For SDP, common sense
prevailed...belatedly
NEWS ANALYSIS
By JEREMY AU YONG
ASSISTANT POLITICAL
EDITOR
AS OF yesterday afternoon, less than 24 hours before Nomination
Day, all signs still pointed to the Singapore Democratic Party
(SDP) becoming one corner of a five-cornered fight in Punggol
East.
Just hours earlier, it had sent a representative to
the Elections Department to pick up political donation
certificates. And for one week prior, it went through all the
motions of a party intending to contest. It did a walkabout,
distributed fliers, called press conferences, and even went through
the normal dance with the media where it would hint but not confirm
its choice of candidate.
Even after the Workers' Party (WP) introduced Ms
Lee Li Lian as its candidate, making it plain that there would be
no grand opposition compromise, SDP maintained it was staying in
the race.
Then, just after 4pm yesterday, when everyone was
waiting to hear whom it would field, it said, well, no one. In
effect, the SDP stepped up to the precipice, stared down the abyss,
and blinked. In so doing, it may have done real damage to its
reputation. No amount of public relations spin can help a party
making a full U-turn in one week come out looking like a hero.
Questions have been raised about its credibility,
given the way it had promoted its candidates, saying it would back
down only after seeing whom the WP fielded. So having done so, did
it find its own candidates wanting?
Yet, this climb-down might be the best option it
had, given the circumstances. This was the common sense option and
SDP deserves some credit for having the wisdom to know when to
fold.
Despite the embarrassment it has already suffered
online, it can reclaim some goodwill from opposition supporters who
all along wanted to see a straight People's Action Party-Opposition
contest.
In contrast, if it had gone ahead to fight, it
would be making a bold claim that it could usurp the WP's hold in a
ward where WP's candidate had previously gained 41 per cent of the
vote.
Netizens had been urging SDP to stay out of the
race. The call grew more critical when the party then made the
mistake of announcing a radical "joint campaign" proposal. It
suggested that the SDP and WP back a single SDP candidate. Then, if
the candidate won, WP could run the town council, while the SDP
would take up the seat in Parliament.
The move was roundly dismissed, prompting Dr Chee
Soon Juan to say a day later that the plan was
"misinterpreted".
It thus headed into Nomination Day being seen in
some quarters as a spoiler running a troubled campaign. Its chances
of doing well had narrowed even before it introduced a candidate.
And so it did the sensible thing by not introducing one.
Consider if it chose a different path: If the party
ended up doing poorly and also diluting enough of the opposition
vote to give the PAP an easy win, its reputation would have taken a
far bigger hit.
Not only would it draw the ire of opposition
supporters, but it would also lose whatever standing it had among
opposition parties. Its strength at the next opposition pow-wow
would be severely diminished with the WP having evidence that it
can come up against SDP anywhere and trounce it. In the end,
Punggol East was never SDP's battle. By walking away, it can return
to fight another day.
Top of the news, The Straits Times, Wednesday, January 16 2013,
Pg A6
they took the political donations forms.. i assume they didn't
give it to Gomez so they're sent in..
then on TV they were shown brandishing those big tins like those
flag day tins probably to collect money...
now that they've withdrawn, what happens to the money they
collected?
