Congratulations to All Parties, Candidates and the Population of Singapore who took part in GE2015. It’s an important democratic process that affords the country to check itself periodically, whatever outcome it may be.
On the night when results were annouced, it was evident that the outcome came as a surprise even with the ruling party PAP. The commentators on live TV were also surprised of the margins and eventual swing. The mandate was clear. Almost 70% of voters wanted PAP to be back in power. However, what drove the swing that resulted in the landslide victory was still speculative, at best.
That night during the Press Conference, when Dr Yaacob spoke of a solid Malay support, we were not sure where the source of that information came from, given that voting was suppose to be secret. Was the swing a result of solid Malay support or was it due to other factors. The commentators on Channel 5 tentatively attributed the swing to other non-racial factors. And we can all agree with a suggestion by a TV panelist that night that a more thorough study was needed to understand the voting pattern in GE 2015.
There were also mentions by the panelists on how the victory speeches by the PAP were different. Probably many could also observe that the victory speeches this time sounded more humble. There were relatively more humility than ever before. And there were also not a few of the victory speeches which touched on the need to appeal more to those who had not voted for the PAP. Those speeches made promises to work harder not only for those who voted for the PAP, but also to attract or appeal more to those who did not vote for the party.
That night, while the PAP and its supporters were in for a pleasant surprise, there were quarters among the voters who were quite perplexed by the results. Leaders of the Opposition parties were also shocked with the results. Kenneth Jeyaratnam was clearly dejected. Other Opposition leaders expressed similar sentiments and said they needed time to fully understand the underlying reasons for the outcome.
With a solid mandate for the PAP amidst strong showing of support for the Opposition at rallies as well as on social media, and the promise to work harder by the ruling PAP, probably it is not too much to ask for an independent study to be done to understand the underlying factors that contributed to the landslide victory.
As voting is secret, we are still unsure if the landslide victory was a result of solid Malay voters’ support, as mentioned by Dr Yaacob that night, or could it be due to other reasons. Given the high decibel levels on long-standing issues like the tudung or hijab controversy, it is important for the ruling party to fully understand if there are the possibilities of a relatively larger proportion of the Malay voters actuallly voted for the Opposition.
The question to ask and answers to uncover is, “Could there be a possibility that the slightly more than 30% who voted for the Opposition comprised a relatively larger number of Malays?”, given the fact that many Malays were unhappy with the way the tudung issue had been handled and dragged on for more than 20 years. Of course, there are other issues that Singaporeans in general have made known of their unhappiness about, and yet voted for the PAP.
With all the humility demonstrated during the election victory speeches that night, commissioning an independent study to understand what actually happened on Sep 11, 2015 will be a noble act on the part of the PAP to not simply gloss over the victory as one resulting from its prowess to govern. This study, if conducted well and independently, will enable the PAP to better understand the polity and put to rest all the speculations that have been circulating to discredit the victory as only technical, and not substantive. But more importantly, the results of such study will help the PAP to deliver better all its promises to those who voted for it and to those who did not vote for the party. That independent study is for the PAP to keep its promises made during the victory speeches that monumentous night.
Source: Mohd Khair
