At 62.1% of valid
votes cast, Png Eng Huat (Workers’ Party) convincingly defeated
Desmond Choo of the People’s Action Party (PAP) in the by-election
26 May 2012. Png’s vote-share was only a shade lower than the 64.8%
that Yaw Shin Leong won in the general election of 2011 and hardly
different from Low Thia Khiang’s 62.7% in the 2006 general
election.
I’ll admit this:
Png’s victory was better than I expected.
Yaw Shin Leong
had benefitted hugely in May 2011 when party leader Low Thia Khiang
anointed him as his heir for the single-member constituency of
Hougang. Low had been the member of parliament for Hougang for
twenty years since 1991, but in 2011 he decided he would lead the
Workers’ Party team in neighbouring Aljunied group representation
constituency (they won).
Hougang voters
had evidently grown to like Low a lot, and their high regard for
him was a huge advantage for Yaw last year.
However, in
February this year, allegations of an extra-marital affair by Yaw
and his clumsy, non-communicative way of handling the rumours led
to his sacking from the party. The big question therefore was
whether Hougang voters would become a lot more sceptical about the
transferability of their esteem for Low to anyone else after the
Yaw incident.
Now we know:
Hougang voters still trust Low and the Workers’ Party and although
Png is relatively new to them, they’re extending that trust to him
too.
The election
campaign was dominated by efforts at character assassination, led
by Teo Chee Hean (PAP), the deputy prime minister. The media took
the cue and played up Teo’s shrill allegations. Going by the way
Desmond Choo kept his distance from these attacks, I reckon the
candidate himself wanted no part of it, preferring to be a low-key
nice guy to Hougang residents. Facebook chatter had it that Choo
was dismayed by the strategy adopted by his own party’s bigwigs. I
don’t know if that is true, but if it was, it must have been highly
frustrating for him, because the mainstream media has been so
pavlovian-trained to give big headlines to anything uttered by PAP
leaders that invariably the daily headlines reflected what Teo
wanted, rather than what Choo thought was wise.
In that sense, it
was a reprise of the debacle in Aljunied in 2011. That was when
George Yeo, one of the PAP candidates there, had to plead with
other PAP leaders to tone down their heavy-fisted attacks. But to
no avail. Lee Kuan Yew’s commandment to Singaporeans to vote PAP or
else repent for five years was given full play by the mainstream
media, but it so cheesed off voters, he could well have been
single-handedly responsible for an extra 5 percentage points going
to the opposition.
In the end, Teo’s
character assassination strategy was either ignored by Hougang
voters or perhaps served to fortify their determination to vote for
Png Eng Huat.
The Straits Times
asked me if the Poh Lee Guan affair had any effect. Firstly, I knew
nothing about that because I was in Cambodia when it happened and
was unable to read the news online. But I am told that this
Workers’ Party old-timer had collected a set of nomination forms
for himself without informing party headquarters. Apparently much
hay was made of it (by the mainstream media and the PAP?) alleging
disunity and chaos within the Workers’ Party.
It should be
obvious now that Hougang voters refused to be distracted by it.
As I told the
Straits Times: The result shows that the Singaporean voter is a
mature one; he knows very well what he wants. He is not a little
child that is easily distracted by side issues, petty allegations
and empty noise.
And
the lesson for the PAP? Learn to respect the voter.
The voter is
clearly looking for a change in style and substantive changes in
policy. This rang loud and clear in last year’s general election.
However, the fact that the PAP engaged in exactly the same
discredited tactics in this by-election probably told voters that
the party has not absorbed the lesson. If it cannot even change
style, what hope of changing policies? It doesn’t augur
well.
Yawning Bread
extends his heartiest congratulations to Png Eng Huat and the
Workers’ Party.
http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/workers-party-routs-pap-again/
![](http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/74Zi6MP9.dKEEW_z2cpvkw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/249/2012/05/26/630yahoo-wpfans2-jpg_172443.jpg ""The old tactics of trying to divide the opposition are not yielding the same results in the face of deep seated resentment among voters. This election showcases that something just is not right for the PAP," Welsh added.")
