Do you think that the opposition parties in Singapore would

Singaporean SG

Hi all,
Do you think that the opposition parties would get stronger or weaker?
Personally, it can get stronger due to several reasons. One, many of the young want some form of check and balances in parliament to "clip the wings of the government" so that the PAP does not take people for granted. Secondly, opposition parties are doing their best to reach out to the public in many ways, talks, selling of newspaper, books, etc. Also, opposition are particularly good during elections but between elections it may not be so at all.Fourtly, more capable man are joining the opposition.
But on the other hand, opposition votes may suffer due to the good economic, political performance of the government and the older generation reluctance to vote otherwise. Also, some people think that the opposition is worse off after chiam and chee split.
What do you think?

watchdog SG

The opposition will remain as it is. Reason is the PAP has serverely weakened the opposition throughout Singapore's political history, and hence sees no further need to demolish them. So they shouldn't get any weaker. But they definitely won't get any stronger due to the PAP's alterations in the electorial system whenever the opposition strengthens......GRCs and the like. And to top it off, we must to consider the PAP's uncanny tactic of always nipping away the academic creme of scholars and such into it's civil service bodies and cabinet. This will always pose as a major psychological barrier against anyone with hope in the opposition, as it will always fail to be a better alternative to the PAP and be short of credibility.

[This message has been edited by watchdog (edited 22 September 2000).]

moose SG

Weaken as so far there is no opposition politician of a good calibre surfacing yet,ehehe Very Happy

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Drooling is not to be drooled to the extreme.
Burping is not to be done to the extreme.
If eating is done to the extreme.
Your tummy will bring you to the toilet.
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Singaporean SG

but seriously how do you think that they would fare in the next GE? But i feel that a opposition is better than a total one party parliament right?

watchdog SG

Of course. With the government checking up all the people, who's going to keep the government in check? Finally, the people must be represented, to do that you need an opposition to ensure that the people push the government to act in best interests, not the government pushing the people. However, in Singapore the PAP's influence is simply too strong. There are 'barriers' to entry as I mentioned by building up psychological taboos in joining the opposition. So its not good for SDP or any other party, it's simply just monopolitics!

[This message has been edited by watchdog (edited 24 September 2000).]

watchdog SG

Seems like this has dried up since I came!

Simon the Snow Blower SG

The opposition parties are getting weaker and weaker. After the 84 GE, PAP started a 3 contestants GRC in 88 GE, this make it diffcult for opposition parties to win any GRC headed by a minister. 91 GE, number of contestants in GRC increase to 4. 97 GE some consitutencies increase to 6. In the next GE, most likely there wouldn’t be any single consitutencies. This also make it diffcult for independent parties totake part in GRC election as they need to gather a few people and gather a large amount of deposit for taking part in election.

moose SG

Seems the opposition parties are scraping the bootm of the barrel when it comes to finding candidates,heehe Very Happy

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Theory Of Relativity
Eating a lot of good food will make 1 hour seem like 5 minutes while eating lotsa horrigible cooked veggies will make 5 minutes seem like 1 hour

Razz ~~~
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