S'pore opposition joins ranks for poll<\/p>\n
By Ajoy Sen<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Singapore's splintered opposition groups
\nare talking among themselves about a strategy to maximize their
\nshowing in an expected parliamentary election this year,
\nopposition politicians said.<\/p>\n
\"We are talking to each other to avoid three-cornered
\ncontests,\" said Joshua Jeyaretnam, secretary-general of the
\nopposition Workers Party (WP) and a potential candidate.<\/p>\n
Opposition leaders say they could have won more seats in the
\nlast general election, in 1991, if the anti-government vote had
\nnot been split.<\/p>\n
\"We expect the opposition will win at least a total 10 seats
\nin the polls which we expect to be held this year,\" Jeyaretnam
\ntold Reuters. In 1991 the opposition took four seats.<\/p>\n
Chee Soon Juan, secretary-general of the opposition Singapore
\nDemocratic Party (SDP), shares Jeyaretnam's optimism. He told
\nReuters that the SDP, in its campaign, will tell Singaporeans
\nthere is an alternative to the ruling People's Action Party
\n(PAP).<\/p>\n
His book \"Dare to Change, an alternative vision for
\nSingapore\", defines the alternative as calling \"for a more open
\nand human society where people participate and are deeply
\ninvolved with the nation's interests and goals.\"<\/p>\n
The government -- controlled by the PAP -- has not said when
\nthe elections will be held, but they must be called by April
\n1997.<\/p>\n
In the past, the government has called polls about a year
\nahead of the deadline, but some political analysts say Prime
\nMinister Goh Chok Tong is keen to have an election sooner to
\ncapitalize on a weak opposition and on a record of double-digit
\nannual economic growth since 1990, when he became prime minister.<\/p>\n
Another theory has it that elections could come in late August
\nor September this year, just after the country's National Day,
\nexpected to center around the 30th anniversary of Singapore's
\nbreak from Malaysia and its emergence as a prosperous independent
\ncountry. All 30 of those years have been under PAP rule.<\/p>\n
One key PAP leader recently suggested the opposition has
\nlittle impact. Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on
\nChinese-language television that the opposition barely exerted
\nany pressure compared with that faced by the government in the
\n1960s.<\/p>\n
But the pressure has been on the opposition party leaders.
\nJeyaretnam was disqualified from holding a seat in parliament for
\na five-year period ending November 1991 after a conviction in
\nlocal courts for making false declarations about his party's
\nfinances.<\/p>\n
He has been involved in several libel suits. Jeyaretnam has
\nsaid that over the years he has paid libel damages of more than
\nSingapore S$780,000 ($557,143) to Lee Kuan Yew.<\/p>\n
More recently, the Singapore Straits Times withdrew a
\nbankruptcy petition against Jeyaretnam after he paid up more than
\nS$80,000 in cash and cheques in costs he was ordered to pay after
\nhe lost a libel suit filed against the newspaper.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Singapore high court ordered Chee to pay PAP
\nparliamentarian S. Vasoo, a professor at the National University
\nof Singapore (NUS) and head of the department in which Chee
\nworked, and two other NUS staff members S$315,000 ($225,000) in
\ndamages and legal costs in a defamation suit over remarks he made
\nafter a parliamentary debate on his sacking from the university.<\/p>\n
Bruce Gale, regional manager of Political and Economic Risk
\nConsultancy, said that since the demise of the left-wing Barisan
\nSocialis in the late 1960s, opposition parties in Singapore have
\ntended to be built around personalities.\"<\/p>\n
\"Opposition unity, often fragile, has typically been based
\nmore on a common dislike of the PAP's authoritarian rule than
\nadherence to any alternative policy platforms,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Some opposition leaders and academics also say that many
\nSingaporeans, among the wealthiest people in Asia, will not risk
\ntheir luxuries and comforts for an elusive humanitarian
\nphilosophy.<\/p>\n
\"Most Singaporeans are extremely materialistic and are
\nconcerned more with bread-and-butter issues than with human
\nrights and political questions,\" Chiam See Tong, an SDP executive
\ncommittee member, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\"The opposition must realize that most of them are affluent
\nand keen to protect that position,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"My approach to them is that without the threat of a strong
\nopposition in Parliament, you cannot wrest any gains from the
\nPAP. They (PAP) will give only when they are under a threat\",
\nChiam, the longest serving opposition member in Parliament, said.<\/p>\n
Shee Poon Kim, a senior political science lecturer at the
\nNational University of Singapore, said the majority of
\nSingaporeans are more concerned with policies of economic well-
\nbeing and a better life-style.<\/p>\n
However, WP secretary-general Jeyaretnam said there is a
\ngradual awakening of sentiment against an authoritarian and
\npaternalistic rule that he believes has gone too far in
\ncontrolling the lives of three million Singaporeans.<\/p>\n
Jeyaretnam -- who won a by-election in 1981 to break more than
\na decade of total dominance of parliament by the PAP --
\ncriticized the Internal Security Act (ISA) which allows the
\ngovernment to detain people without trial indefinitely.<\/p>\n
The government defends preventive detention, with officials
\nemphasizing its current use against vicious gangsters and
\nnotorious drug traffickers rather than its past and potential use
\nagainst those considered politically subversive.<\/p>\n
In August 1991, the SDP and the WP won three and one seats
\nrespectively in a house of 81 seats. All the rest went to the
\nPAP. The PAP polled 61 percent of the valid vote, compared with
\n63.2 percent in the 1988 elections.<\/p>\n
While by many other nations' standards that might seem a
\nlandslide victory for the PAP, it was its lowest percentage in 20
\nyears and caused considerable party soul searching.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/spore-opposition-joins-ranks-for-poll-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}