Various signs indicate that the PAP Government is likely to call for a snap general election as they are more concerned with holding on to power than to work for the benefits and welfare of the people.
For the past two years, we have seen them engaging in dirty politics of smearing the Workers’ Party and trying to entrap them in town council politics with the assistance of government ministries, government agencies, statutory boards, and the notorious state-controlled media which is ranked 153rd and 150th in the global press freedom rankings by Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders respectively.
Is the Pioneer Generation Package an electioneering strategy to induce the estimated 450,000 seniors who made up about 20%, or a fifth, of the 2.21 million registered voters in the 2011 general election, to vote for the PAP? A post GE2011 IPS survey showed a big drop in the conservative segment, i.e. those who are happy with status quo, from 46.5% to 28% reflecting deep resentment among seniors aged 65 and above.
Another segment of voters which the PAP has been systematically engineering is the new citizen voters. From 2003 to 2013, an estimated 238,000 new citizenship were granted. 130,000 new citizens, or 5.9% of the total registered voters, voted in GE2011. Another 125,000 (25,000 a year) new citizens will be added to the population from 2011 to 2016. Therefore, there will be around 200,000 new citizen voters, or about 10% of the total eligible voters, who will be eligible to cast their votes in GE2016.
The seniors together with the new citizens made up around 30% of the total eligible voters. If the PAP is able to influence the disgruntled segment of the seniors with their Pioneer Generation Package, they could score an easy victory. However, opposition parties should not give the PAP a free rein to these two segments of voters. Instead, they should work doubly hard to canvass for their support. Extending outreach programmes specifically to these two segments of voters can be rewarding for the opposition parties.
Let’s bear in mind that in the Punggol East By-Election, many new citizens, especially those of Malaysian origin, voted for the opposition Workers’ Party.
Lastly, the most crucial segment of voters that all parties, ruling or opposition, will depend on for victory is the middle ground voters. The Workers’ Party has been successfully drawing the middle ground away from the PAP which resulted in the 2011 watershed general election. However, much has yet to be done and opposition supporters can play an important role in winning the middle ground over by sharing the RIGHT news with them – online and offline – and dispelling their fear of voting for the opposition.
As we can see from the 2011 general election’s chart, opposition parties’ performances are still far from ideal. As such, opposition activists, whatever their agendas may be, should rightly refrain from attacking any of the opposition parties to foster unity among opposition supporters.
The announcement of the election follows the announcement of new constituency boundaries. The PAP Government through the Elections Department has released the newly revised polling districts, but the redrawing of GRC and SMC boundaries, if any, has yet to be announced. Nonetheless, it is always prudent to be fully prepared for PAP’s surprise.
Jason Lee
Source: www.facebook.com/jasonlee29