On freak election results and voting opposition for the sake of it:
It is that time of the year when you hear people warning about a ‘freak election result’ and voters who ‘do not know what they are angry about’ and ‘want to vote opposition for the sake of it’. To be fair to the PAP candidates, i have not heard them use this card too much during hustings, so that is commendable. Unfortunately, some of their overzealous supporters choose to propagate this rhetoric. To which, I say:
1) There is no such thing as a freak election result. If people have voted, they have voted. If on september 12, for instance, there are 89 PAP MPs, it is not a freak election result: people have made their choice. Likewise, there is no reason to state that it is a freakish result if PAP does not do well.
2) The PAP WILL remain as the government: you can be sure about that. In fact, in all likelihood, they will retain their two-thirds majority. Quite comfortably, i believe. I shall justify this claim by detailing the different electoral contests in a later post.
3) Do people realize how condescending they sound when they say this? It is as though any vote for the opposition is irrational, and the only non-freakish or right outcome is a PAP victory.
4) Let us just look the logic of the claim. Let’s say John tells people that ‘we must be careful not to have a freak result.’ When you ask him why, he will say ‘because the people still wants PAP as the government.’ So when you ask him what is the evidence, he will say: ‘they have been voting for the PAP all this while’.
So…
Assertion: People want PAP as government.
Evidence: Their voting patterns.
Then you say, hang on a minute: let us say the PAP does not become the government. Why is that a freak result? If the evidence for people wanting PAP as their government is the voting pattern, then when the pattern changes, why don’t you trust the pattern and accept that the people do not want PAP as the government anymore?
John would then go ‘errr, almost all the people i know want PAP as government and those who support the opposition, have no idea why they are doing so’.
Then you would tell him: ‘the people you know, are not representative of the population. The voting results, are.’
He would then go: ‘err, this is just what i feel.’
Then you would say: ‘Well John, i feel like slapping you right now too, but that doesn’t mean my feeling is rational or justified.’
5) If you believe that voters cannot be trusted to make the right choice, have voters been wrong all this while then?
Singaporeans have voted for the PAP as our government 11 times since independence. For each of those 11 times, was their judgment sound or suspect?
You can’t have your cake and eat it.
6) Ultimately, claims like these only serve to obfuscate matters and distract us from what really matters: discussions on policies.
Let us get back to those constructive discussions.
Source: Walid J. Abdullah
