Uncontested Wards

The truth is the PAP government has lost its moral authority to govern when it pays its ministers unconscionably high salaries. While it is applaudable that a salary review is being undertaken, the outcome of the review is crucial. Anything short of dispelling the perception that PAP political office holders are in it for the money to enrich themselves rather than to serve the people, will continue to haunt the PAP government for the next five years.

The divide between the ruler and the ruled will remain stark and mistrustful if after the review, the salary scheme remains one that allows a minister to earn in a year what the ordinary wage earner cannot even hope to achieve in a lifetime. Those who are in it for the money or are used to receiving $3 or 4 million a year to maintain their opulent lifestyles have no political place in our midst as they will not be seen as ‘serving and making a sacrifice’ and unlikely to win the hearts and minds of the people.

The PAP government must also realize that its hold on power in the last twenty-five to thirty years is by default rather than by popular votes. In the early years, many factors converged to work to the disadvantage of the opposition. There was a real climate of fear of voting for the opposition, the suppression of freedom of expression and free speech, a compliant press and news media, the systematic demolition of dissidents and sending them into exile, the bankrupting of opponents, the opposition’s chronic lack of resources and quality candidates, etc.

Consequently, many elections in the past were never fully and truly contested. In several cases, before the election proper even got underway, the PAP had already won on nomination day because of walkovers. Just look at the past five elections before GE 2011 to get a glimpse of what went on:

GE 1988 - 81 seats, 11 uncontested
GE 1991 - 81 seats, 41 uncontested
GE 1997 - 83 seats, 47 uncontested
GE 2001 - 84 seats, 55 uncontested
GE 2006 - 84 seats, 37 uncontested

Many of the uncontested wards in those elections were GRCs, introduced in the 1988 GE to make life more difficult for the opposition. The GRCs also routinely became a back door entry for many PAP hand-picked candidates to get in to hold political office untested. Hence, many of those who assumed political office as ministers after the 1988 GE were not always competent or talented but were co-opted and had an easy ride on the earlier ‘successes’ of the PAP. Needless to say, they deluded themselves and became complacent, arrogant and even high-handed. The subsequent salary hikes of ministers and the outrageous amount they received served to compound the problem further.

There will be hope if the PAP is prepared to do some honest soul-searching of its policies, and change its style of governance to one that is truly inclusive, as promised by the PM in the aftermath of GE 2011. But if it continues to rely on its numerical strength to bulldoze its way through Parliament, and ignore the grievances of the people thereby leaving the whole range of issues brought up untackled, then it is likely to wake up to a very stark reality comes GE 2016.