WP's 2 Biggest Challenges for the next 4 Years

[scroobal]

1) Re-building the Party that reflects Singapore - (a) to draw in more people from various vocations and background. (b) bring in better educated and professionally qualified people (c) bring in better qualified minority members and treat them as equals perception wise.

The present set-up and after 2 decades is that it is sino-centric, blue coloured (like their blue unifrom which is the original intention) and nothing more. The reality is blue coloured jobs are now with FTs and not with Singaporeans. A re-branding may be necessary. The minoritiy issue should need no further elaboration after the Indian / Malay epsiodes recently.

2) Significant increase in Parliamentary Performance - it certainly cannot continue the way they have done so. After 20 years, one would have expected something similar to a debate occasionally. No such luck.

(a) Policy Making - Despite stating that they are not ready to form alternative govt, they spend their time re-writing policies or crafting their own policies. They don't have the competence and certainly no resources to do so. In the end they end up in situations like their salary proposal that was close to what the review committee suggested and not what Singaporeans wanted. It was a debacle.

(b) Philosophy - Parliament is not the place for philosophy lessons. I have no idea how they came to this. Maybe during elections hustings. Parliament give limited speech time, so lets maximise it.

(c) Co-driver accountability - this was never done despite making this a campaign tagline in 2011. What has WP in 20 years objected to? Chiam, JBJ, Steve Chia seem to have got into PAP face. If I was wanking for the last 20 years waiting for fireworks of some sort, my dick would have dropped out by now and calcified.

WP needs to realise that working the ground is to get votes only. Municipal or town council activities are also just that - municipal activities. Nothing to do with Parliament in the main. Members of Parliament who credit themselves with the cleanest town council, best managed town council, town councils that meets people needs are analogus to a Medical Doctor who is known for his work in members association functions and not in the field of medicine which is the primary function.

WP will continue to wear tags like PAPlite, PAP Apologists, PAP Team B etc. They will end up no different to Temasek who claim that their outlook is long term everytime a business goes under. After 20 years, I reckon, something has to give.

 

[scroobal]

I expect the usual excuses will surface such as the following

1) MSM do not provide sufficient coverage of their parliamentary work. I think if one takes time to go thru the Hansard, there is nothing in there to suggest anything eye-catching.

2) LTK is a shrewd tactician. Give him time. I have no doubt that he is excellent on working the ground. What is the use of plucking the ripest mango if one cannot consume it.

3) It is the most effective opposition party. Not much competition there. KJ is suicide bomber, CSJ on 23rd May, 2 days before cooling off period wrote about Bob Amsterdam who was denied entry into Singapore, Sebastian waiting for instructions, GMS and his anal reports, need I go any further.

4) voters have made their choice - lets face it, voters are casting protest votes to send a signal to the PAP. They did that in 1991 for 2 idiots as well.

 

[Cruxx]

WP = beneficiaries of protest voters. They will never amount to anything significant in the political arena. Just ask Silver Lim.

 

[jw5]

This is my outsider view of WP.
I'm neither pro WP nor anti PAP, simply anti poor governance.

1. There is no preceived unequal treatment of minorities. It is more the disgruntled former party members making noise than anything else.
If we were to ask Pritam or Faisal whether there is any unequal treatment, I bet their answer will be no, since the former was a minority candidate
put into Aljunied GRC even when it was not required, and the latter was probably deemed to be the best Malay candidate available.

2. Parliamentary performance certainly not great during Low and Sylvia's time, not great either since GE 2011.
But should give them more time, especially from CSM and Pritam. My view is that in this area, Low has already over-achieved, given his limited
English speaking skills and I believe he also lacks a specialised area in finance, law, economics, or even world affairs, which hinders him.
The party needs more help from outside, more diverse membership perhaps. Could be some form of groupthink starting to form within.

3. They are constantly having to deal with the shenanigans of the pap, including the recent BE incident. Constantly trying to balance between
being "combative" and conciliatory, in order to pacify as many types of voters as possible. Also dealing with pap threats and labels, plus MSM plus
all the mechanism behind is not easy. Add to this a certain unique ingrained mentality that seems to be in many Singaporeans. The incident with Png and the questions being asked in this forum about Pritam's CV shows this.

-- Seems to have been ingrained in us to read into the exact words said by someone in a bumbling manner, pick on something said inaccurately rather than dishonestly, make a judgement and give someone a label, without examining all the facts and looking at the whole picture.

-- Seems also to have been ingrained in us that an MP has to study 12 years, go to university, come out to work and get a continuous job
in the civil service, stat board, glc, ntuc, saf, police, private sector, etc, and then he is fit to be an MP. Actually the credentials shouldn't matter if he is carrying out his work properly as an MP. Obviously opposition don't have access to the conveyor belt of scholars in their early years.

