By Loh Chee Kong, TODAY | Posted:
28 March 2011 0623 hrs
SINGAPORE: As the drumbeats of the General Election
get louder by the day, a survey of 618 voters commissioned by Today
has found that the rising cost of living here is more likely to
influence how the voters cast their ballot than supposedly
hot-button issues such as the influx of foreigners or
housing.
For some political watchers the results came as a surprise.
The survey, conducted earlier this month via telephone by Media
Research Consultants, is statistically representative of HDB
dwellers, the findings weighted by the national profile for gender,
age, race and HDB housing type. The survey, however, does not cover
voters living in private properties.
The result, which political watchers found the most interesting:
Almost 7 in 10 voters (65.5 per cent) said that the issue of
foreigners - the influx and its side effects will not affect their
vote at the GE.
This finding was backed up by the fact that slightly more than half
the voters (55.3 per cent) felt that the steps taken by the
Government to slow down the influx of foreigners and to sharpen the
differentiation between citizens and non-citizens have been
"adequate" to address their concerns.
Trying to reconcile the survey findings with the widely held
perception, especially in cyberspace, that foreigners are the
hot-button issue of this General Election, independent scholar
Derek da Cunha noted that there is "tendency among the majority of
Singaporeans to avoid controversy by making only politically
correct statements".
Dr da Cunha added: "I am quite sure that the issue of the influx of
foreigners into Singapore is more significant than many people
would care to admit openly."
But having said that, when it comes to concerns on the influx of
foreigners, the perception that it has led to greater congestion on
buses and MRT trains was the concern most often cited by voters
edging out other concerns such as the erosion of the national
identity, a difficulty in integration or a feeling of being a
second-class citizen.
On the housing front, framed broadly as a question of availability
and affordability of public housing, the survey found that only 4
in 10 voters (41.6 per cent) said that this issue would influence
how they plan to vote. Almost 6 in 10 (58.4 per cent) said that the
issue would not have any effect how they vote.
This was despite the fact that opinions were quite evenly split -
47.6 per cent saying yes and 52.4 per cent saying no - when asked
if the slew of measures taken by the Government to cool the private
property market and to help Singaporeans buy a HDB flat have been
adequate to address concerns.
The one issue that has lived up to its "hot-button" billing was the
rising cost of living. An overwhelming 8 in 10 voters surveyed said
they were worried about rising costs in their daily lives - be it
when they were buying basic necessities at the supermarket, or a
meal at the food court, or going to a polyclinic or planning to buy
a new car or even going on a vacation.
Political analyst Eugene KB Tan observed: "There is an inverse
relationship between the perceived effectiveness of the measures
taken to address the hot-button issue and the effect it will have
on how the respondents vote at the GE."
As to why the cost of living was the hottest of issues, the
assistant professor at Singapore Management University noted that
it was "intimately connected with perceived standard of living, it
affects spending propensity and is regarded as also impacting the
future."
Institute of Policy Studies faculty associate Tan Ern Ser said the
survey showed that all three issues were "significant" to varying
extents.
"However, I must add that cost of living is pretty salient at this
point in time, affecting most people ... while housing affects a
smaller proportion of people, probably those in their late 20s and
30s - some of whom have never voted before," said the
sociologist.
While offering some insight into the psyche of heartland voters,
the survey throws up a relevant question: Could more grassroots
concerns such as covered walkways, the frequency of feeder buses,
or housing estate facilities turn out to have a greater impact on
how voters decide to cast their ballot?
