Despite the slight loss of votes for the WP, the victory is
still considered a good win for WP as the PAP had trained all their big guns on
Hougang. Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean led the charge as the PAP tried to
give their candidate, Desmond Choo, as much help as possible against WP’s
candidate Png Eng Huat. Yet despite the blitz, the PAP only managed 37.91%.
Now everyone has their own opinion on the win by the WP and
the inability of the PAP to make a dent in Hougang. Despite all the talk of the
rise of the WP, the basin of democracy in Hougang, the youth of Desmond Choo; I
think the reason why the WP won is much simpler. People did not care about Yaw
Shin Leong.
When the WP expelled Yaw Shin Leong from their party on 14th
Feb, it was due to allegations of extramarital affairs. I had said on several
occasions that this was a stupid thing for the WP to do because no one cares
about the allegations. Most people in Hougang, most people in Singapore, do not
care about the extramarital affair and no one called for his resignation or
ouster.
So when the by-election came along, everyone just voted
along the same party lines because nothing has changed!! The people voted for
the same party because they don’t care about the affairs Yaw Shin Leong had
that led to his ouster. It just didn’t matter.
That indifference more than anything is the reason why the
WP retained the Hougang seat with only a minor dent in popularity. No one
cares! In short, the expulsion of Mr. Yaw Shin Leong from the WP on 14th Feb
was much ado about nothing.
10 comments:
as i understand it YSL was sacked by his party becos he dint 'fess up to them. didn't come clean with them on the affairs he is accused to have had. he simply refused to discuss his actions or lack of actions, whatever the case may be.
He kept his mouth shut because he thinks its none of the party's business. As the by-election shows, most people in Hougang agreed with him.
If the WP didn't expel him, there would have been no difference! No one cares about the affair. This by-election was for nothing!
IMO, the WP had to sack YSL to stop it being used by the PAP as political ammo to distract and hinder them in and out of parliament using its propaganda tool the shitty times and Mediacock.
It was a drastic yet necessary and savvy political move to counter any political capital being made of it by the govt for the rest of the current term. And in one fell swoop the WP has refreshed and regained the confidence of Hougang voters and their fresh mandate.
It is quite a masterpiece of political manoeuvre. Did you not notice the initial nonplussed reaction of LHL who was obviously caught of guard by this WP 'gambit'. The indecisiveness of PAP's response to the call for a BE soonest gained only more voters' distrust of the govt. That challenge in court by a Hougang resident cast the PAP in an even poorer light.
It is quite clear that the WP not only regained its Hougang seat in style. it managed to give the govt a black eye in the process.
If a PAPpy MP from another SMC has a similar extra-marital affair, I am wondering whether he/she will be sacked and whether there will be a by-election. It will be interesting to guess the outcome which may not necessarily go the way of this Hougang by-election....
It was a drastic but unnecessary move by WP. No one cares about the affair, not even the PAP! No one from the PAP attack Yaw on the matter, they only did that after WP fired him. Basically, the WP cause problems for themselves for no good reason.
As for what will happen if a PAP MP have an affair? Nothing. As the by-election proves, no one in Singapore give a care about their MPs having affairs.
The Hougang By-election was a blessing in disguise.
Now Singaporeans can SEE better the colour of white.
The WP and People of Hougang have shown Singaporeans in other constituencies the Way. Alternative Parties have also shown that they can co-operate as well.
Best of all, the BE had exposed traitors and revealed the qualities of the MIWs, State Medias and Apparatus.
Sorry but you got thing totally around. The only thing Singaporeans can see clearly is the fact that there is a spilt in the WP. It's not unusually as the party is growing stronger so factions will appear in the party sooner or later but the by-election hurt the WP far more than the PAP.
The by-election hurt PAP more than WP because of the unfortunate statements by Teo Chee Hean which suggested that PAP has not changed at all one year after GE 2011.
The best thing that happened in this event, is that the PAP big man opened his big fat mouth and out came loads of bull-sh.i.t.
Nothing has changed, the leopard still has its spots.
I disagree with the view that the PAP was hurt by this by-election. They gained more votes than in 2011and they managed to show the disunity in the WP. I do not think for a moment the statements by Teo Chee Hean hurt the PAP because in the hustle for votes, everything goes. If anything, the tears of Desmond Choo hurt him far more than the statements from the DPM. No one from the older generation want to vote for a wimp that can't control his emotions
Post a Comment