PAP faces political, economic challenges

By Bilveer Singh

Singapore's economic prosperity and political stability is not without costs: It has led to the rise of a new political generation which takes these things for granted and wants more.

SINGAPORE (JP): Singapore's prosperity under the People's Action Party (PAP), in power since 1959, has brought about its own challenges. The most critical of this being the management of success.

The political leadership is determined to achieve its goals of security through wealth creation, but, at the same time, it is facing the results of all of this in the rising aspirations of the public.

However, there has been no corresponding development of political institutions, structures or channels to accommodate these rising aspirations and expectations, especially among younger Singaporeans.

The PAP Youth, established in 1984, which was aimed at addressing this problem, has failed miserably. The launching of the young PAP itself was an admission of the sad state of affairs. Whenever a bright young Singaporean appears on the horizon, he is quickly coopted.

Through this device, it had been hoped that the younger group can be assuaged or silenced. Unfortunately, the problem has become too widespread and coopting is no longer an effective strategy as the numbers have become too many.

This phenomenon is not restricted to any particular racial group but seems to be across-the-board among the younger electorate. The turning point appeared to have come in 1980 when a broad consensus seemed to emerge that the institution building and policy approaches of the PAP were aimed at nothing more than perpetuating its hegemony.

The evidence of this can be seen in the electoral behavior of Singaporeans since 1980 and there appears to be no way the government can stop this tide unless it changes the electoral rules, say along the lines of the one person-two-votes proposal.

Election results show that the PAP was well received and supported in the past because there was a social contract between the people and the party that people's aspirations must be held back to develop polity. Moreover, the aspirations were centered on the satisfaction of basic needs. This, the ruling party satisfied luxuriously.

However, by the 1980s, Singaporeans in general, especially the younger ones, felt that they had arrived and achieved much and that the old rules of the game should no longer be continued. They craved for a change. There was the rise of a new political generation, which had grown up in affluence and unlike those of the past, had concerns that no longer centered around basics.

Singapore, thus faces a classic Maslowian dilemma of the hierarchy of needs, but which the leadership tends to dismiss in disbelief, or ignorance. This is especially true of the political needs.

While what exactly the younger electorate wants is not totally clear, there is, however, the notion that more freedom and greater toleration should be obtained in society. What the younger electorate is crying out for is less control, central direction and micro-management of their lives, especially private lives.

What has made the situation worse for the ruling elite is that for the first time the polity is faced with specific grievances from the populace, be it on the Certificate of Entitlements (for car ownership), rising medical costs, rising transportation costs, rising housing costs and breaking point pressures on family structures.

And there appears to be growing polarization in society on the basis of wealth between the haves and have-nots.

Thus, while economically the country's statistics shows that much progress has been made, at the same time, the policies of the government have had the effect of widening the economic gap, with the coming to the forefront of the class issue, which has been worsened by the middle-class squeeze.

This is one of the basic challenges to the PAP, especially in the Housing and Development Board heartland, with even the older voters growing resentful of the ruling elite. That the one-person-two-votes proposal had a cut-off point at 60 years old shows clearly that the ruling elite realize this and would like to cut their losses through new electoral rules.

While Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew admitted to the presence of some 25 percent hardcore anti-PAP voters in the country, the main turning point seemed to have occurred after 1980 when the anti- PAP vote bank expanded suddenly. There has been no let up in this since, as is evident from election results.

This is largely due to the new entrants into the electoral register, which average about 50,000 young voters annually. Thus, by 1990, the number would have increased to nearly 500,000, forming a third of the total of voters.

The PAP's electoral decline is largely due to the increasing number of this new entrants who are prepared to vote against the ruling party. They are a major key to explaining the declining votes in general elections for the PAP since 1980.

This trend will continue as the divergence between the PAP and the aspirations of the new entrants continue to grow.

Thus, while much economic progress has been achieved by the republic, there appears to be no real attempt to address issues emerging from rising aspirations and expectations. Instead of addressing these aspirations, the strategy has been to contain them.

If this continues to be pursued, there will be an intensification of contention between those wanting to maintain the status quo and those aspiring for change with the intensity of the differences expected to worsen in the coming years.

It is between these margins of possibilities that the shape and character of a new political Singapore will emerge to face its journey into the 21st century.

In this context, one of the key challenges to the political stability of the republic can be expected to emanate from demands for more openness and political participation. The extent to which the ruling elite satisfies these demands will also determine their staying power in the country.

The writer is a senior lecturer in political science at the National University of Singapore.