Sunday, May 8, 2011

Singapore General Election 2011 - Results

When Singaporeans wake up these morning, they wake up to a slightly new world.  There are still only two opposition constituencies, but there are now 6 opposition MPs.  Opposition lost long time strong hold of Potong Pasir, by less than 150 votes!

In Joo Chiat, opposition lost by less than 400 votes.  For all the other wards, almost all have seen a decline in support to PAP.  And then PAP lost Aljunied GRC.  With that, PAP lost 3 ministers.

I am quite surprised with this development.  In the last GE, Aljunied was already a close call, and Mr George Yeo was already the leader for that ward at that time.  It was only some last minute effort that swing the opinion in favor of PAP and then they won.  Why in the last 5 long years that PAP did something to heal that scar and change people's impression on themselves?  What have they been doing in the last five years?

The results of this GE is going to impact on PAP's policies on certain issues.  There are a few that I can think of:

1. Foreign workers/Foreign talents.  This is one hot issue and Singaporeans are very unhappy of.  I can foresee that in the coming days, it will be harder to get PRs and Singapore citizenships.

2. Inflation, esp COE and HDB flat prices.  Of the two, HDB flat price is the bigger issue.  So many young Singaporeans are having difficulties in coping with the high cost of HDB flats.  It has been made known to me by more than one friend that they had waited for more than 3 years, yet they couldn't get even a chance to get a new HDB flat.  Anyway, both new and re-sale HDB flats now are very expensive, way out of the reach of young Singaporeans below 35.

PAP will have to be more humble and pay more attention to Singaporeans' views in the future, not just those scholars.  My opinion is that many holding high office in the government now are from well off families, and they simple have no idea of how ordinary Singaporeans live.

To me, I think PAP has done a reasonably good job, but there are areas to improve.  Our oppositions are still  not very mature, and lack of solid track record and don't demonstrate their capability to govern the country effectively.  They have many sweet candies, and it is in great doubt that they can deliver the candies.

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