to be more vocal and aggressive in speaking out on national issues. Some are very disturbed by the WP’s deliberate silence and inaction. It must be a conscious strategy to focus on local municipal issues, look after their wards well as nothing they say or do would affect national policies but more often than not be met with a tirade of robust and sometimes intimidating response. Thus, an avoidance strategy of keeping the nose clean and fight only during an election could be a well crafted and conscious position to take.

The PAP must be quite happy with the stand of the WP, lesser attack and lesser embarrassment. No need to constantly try to fix them. It is a kind of uncomfortable truce, I don’t rub you the wrong way, you don’t rub me the wrong way either. At the same time it may disappoint the supporters who expect more from the opposition party leading to a loss of confidence and desertion. The WP would definitely lose some points and some supporters from its inaction.
The inaction or non communication of the WP with the other opposition parties is causing much discomfort and apprehension and annoyance. Some are looking at this as aloofness, arrogance and incooperative and would make forming of an alliance against the PAP that much more difficult. The perception is like the rest of the opposition parties are inconsequential and does not matter and WP could go alone in its fight with the PAP.
Maybe the opposition parties should cool down and concentrate on what they want to do and how they would want to contest the next GE. It is unlikely that the WP could offer more than 30 good candidates at one go. Even if they could field 40, it would still leave more than 50 % of the seats available to the opposition parties. Actually other than the WP, there are only two or max three opposition parties that are worthy of contention and may win some seats, ie SDP, NSP and perhaps SPP. The rest can do whatever they want, make whatever noise they want, even contest in a 3 corner fight, they would not make a dent to these bigger parties.
Once the WP has made its claim on the SMCs and GRCs, the SDP and NSP could divide the leftover seats among themselves. There are enough seats for the rest to contest without fighting with the WP. There is no need to sweat the small stuff, to be angry because the WP did not want to talk to them or negotiate. Each party should simply put all its resources on the GRCs and SMCs they have chosen to contest and fight directly with the PAP without having to worry about the WP or vice versa.
The cake is big enough for all to share. There may be a few obvious weak GRCs, but really other than a handful, the rest of the GRCs are there for the taking. Many are borderline cases and for the opposition to take them is fair game. The invincibility is gone. The weight of a minister is now a liability.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean

* The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com.

 

[MadrigalWheel]

After all the furore of support for WP, surely people must feel that they are just hiding their heads in the sand, riding on the coat tails of PAPs constant faux pas and in time gain enough seats for PAP to ask them to form a coalition.

Reminds me of a smoker who knows cigarettes cause cancer but does not do anything until the cancer starts to spread.

 

[griffin]

According to a WP sympathizer who claims to have close links to the WP inner circle, LTK has given strict instructions to his subordinates not to voice out or give any critical comments on the current happenings in Singapore. However, their backroom boys are busy collecting and collating all the negative feedback on PAP. It appears their strategy is to launch a frontal attack on the PAP during the 2016 GE armed with all the solid evidence they had gathered during the period preceding the GE. LTK's strategy of keeping quiet now, it appears, is not to give the PAP a chance to rebut or defend its policies that the people are unhappy with.

 

[laksaboy]

It's actually quite brilliant of the WP... giving the PAP more rope to hang itself.

There will be more colossal fuckups in 2014. Stay tuned.

Don't mistake silence as cowardice or tacit approval.

 

[3_M]

After all the furore of support for WP, surely people must feel that they are just hiding their heads in the sand, riding on the coat tails of PAPs constant faux pas and in time gain enough seats for PAP to ask them to form a coalition.

Reminds me of a smoker who knows cigarettes cause cancer but does not do anything until the cancer starts to spread.

It unlikely people will vote for an coalition gov without PAP and with no experience in running the country. Might as well form coalition with PAP and get a few ministry portfolios to gain experience.

I think it only logical for WP to form coalition with PAP rather than other oppositions (if they ever win any seat).

 

[The_Hypocrite]

My frens r all pro wp n were singing high praises on wp in 2011...but now they r saying the same thing as describe in the article. They n me included r very upset about the wp being quiet. I did say media etc bias n i parleement..wat can 7 do against the others? But with new media etc there is no more excuses. Anyway i will still give wp the benefit of a doubt. But my patience is wearing thin too.

 

[jw5]

It unlikely people will vote for an coalition gov without PAP and with no experience in running the country. Might as well form coalition with PAP and get a few ministry portfolios to gain experience.

I think it only logical for WP to form coalition with PAP rather than other oppositions (if they ever win any seat).

Anything will be better than a solely pap run government with their current structure, mode of operations and most importantly, mentality.

Many hardcore opposition supporters don't realise that in terms of human beings and individuals, the individuals in the pap are not necessarily worse than the individuals in the opposition. In fact, there are probably several cases where they are "better human beings". Hence, don't trust any politician whatever the party.

But it is the establishment mentality that has been inculcated, inherited and acquired by these individuals over the years that has now caused them to exhibit all this self serving behaviour, which is based primarily on materialism and monetary achievements. As to who started this mentality and caused its spread, I leave it to the individual forummer to figure out for yourself. On my part, I'm very clear who started it.

Many of these establishment individuals need to get out of their comfy positions and start fighting for their political careers as opposition members, before they will even begin to understand the meaning of public service. Once this happens, they will all come back as better MPs and ministars if they ever get back into power. Of course, there will also be those who deserve to get kicked out and never see the political light of day again, and there will also be those materialistic scum who would immediately go back to their original professions the moment they get kicked out, because they simply cannot stand having some time where money inflow is less than before.