 

[steffychun]

The next step. Form a Shadow Cabinet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Cabinet

 

[elephanto]

Excellent treatise bro more fair-mindHanna grounded than Scroobal's clinical take.

 

[zhihau]

Excellent treatise bro more fair-mindHanna grounded than Scroobal's clinical take.

may the insignificant one here give his humble contribution:

1. increasing the talent pool is a must: the talents have to cut across all spectrum of society. doesn't mean when one is highly educated then one is definitely a talent. IQ is important but EQ cannot be neglected.

2. personal qualities of the candidates: the electorate aren't asking for saints, the last me had checked. we needed politicians who cared for us and who can connect with us.

3. political acumen and shrewdness: caring for the citizen is just a pre-requisite, working with other politicians in the world stage is also important. our leaders will represent us and will negotiate for our best interests.

 

[Kinana]

Increase the salary of opposition MPs so that they can attract better talent amd not the current crop of crap they are having now.
Only then can there be effective opposition.

 

[Nice-Gook]

WP = beneficiaries of protest voters. They will never amount to anything significant in the political arena. Just ask Silver Lim.

WP was designed to mop protest votes by PAP.A role LKY hatched when LTK was given a choice he cannot refuse.It is almost exactly as how DAP was also hatched by PAP.....initially as the Malaysian branch of PAP.But later to become the chauvinist Chinese party of Malaysia.WP is also similarly striking in it's cadre ship.....they avoided the mainstream Malays and Indians.But took token Singhs to give it a multi racial face.The current chairman of DAP is Karpal Singh ; could not see eye to eye with Malaysian Tamils.And the DAP current secretary general Lim Guan Eng could never get along with the most moderate Malay.

Thia is one of the reason why I watch Malaysian politics.To gauge how WP unfolds by watching DAP;who was the first creation of PAP before WP-Baru ---from the same mind.

 

[kingrant]

Overall agree with analysis but some genuine excuses (lol). Paras ref from Scro:

1) Agreed. Easier said than done. Professional people may not want to be politicians, and politicians dont want to be just managers in the party. They have to be likeminded and team players, not constantly vying for power. CSJ/CST affair is a good example.

2a) & c. See 1) above

2b) Agree. Must learn to deliver essence in a sound bite.

Learning curve is steep.

1) Re-building the Party that reflects Singapore - (a) to draw in more people from various vocations and background. (b) bring in better educated and professionally qualified people (c) bring in better qualified minority members and treat them as equals perception wise.

The present set-up and after 2 decades is that it is sino-centric, blue coloured (like their blue unifrom which is the original intention) and nothing more. The reality is blue coloured jobs are now with FTs and not with Singaporeans. A re-branding may be necessary. The minoritiy issue should need no further elaboration after the Indian / Malay epsiodes recently.

2) Significant increase in Parliamentary Performance - it certainly cannot continue the way they have done so. After 20 years, one would have expected something similar to a debate occasionally. No such luck.

(a) Policy Making - Despite stating that they are not ready to form alternative govt, they spend their time re-writing policies or crafting their own policies. They don't have the competence and certainly no resources to do so. In the end they end up in situations like their salary proposal that was close to what the review committee suggested and not what Singaporeans wanted. It was a debacle.

(b) Philosophy - Parliament is not the place for philosophy lessons. I have no idea how they came to this. Maybe during elections hustings. Parliament give limited speech time, so lets maximise it.

(c) Co-driver accountability - this was never done despite making this a campaign tagline in 2011. What has WP in 20 years objected to? Chiam, JBJ, Steve Chia seem to have got into PAP face. If I was wanking for the last 20 years waiting for fireworks of some sort, my dick would have dropped out by now and calcified.

WP needs to realise that working the ground is to get votes only. Municipal or town council activities are also just that - municipal activities. Nothing to do with Parliament in the main. Members of Parliament who credit themselves with the cleanest town council, best managed town council, town councils that meets people needs are analogus to a Medical Doctor who is known for his work in members association functions and not in the field of medicine which is the primary function.

WP will continue to wear tags like PAPlite, PAP Apologists, PAP Team B etc. They will end up no different to Temasek who claim that their outlook is long term everytime a business goes under. After 20 years, I reckon, something has to give.

 

[wikiphile]

Overall agree with analysis but some genuine excuses (lol). Paras ref from Scro:

1) Agreed. Easier said than done. Professional people may not want to be politicians, and politicians dont want to be just managers in the party. They have to be likeminded and team players, not constantly vying for power. CSJ/CST affair is a good example.

2a) & c. See 1) above

2b) Agree. Must learn to deliver essence in a sound bite.

