Singapore is at mid-term between its general elections and a year away from the next presidential election. There is still some time before GE2025 though it is not that far off, especially as the ruling party has only just settled its leadership transition mini-crisis caused by the inadequacy of the 4Gers’ first choice as Prime Minister-designate. PE2023 seems a less problematic challenge.
The establishment has no lack of contenders to replace Halimah Yacob, the incumbent office-holder. As I speculated last week, current People’s Action Party chairman, Khaw Boon Wan, seems a strong possibility to be the next establishment candidate. Someone reacted to the column and suggested Lim Boon Heng, Temasek Holdings chairman. Cannot be ruled out, of course. But that was immediately shot down by another astute political observer. He said Lim has been rewarded enough collecting big gaji in Temasek. Time to let someone else be rewarded.
The PE is still an evolving office and much at the mercy of a one-party dominant government. Wikipedia: “Since the constitutional amendments made in 2016, a presidential election will be reserved for a community in Singapore if no one from that community has been president for any of the five most recent terms of office of the president. The communities are the Chinese community, the Malay community, and the Indian or other minority communities. Candidates are required to satisfy the usual qualification criteria. The 2017 election was the first reserved election and was reserved for the Malay community.”
Next year is necessarily an open race competition, unless it is determined, for whatever reason, that Eurasians have not had their turn since Benjamin Sheares in 1971-1981. Hard to tell. Maybe, new rules will pop up – like, not for those with surname Tan? (Satirical comment here).
Whether it is PE2023 or GE2025, do I detect a certain slight swagger in the demeanor of the People’s Action Party?
The party is pretty confident that it has come out on top of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. There is a feeling that the new leaders have bonded with voters, the way that 1G and 2G leaders, especially the founding 1Gers, have earned their spurs. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong seized on the word “trust”: “This trust is a most precious resource. It is the fundamental reason why Singaporeans were able to come together during the pandemic, instead of working against each other.” He was referring primarily to trust in the healthcare system but it was also OPO (Ownself Praise Ownself) for the Multi-Ministry Task Force.
This brings us to Lawrence Wong, now chosen as leader of the 4G team to take over from PM Lee and his team.
And predictably, perhaps to his discomfit, mainstream media has gone to town on his background as it tries to tell more about Singapore’s fourth PM-in-waiting. One can now imagine Wong doing a heavy metal guitar duet with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who is a well-known Metallica fan, one day at an ASEAN meeting.
I wish Lawrence Wong and his team well. But, let them not misjudge the political mood and, much more significant, the unswerving determination of younger Singaporeans to have a less PAP-dominated Parliament.
The PAP made a number of mistakes in GE2020. It persisted in forcing Heng Swee Keat onto the electorate when clearly he was not up to it, nor was the voters interested. That was shown by the results for East Coast GRC.
It thought holding GE2020 in the midst of a crisis could put the Opposition at a disadvantage. The decision simply forced the Workers’ Party and others to be more creative and do better. And they did with their fresher and more personalised online campaigns.
Above all, the PAP totally misinterpreted the swing back in 2015 from 2011 as voters came back to their senses. Not so. Singaporeans were simply paying their debt to Lee Kuan Yew who passed away that year. In fact, Singaporeans have already overpaid in supporting his son.
Lawrence Wong and his team will start anew. They must not take over with the misinterpretation that Pritam Singh and the Workers’ Party have been crippled. The mood for a political change, for a more inclusive society, has not been dampened by the Raeesah Khan saga. It has been strengthened.
Tan Bah Bah, consulting editor of TheIndependent.Sg, is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a local magazine publishing company.