publichouse.sg

By Biddy Low

Like a flash flood after a long drought, elections and the excitement that it brings have descended upon this nation over and over by the heavy hand of fate. By this second by-election for Punggol East, there is almost an embarrassment in getting swept up by the hype, for fear of being viewed as naive or worse, a vapid follower of a madding crowd. So I disengaged at the beginning. I am not a political pundit, neither do I have lofty ambitions to make a name for myself by jumping in the fray at any chance. My reasons for being involved and informed have remained the same as 3 years ago, to be a "kah kia" ( helper) anyway I can in what I consider a fledgling awakening for democracy in this little island I call home. A democratization process that I believe goes beyond what the politicians are doing, and right into the consciousness of every single person here.

By Elaine Ee

In the past 18 months, a wave of change has swept across the political landscape of Singapore. One general election, one presidential election and two by-elections saw the ruling People’s Action Party’s hegemony in the political sphere eroded in one under-performance for them after another. Riding the crest of this wave is The Workers’ Party, with their historic win of Aljunied GRC, then holding on firmly to Hougang and now—in another stunning win—taking Punggol East from the PAP.

The people’s loss of faith in the PAP under Lee Hsien Loong’s leadership is clear. As is their increasingly lack of fear to vote against the PAP, as the stigma of being associated with opposition disappeared with the ‘old normal’ and was replace with a new found street cred or sign of courage in the ‘new normal’.

Also clear is that people disillusioned with the PAP are pinning their hopes on the WP.

I have been following with interest the recent exchange of letters between Hri Kumar and Eugene Tan in the TODAY newspaper, regarding the issue of calling a by-election in Hougang.

With all due respect to lawyers and legal academics, the debate on the constitutional requirements of having a by-election is irrelevant to most ordinary citizens. The legal interpretations that turn on the words ‘shall’, ‘must’, ‘may’,  ‘at convenient speed’, and whether an election can either be a General Election or By-Election is frankly over the heads of non-legally trained people (and frankly it does not interest us as much).

I think the operative word that has been lost in the debate is ‘ought’. Ought the Prime Minister call a by-election as soon as possible? In my opinion, this is a more important question than the constitutional debate by legal experts.

By Dr Wong Wee Nam

When the by-election for the constituency of Punggol East was called, the Workers' Party (WP) was the first opposition party to announce that it was going to contest the ward. Subsequently the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) and the Reform Party (RP) made their intentions known. There was little reaction to these latter announcements.

Then the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) decided to join in the fray. This was when all of a sudden panicked cries about opposition unity started coming out from everywhere, especially online. SDP was called to withdraw from the contest. The critics claimed it would be in the interest of opposition unity that SDP did so. Furthermore, they need to do so for the sake of national interest.