The GRC System was always designed to shackle and hinder the
opposition from having any meaningful contest. Through repeated
gerrymandering, this system ensures the opposition cannot have any
meaningful say in the parliament regardless of the overall votes
they secure because it does not work on a proportional
representation basis. If it wasn't meant to ensure total fascist
dominance, it was in place to at least ensure the erosion of its
parliamentary presence was slowed.
However, the significance of this win is vital - as was proven
when JBJ took down Anson in 1981, the fascist's complete hegemony
was over. Hopefully, this signals the start of something similar
for other GRC's in the years ahead. Doing it again is always easier
than doing it the first time.
More importantly, this is sweet revenge for Francis Seow (Eunos
in 1988), Mohamed Jufrie (Eunos in 1991), Tang Liang Hong and JBJ
(Cheng San in 1997) - all running under WP - who all came
within a whisker of winning a GRC albeit running against a bunch of
thugs who campaigned on the basis of skullduggery, plain deception
and intimidation in an era long before alternative sources of
news were available as freely as they're today.
More importantly, a critical factor that is showing encouraging
signs is the perpetual increase of popular votes for the
opposition. While this is not necessarily translated into
parliamentary seats, this trend should continue to persist with
younger generations coming to the fore in 5 years' time (and
subsequent elections thereafter) who are better exposed to
alternative sources of media.
If this trend proves sustainable, then it is surely only a
matter of time before the opposition makes even
more significant inroads in terms of presence in parliament
for it will simply be impossible, regardless of the extent of
gerrymandering imposed, for the fascists to maintain its current
level of dominance if its popular vote continues to dip - there is,
after all, a fairly strong (albeit not a
perfect) correlation.
