Sunday, January 27, 2013

On the night of Victory for Workers' Party in Punggol East by-election

Singapore looks increasingly moving towards the direction of a Two Party state. With the strength and momentum of Workers' party as the major opposition party after winning another crucial by-elections, many would expect WP will absorb and garner the support votes gradually from other opposition parties and render them useless or less-influential. and maybe not just the supporters base WP will absorb, but also will attract more and better talents/candidates who want to commit and contribute to build an alternative nation than what PAP has envisaged. That is probably a bigger problem for other parties in the long run. 

As the trend goes, other opposition parties are gradually phasing out, they are facing a daunting aspect in terms of survival. WP absolutely has a higher stake of bargaining chips on the table when negotiating the seats allocation comes the next GE (if all parties would want to avoid a multi-corner fight situation). Reform party and SDA look diminishing in this by-election.

Personally, I wish SDP and NSP can still persist and collaborating with WP to form a coalition. From my observation, a multi-parties ruling coalition, although maybe not as stable but they can check the balance of power among themselves so that no one party is likely to abuse the power for its own gain.

WP must not be arrogant , and must learn that collaboration with other major opposition parties actually brings more benefits than harms, if they really want to set a realistic target and pave a way to governance within 10 years (2 GEs)


Anyway, just for the record, in case people misunderstood me, I am pro opposition over the Straits also. Congratulations to WP who gains another seat in the parliament! I'm of course happy to hear this news!

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