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PAP needs to groom ‘fighters’
With more single seats, that’s the challenge for party, says MP Chong</B>
Weekend • May 30, 2009
Lin Yanqin
[email protected]
WITH more Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) for the Opposition to contest, the challenge for the People’s Action Party is to groom candidates who can hold their own in a straight election battle, said Member of Parliament Charles Chong (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC).
The PAP’s current strategy of putting new candidates in Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) rather than SMCs means there are members who sometimes “can go from induction to retirement without ever fighting in an election battle”.
“(But) you will need someone with political acumen and the ability to really relate to people to be able to contest by himself,” said Mr Chong, who has been through four General Election contests. “A lot of times, people either have it or they don’t.”
These are also qualities the Opposition parties will need. Will they now be able to attract more candidates, given the higher chance of being heard in Parliament, though possibly in a limited capacity as a Non-Constituency MP?
National Solidarity Party president Sebastian Teo said “we certainly hope that it will”. “Maybe more will feel that their efforts (in contesting) could bear results,” he said.
He does not think the Opposition’s election strategies will change much, though, as the GRC system is still in place and the sizes not significantly reduced.
“What is going to affect us more is the uncertainty (about changes to electoral boundaries),” said Mr Teo.
Among voters, there may be a sentiment that there is no need to vote for the Opposition if they will enter Parliament anyway as NCMPs, said Institute of South-east Asian Studies fellow Terence Chong. “This would mean a drop in popular votes for the opposition,” he said.
But Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy assistant dean Kenneth Tan said this would be hard to ascertain at this point.
“Voters may feel it’s still important to have not only oppositional voice in Parliament, but also oppositional force in terms of having the same voting powers as regular MPs,” he said. “It could also provide an opportunity for opposition politicians to impress sceptical Singaporean voters.”
For the PAP, Mr Chong felt it would be useful to expose potential new faces to grassroots work earlier, which may be unfamiliar ground for many new candidates.
“I remember we had a guy who was really brilliant and could really have gotten things done, but people had this idea that he wasn’t a nice guy, and he lost,” he said. “If we want to bring in new candidates, we really have to get them out to meet people early.”
With more single seats, that’s the challenge for party, says MP Chong</B>
Weekend • May 30, 2009
Lin Yanqin
[email protected]
WITH more Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) for the Opposition to contest, the challenge for the People’s Action Party is to groom candidates who can hold their own in a straight election battle, said Member of Parliament Charles Chong (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC).
The PAP’s current strategy of putting new candidates in Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) rather than SMCs means there are members who sometimes “can go from induction to retirement without ever fighting in an election battle”.
“(But) you will need someone with political acumen and the ability to really relate to people to be able to contest by himself,” said Mr Chong, who has been through four General Election contests. “A lot of times, people either have it or they don’t.”
These are also qualities the Opposition parties will need. Will they now be able to attract more candidates, given the higher chance of being heard in Parliament, though possibly in a limited capacity as a Non-Constituency MP?
National Solidarity Party president Sebastian Teo said “we certainly hope that it will”. “Maybe more will feel that their efforts (in contesting) could bear results,” he said.
He does not think the Opposition’s election strategies will change much, though, as the GRC system is still in place and the sizes not significantly reduced.
“What is going to affect us more is the uncertainty (about changes to electoral boundaries),” said Mr Teo.
Among voters, there may be a sentiment that there is no need to vote for the Opposition if they will enter Parliament anyway as NCMPs, said Institute of South-east Asian Studies fellow Terence Chong. “This would mean a drop in popular votes for the opposition,” he said.
But Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy assistant dean Kenneth Tan said this would be hard to ascertain at this point.
“Voters may feel it’s still important to have not only oppositional voice in Parliament, but also oppositional force in terms of having the same voting powers as regular MPs,” he said. “It could also provide an opportunity for opposition politicians to impress sceptical Singaporean voters.”
For the PAP, Mr Chong felt it would be useful to expose potential new faces to grassroots work earlier, which may be unfamiliar ground for many new candidates.
“I remember we had a guy who was really brilliant and could really have gotten things done, but people had this idea that he wasn’t a nice guy, and he lost,” he said. “If we want to bring in new candidates, we really have to get them out to meet people early.”
