Friday, June 23, 2006
This blog wonders where has all the opposition parties in Singapore disappeared to. Barely two months has passed since the elections, and apparently all the hype about the opposition working the grounds seems to have vanished.
If for no other reason, everything seems to have gone downhill since the elections in May. Boisterous predictions of the STI climbing another 10% have instead seen the index plummet more than that amount in the opposite direction. The job market is tightening again, as the government attempts to curb inflationary pressures on the economy. And as always, the education system has gone through another round of change.
Where is the opposition? Unless this blog is quite mistaken, Singapore is still a democracy where the powers of the legislature, executive and judiciary still hold. So where are the debates on the present state of the economy? Where are there dialogues on how the education system should be run? Here, clearly the true caliber of the opposition is exposed. Unfortunately the picture is not a pretty one. The opposition has put itself in a tight corner, purposely drawing the battle lines such that the field is narrow and sadly becomes a mockery of the whole idea of an alternative voice in parliament. In fact, the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that the average blogger has more complaints about the government and is far more eloquent than the average opposition member.
We have all heard the reasons for why the PAP cannot be a single party government, just as we have all understood why the strength of a single party is better than a government that is splintered and fractions. But increasingly, the feeling of ineptness on the part of the opposition makes for a convincing argument on why the PAP must continue to rule. It is no longer about choice, because simply, the choice is better the devil and the deep blue sea. This do not make the PAP anymore capable or anymore competent, it just means that by default, Singapore has no alternative to the voice of the PAP. This blog has argued before that the PAP cannot rule as a single party because simply there must be more check and balances, more ideas from different facets of society, more input from the grassroots, but these argumentation are based on the assumption of at least a plausible opposition. This opposition is today non-existent.
A start will be to question. Not on when the lifts will be upgraded or other superficial issue. Ask the real questions, at the right stage at the right time. This blog believes that grooming of the next generation of opposition politicians cannot occur until that happens. And for heaven's sake being a Chinese-ed do not exempt you from speaking good English.
2:32 AM
