There are many interesting lessons from this GE. I will just touch on two and perhaps reserve the rest for another day.
1. GRC – no longer the fortress
Kudos to Mr Low Thia Khiang for showing how a GRC can be broken down in 2011. After some hiccups, the operations are now running smoothly, with ratings similar to that of any PAP town. The 2011 takedown of Aljunied saw the loss of two full ministers (one very senior one) and a senior minister of state. Some attributed it to LTK and that it would be hard to repeat a GRC takedown without another LTK.
In 2020, without LTK and with a relatively unknown and young team, the Sengkang GRC has fallen. One 4G minister and two other office bearers have been taken down in one fell swoop.
East Coast and West Coast GRCs were nearly lost, and might have been lost if not for the movement of heavyweights Heng Swee Kiat and Desmond Lee to these. WP stronghold Hougang aside, PAP’s four worst performing constituencies are in the GRCs – Aljunied, Sengkang, West Coast and East Coast. Even the PM-in-waiting could only just manage to salvage East Coast GRC. All these in a pandemic-GE in which ground campaigning became super limited due to a long circuit breaker after the EBRC report was out.
Singaporeans no longer just buy the story that we cannot afford to lose a GRC because of the ministers inside. Even the future PM is not seen by Singaporeans as indispensable. No, Aljunied residents did not repent in 5 years. They did not repent even after 10 years. Aljunied has shown the way for other GRCs to follow when rubbish did not pile 3-storey high as predicted by the PAP. A new IT system has been developed by the WP-run TC and ready to be used in new opposition-led wards.
It is a crying shame that the IT system should even have been weaponised in the first place. The PAP was just using the politics of fear to hold back voters who were afraid of the unknown. Fewer are now afraid, and even fewer will be in 2025.
When PM said several years back that the size of GRCs would be reduced and that there would be more SMCs, really, it was just a token reduction. Now they will have to seriously judge the GRC system.
The opposition has too few SMCs to contest in and there are few SMCs in areas that the WP are known to be interested in (the better performing ones since 2011 have all mysteriously vanished). Ministers or not, the stronger opposition parties have been forced to move into GRCs and future loses of ministers can be expected if this GRC game continues to be played.
2. Race-based politics
The WP’s team in Aljunied GRC has three minority candidates (only 1 is required) and two chinese. Yet it won with an even bigger vote share against a PAP’s team with 4 chinese and 1 minority.
The best performing GRC by the PAP is led by an Indian, Mr Tharman together with 2 newcomers and 2 relatively lightweight previous MPs. The new official leader of the opposition, with 10 elected seats, is Mr Pritam Singh, a minority. The position was handed to him by Mr Low, chinese educated and fluent in dialect. New and capable people of all races continue to join even though a minority is helming the Workers’ Party.
Who says Singapore is not ready for a minority PM. Who says minorities cannot hold their own in GEs? Dr Paul Tambyah polled over 46% against a 3-term chinese MP. Why do we need to reserve presidential elections for minority candidates and set qualifying criteria to be so ridiculously high?
55 years after independence, Singaporeans have learnt to judge people for their abilities and not for their race.
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Note: This article was first written as a Facebook post and re-posted here (with minor edits) for easier future referencing.
