The Singapore General Election is just around the corner.
This would be my first time voting, since the last time the election was held,
which was 5 years ago, I was a year too young below the minimum age requirement
to vote. What are some of my thoughts regarding voting at this general
election? Well, I believe that I should vote for what is good for my country,
which would affect me and my loved ones as well in one way or another. As to
what is good for Singapore and Singaporeans, I am not too sure, but I believe
that the status quo of majority PAP as the ruling party, with WP as the
minority opposition is comfortable and desirable.
I believe that the incumbent government composed of
chiefly the PAP party has done a pretty good job since coming into parliament
in the last election. But I can also empathize with the desire by Singaporeans to
maintain a proportion of opposition members within the ranks of parliament to
provide checks and balance on the ruling party, and also to keep the ruling
party on their toes and not become complacent. The ideal composition I believe
that most Singaporeans want would be a parliament with PAP as the majority
ruling party, and an appropriately sized opposition in the minority.
I think it would work well if Singaporeans can come to
some form of tacit consensus on who should vote for which political party based
on the constituencies they reside in. I believe one such tacit consensus that
may already be prevailing would be that those living in currently-held
opposition constituencies should continue voting in the opposition, whilst
those living in constituencies currently held by the incumbent ruling party,
the PAP, should continue voting for the PAP. The difficulty however lie where
Singaporeans wishes to vote in more opposition, but also keep the PAP as the
majority ruling party. The difficulty and danger in an election though is that
in trying to vote for more opposition representation in parliament without any
form of tacit consensus, it is possible to swing too greatly in favor towards
the opposition and grant them more seats than what ordinary Singaporeans would
be comfortable with, or to be too adverse towards voting any opposition and not
vote in enough. I am not sure what the prevailing sentiment amongst the
majority of Singaporeans is regarding the number of opposition that should be
voted in, whether this should be maintained at status quo, increased, or
decreased. In my opinion, the status quo number of opposition is just right,
and I don’t think there needs to be so much checks and balance on the ruling
party by voting in more opposition if the PAP has been doing a good job, and
remain clean and honest as the government given the existing number of
opposition members. In my opinion, it would do well for similarly like-minded
Singaporeans to vote along some lines of tacit consensus in order to reduce
uncertainty of outcomes in the election, and my suggestion of where that line
of tacit consensus would be is the status quo, both in terms of the numbers and
the current constituencies held by the respective parties.
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