Learning curve is steep.

I see a lot of enthusiastic young people recently in the party ranks. They are young, educated and infected with the euphoria of our emerging democracy since last year.

However i suspect once they find out what it takes to be a MP and let alone an opposition one and the amount of work involved to be considered a candidate for the next GE their enthusiasm may falter. There is an ongoing program now to groom the next batch of GE candidates and no, you don't get selected now by a phonecall from the chairman.

 

[kingrant]

Yea, that's quite disconcerting but true. What is important is to build a powerbase somehow or other if you dont want to join any parties. LKY was a good example. Many people do not know that if left to his own crowd with the Fabian society, English educated talkshops, he also could have failed to emerge? After initial dithering with the Malayan Forum, SPP (his boss Laycock's party), he finally found the Chinese middle school students or they found him actually, to be their legal adviser. LKY defended Fajar editors successfully which attracted the Chinese students. From the Chinese middle schools he was referred to the trade unions, which in his own words, was "teeming with vitality".

But I suppose that era is over. Each gen of rising political leaders has to find its own centre of power and prove himself to be worthy of mass support. The PAP has been using the GRC scheme to bring in apolitical professionals like Heng Swee Kiat who has done zilch grassroot service. Now that the WP has captured one, it should be a matter of time before they grow to capture more GRCs and use the same trick to bring in their own. Chen Show Mao is a good example. Not such a rabble rouser, but clearly has the credentials to show to younger sophisticated voters. So this shows that if you are successful in your field, is known well widely enough, has connections and networks who think you are credible Opp material, you will probably make it. Or form yr own party with like-minded ex-colleagues etc. Often it's also by word of mouth. Hit a few effective sweetspots with the grassroots and yr day is made. So quantity of service is not always determinant - quality is.

I see a lot of enthusiastic young people recently in the party ranks. They are young, educated and infected with the euphoria of our emerging democracy since last year.

However i suspect once they find out what it takes to be a MP and let alone an opposition one and the amount of work involved to be considered a candidate for the next GE their enthusiasm may falter. There is an ongoing program now to groom the next batch of GE candidates and no, you don't get selected now by a phonecall from the chairman.

 

[yellowarse]

Excellent treatise bro more fair-mindHanna grounded than Scroobal's clinical take.

Disagree. Thought this was one of Scroobal's more objective pieces on WP.

For all his 'neither pro WP nor anti PAP' stance, jw5's 'analysis' is pure apologia.

 

[earnestball]

we are actually dealing with the real remaking of Singapore, a Singapore that everyone should want, a Singapore that does not go by patronage and illusions/wayang, a Singapore that can solve real problems by getting down to business.

 

[ah_phah]

i guess WP's challenge now is to to assemble stronger teams to contest & take as many GRCs they didnt manage to capture in GE2011. if i remember correctly, east coast & kallang moulmein teams lost marginally. and i believe the recent policies rolled out in a more debative parliament is testiment for fence sitters to give their votes to opposition, than in the incumbent.

besides, its not as if the papaya has shown that they've got solid 4th generation leaders in their display cabinet. in fact, bcos the papaya displays that academic is 1 of their key selection criteria, that makes i necessary to vote opposition. reason is simple... scholars know sh*t about the reality of economy functions on a daily basis. they tell us that $1000 salary can afford HDB, but they forget ppl need to eat for the rest of their days as well.

 

[Lord Imperious]

WP should just focus on 2 things. Running the new GRC well and work the ground in the hot spots for the next GE. If East Coast falls, it will be the biggest embarassment yet. Given the PAP HQ is in Bedok.

 

[zhihau]

Given the PAP HQ is in Bedok.

擒贼先擒王 me is looking at AMK GRC :p:p:p

 

[wikiphile]

擒贼先擒王 me is looking at AMK GRC :p:p:p

You miss the point bro, to have PAP's shiny party HQ building in the middle of an opposition held ward would be an embarrasment to them. WP only have one small shophouse HQ, hardly a symbol

 

[zhihau]

You miss the point bro, to have PAP's shiny party HQ building in the middle of an opposition held ward would be an embarrasment to them. WP only have one small shophouse HQ, hardly a symbol

bro,
haven't miss any points bro, a quick look into history and we have seen the capital of the Chinese dynasties moving from one place to another. a bigger embarrassment would be a ruling party without the Sec. Gen. being elected as an MP :p:p:p

 

[Satyr]

WP should just focus on 2 things. Running the new GRC well and work the ground in the hot spots for the next GE. If East Coast falls, it will be the biggest embarassment yet. Given the PAP HQ is in Bedok.

Right. The WP does not need to hurry. Run HG/Aljunied well. Bring the right people in. Put in the right defences. The tide is with them them.