Opposition parties must stay focused

What if the Opposition does not get carried away trying to be all things to all people because truth be told they struggle with all the big issues on the table and as much as they have questions and criticisms, they only have qualified answers of their own and they will not be the alternative for the foreseeable future?

Instead, what if the opposition parties are single-minded and allowed the PAP to win but at a proportionate cost?

Allow me to explain proportionate cost.

If there is one PAP person I can’t tolerate, it has to be Wong Kan Seng. The diminutive @#$% should have been sacked for the Mas Selamat affair and other bungles. And yet he is alive and well and is even, technically, in line to be PM.

Now, say I’m an opposition party, I’d campaign on one fact and one fact alone that every vote my party gets in GE 2011 is a vote signalling that Wong Kan Seng has to go. Doesn’t matter which constituency or GRC I’m standing, every vote will be a direct response to my party pitch that ‘Wong Kan Seng must go’.

If I get less than 10% of the overall votes, well, people didn’t buy my pitch. And the odds were stacked against me in any case.

BUT if a significant number buy it, say 30% or more, I have a good enough reason to continue harping on Wong Kan Seng even past elections if need be for the PAP to do something about him. Turn the screws, up the hype whatever. Till the PAP, pragmatic party that they are, deal with it. Demote the dufus, hide him in the PMO (short partitions will do), set him up in a GLC etc.

So while the PAP would have won the elections and status quo is maintained etc as it would be in any case, we’d have got something significant out of it – ONE of their key leaders who deserves to be sacked is dealt with.

Wong Kan Seng will be the proportionate cost.

If we can demonstrate that we can do that then we can hold each and every MP or Minister accountable for what they say and do which is ultimately what we want and more importantly, prove what matters most – that every vote counts.