PAP Strategy

Singapore National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan calling Worker’s Party chief Low Thia Khiang "mischievous". Singapore’s Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) Dr Vivian Balakrishnan getting in a spat with Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Dr Vincent Wijeysingha over a video in which Dr Wijeysingha was outed as a gay. Singapore’s Labour chief Lim Swee Say and Singapore Trade Minister Lim Hng Khiang criticising former civil servant and current SDP candidate Tan Jee Say over his suggestion of a minimum wage policy.

All this and it is just Nomination Day!

Now I realized that the People Action Party (PAP) is under pressure this election and the need for them to attack the opposition candidates. Fair enough but I see a problem with the PAP current election strategy. We need to see more of their plans of the future.

Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew asking/telling Singaporeans to “look at the fundamentals” and “not to rock the boat” is nice and fine but that is also asking Singaporeans to look at our past. There are a lot of Singaporeans who will be voting for the first plan this General Election so I think it’s important for the PAP to show their plans on the future.

Yes, I know about the PAP manifesto but everything in the manifesto is basically “more of the same”. There’s nothing there that they have not announced before. Some of the plans there are a few years old even! Sorry but that is just not as exciting as Tan Jee Say’s 46 page paper to redo the Singapore economy or the WP’s new ideas for Singapore housing. Now will the opposition’s plans work? Maybe, maybe not; but their plans are new, exciting and get people talking.

Compare to that, “not to rock the boat” just doesn’t cut it. The PAP need to come up with something that let Singaporeans believes they have a bold new plan for Singapore. Something that gets Singaporeans go, “That’s new; that’s exciting; that’s something we can get behind.” Currently, they don’t have that and that’s a problem.