Originally posted by robertteh:
One or two more opposition members elected to parliament will not
change things very much. Now the opposition parties individually
are weak and not credible.
Big changes will happen only when the oppositions are united into
one big party with proper manifestos adopted to serve the younger
population. But good candidates have been bashed down and cannot
get up.
New ones are not coming in to serve who are of good standards.
People cannot blame the opposition candidates or parties as this
problem was created by the people themselves and the incumbent in
power who are too kiasu for the country's good.
If the opposition can join up immediately, they will get the right
and timely signals and all Singaporeans will begin seriously to
vote for alternative views and solutions in the coming
election.
Opposition leaders themselves may have to make some sacrifice and
accept lower position in the merger to let those with high quality
take the lead for all to succeed as a team. Without some personal
sacrifice all of them will fail again in the next election as
people will just have to accept whoever the incumbent offer.
The opposition parties were too concerned with squabbling for
the scraps from the ruling party's table that they've missed their
right to something better.
With the ousting of Chiam from SDP, and the bitter resignation of
Jeyaretnam from WP, it seemed that the opposition may have become
more divided than ever before.
All is not lost, however. Recognising strength in unity, Chiam has
formed a new party SPP and has initiated the Singapore Democratic
Alliance of NSP, PKMS, SJP and SPP to help field stronger
opposition teams against the ruling party in the 2001 General
Elections. Though this move didn't quite achieve its goals, it was
nevertheless a commendable effort at that time.
Singaporeans could only hope that this spirit of coalition could be
spread to the major opposition parties as well in the next round of
elections.
