The Singapore General Election 2011 had just taken place on the 7th of May. The current government taking charge by the People Action Party had ruled Singapore for more than 30 years now, only managed to gain 60.14% of the total votes cast by the people, that is a huge reduction compared to that in 2006 which was 66%. News has reported that the government will investigate into this. Being living in the UK for about 10 years now, I already cannot imagine how it felt like living in Singapore. I do visit Singapore every year and can sense the difference one year after another. Reading some the news report and after observations and evaluations, the followings are the three areas which I found are the most important coming out from this most recent Election.
1) Apology - It is refreshing to see and hear political leader saying "sorry". This is a first. I am sure in the earlier years of the political development of Singapore, this could never have happened. What does it mean and what this imply? In my opinion, while it is commendable that apology was granted, but somehow this was not done at the right time. And strategically, it was unsound. It certainly not act in the favor to say sorry in the midst of the election, whether it is late or not. The PAP paid a price here, I am sure. In a positive light, to be able to apologize show that the government is willing to take a step back and see the big picture and to move forward from there. Perhaps the relatively lower votes cast for the PAP is a blessings in disguise?
2) The war of the social media - There were arguments that the recent GE 2011 is becoming like a Social Media Election. This is quite a new idea. It just made you amazed how far technological leveraging can go. Now it even goes to the extent to potentially influence the outcome of an Election. Singaporeans are known to be a bit reserved coming to voicing one's comments. This, apart from the environment that most are brought up, is also the rather restrictive "freedom of speech" being practiced. However, the social media like facebook and twitters, open up a new platform for opinions and viewpoints to be transmitted at unbelievably high speed rate. What is to be noted is that, this helped people formulate thinking and thoughts and which is something, the politicians should not ignore.Therefore, when PM Lee claimed "he was a newbie " when replying to questions on facebook, he appeared so uncool! Unless the government totally banned social media's expression of opinions and points of view like in other countries such as China, social media is a bit of a challenge as "freedom" is totally "uncontrollable".
3) The voting outcome of Aljunied GRC - I often admired people who put in effort and take time to see things materialise and be patient about it. At time, you don't get it right, but you keep going and in the end you made it. On this note, I have my respect for the Worker Party who won this. I must also say it is a VERY tough job. Looking at how well the PAP ruled Singapore, but still missing out on important points. How well these are conveyed to the people, without appearing too over-the-top is a tough job to learn, especially in Singapore when "freedom of speech" must be taken with extra care, it made it hard to really have allowances for "errors", and the more I admired what the Worker Party had achieved. They certainly know what they are doing and what role they play. They convinced the people and they won their votes. They know the people.
I am sure in the long term, Singapore will be fine. It is what you expect from it that matters. So, if you expect "more voices" to represent you in the Parliaments and if that happened, will you be happy? At the end of the day, it is the attitude to life that matters, whether there are "more voices", "less voices" or without voice, it really does not make big difference strictly speaking. However, things only change for the better and we should all feel hopeful about it. :D
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