Contest is welcome

Editorial
April 28, 2006
The Straits Times

MANY Singaporeans accustomed to the dependable People's Action Party retaining office without a shot being fired may be dismayed it did not, when nominations closed yesterday for the May 6 parliamentary election. They need not be. A contest taken right through to Polling Day is a healthy development for elective politics. An election cannot be an exercise in picking local-area constituent-minders, as the last three elections were notionally reduced to after voters acknowledged the PAP had safely retained the reins of government by Nomination Day. Choosing a government is about a ventilation of national programmes, issues, policy options. Citizens have a right to be persuaded, consulted and then to make their choice. Voters will welcome the trials that more seekers of public office are being put through in this round. The PAP slate will be pitched headlong into the rough and tumble of making campaign speeches and house-to-house canvassing, and maybe absorb the odd heckle, to convince voters why they should get their vote. It is regrettable only 10 of its 24 new candidates will experience electoral combat first-hand, but the brand new walk-in MPs should do no less explaining themselves to constituents and answering their questions. For all the ruling party's outstanding record of governance and its carefully chosen candidates' surface qualities, an election is always the great leveller which citizens demand to participate in fully.

For the opposition parties, placing their candidates and their party platform before the public for scrutiny has an added appeal, although their motivations in taking on the dominant PAP are very different. They can take some credit for forcing the incumbents to a full-on contest at the hustings. (The PAP won uncontested 37 of the 84 seats yesterday). The Workers' Party especially has recruited some earnest young people with backgrounds not unlike the PAP's. But, like the PAP's freshies, all will stand revealed only during the campaign. Opposition parties' path to respectability has been a painfully slow progression, but Singaporeans should be glad they are getting there. They are better organised, more focused in target-setting and quite adept at drawing converts to their cause. If the trend of a maturing opposition is sustained, it will enhance Singapore's political growth.