Transforming The PAP (1)

Here are just two things I’d love to notice Singaporeans talking about now that the 2011 General Election is over and done with:

1. What might a ‘transformed’ People’s Action Party (PAP) actually look like?
2. Is it possible that a transformed PAP could remain in power indefinitely?

The fact that I’m bothering to pose the second of these questions might seem a tad strange.   Just yesterday, I commented that it seemed to me the primary problem in Singapore right now is that the people of Singapore don’t seem to be so accepting of the ‘PAP good, not-the-PAP bad’ mantra as they used to be.  Why should it matter to them if the PAP can remain in power indefinitely then?

It matters, I think, because, as various key figures within the PAP have been wont to say on more occasions than I can find the time to list, Singapore is such an exceptionally tiny boat floating in potentially exceedingly stormy International waters that becoming more of a two- or multi-party democracy than it is at present might serve to very seriously curtail its ability to remain stable.

I also commented yesterday that the PAP might not appear to have been effectively transformed until such time as its own members could be persuaded to recognise the possibility that not-the-PAP might not be so bad after all.  The problem with this, of course, is that admitting that the other guys might not really be so bad in what remains an essentially adversarial political system might prove to be political suicide.  Of course the PAP needs to argue that it is right and the other side is wrong.  How else could it hope to continue winning in future elections?

Call me a hopeless idealist if you will and there is, I think, an alternative way forward that might even serve to impact the rest of the World to the good as well.  Put simply, the PAP must let go its attachment to the idea of Singapore needing to be ruled by the PAP and revisit its original vision of an Independent Singapore ruled by Singaporeans.  Once it has done so, it might truly be described as ‘transformed’; until it has done so, my guess is that it will continue to see its share of the vote diminishing and diminishing again until, eventually, it will be replaced in Government by one or another or a combination of those parties it has, until now, chosen to refer to collectively as ‘the Opposition’.

How could it show that it is committed to reinstating its original vision?  One of the first thing it should do, in my hopelessly idealistic opinion, is see to it that all the figures from this most recent election are released, right down to the details of the count in each of the individual wards.  This might have the effect of silencing those critics who wish to claim it does not deserve the overwhelming majority of the elected seats (81 out of 87) that were up for grabs in 2011.  Alternatively, in the event that the figures should happen to prove what the critics have been saying to be true, the PAP would have an opportunity to apologise to the electorate and to undertake to establish a more representative system in the future.  That action alone might serve to quieten a lot of the grumbling and could be used as evidence that the PAP means what it says about transforming itself back into a party that listens.

What then?  Call for the early dissolution of this parliament and for a new election to be conducted whose results cannot be called into question as Gerrymandered or ‘fixed’ in any other way.  Those MPs that were returned to parliament without having won a majority of the votes in wards they are now supposed to helm could be removed from Parliament, either as a result of having being dropped off their party’s slate or by the voters.  (Let’s face it:  The figures that have been released so far suggest there might be quite a few GRCs that would have returned teams comprised of a mixture of both PAP and not-the-PAP representatives had voters been permitted to vote for individual candidates instead of being required to vote for teams.)  This would provide further evidence that the PAP does not mean to talk about transforming itself so much as it truly means to transform.