Saturday, May 07, 2011

Singapore 2011 General Election



updatedRead the analysis Abang Punya Hammer Besar! by Op-Ed in Singapore.

As I expected, PAP fared worse than 1991 which means it's the worst PAP performance ever. The Opposition won 6 of the 87 seats contested. Not too bad but no tsunami. 


Still, there are some similarities which the Malaysian politicians would be interested to study. For one, the Malays became the deciding factor in AlJunied (ramailah Melayu yang terpaksa berpindah flat lepas ni ...). The Malay-Muslims were still seething over Lee Kuan Yew's insensitive remarks about their faith, despite his apology. Singapore has done so well economically in the global arena but in an election domestic issues affecting the people, such as high cost of living, exorbitant property prices, and job opportunities for locals (vs expats), are deciding factors. 


Malaysian blogger Big Dog was also in Singapore covering the election: Singapore exercising democracy. 


Original posting:


"Sama-Sama Menuju Bahagia

  Cita-Cita Kita Yang Mulia
  Berjaya Singapura". 
The first time my friend the blogger Op-Ed from Singapore voted in a general election, the ruling party PAP lost FOUR seats. That was 1991 and the worst ever performance by the party that was co-founded by the late A. Samad Ismail until Lee Kuan Yew kept him out of Singapore and claimed Petir (the acronym Pak Samad gave PAP for Parti Tindakan Rakyat) to be his own - and later his family's. LKY had help from a Malaysian politician who wanted to be Prime Minister at all cost (familiar?) but that's another story.

This morning Op-Ed exercised his voting right for the second time in a general election the PAP is expected by the critics, including myself, to suffer an outcome worse than 1991. But don't dream of a March 08. There's no Pak Lah in Singapore politics.

20 comments:

  1. That Pak Samad was a founder-member of PAP is a fact. But, that he was kept out of Singapore is news to me !
    Perhaps, Puan Nuraina would like to comment !

    ReplyDelete
  2. damansaraman4:54 pm

    No Pak Lah??!!

    Kesian Singaporean...kalau tak leh gak diorang experience si Kitol!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:50 pm

    first singapore, then thailand, then followed by malaysia, the opposition will win one-third the total votes and seats

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  4. Charles F Moreira11:22 pm

    It will be interesting to see the results of the Singapore generar erections.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Who is Pak Lah? Is he the one who promises a lot and delivers nothing?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Salam Datuk,

    PAP is giving opposition a TKO at time of comment. Indeed no Pak Lah effect.

    PAP already has simple majority.

    But WP has won Aljuneid.

    Thank you
    Freddie

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10:38 am

    Mari kita rakyat singapura
    Sama sama menuju bahagia
    Cita cita kita yang mulia
    Berjaya singapura
    Marilah kita bersatu
    Dengan semangat yang baru
    ..............

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:54 am

    Rocky, the lyrics of the national anthem of Singapore should be " ...Majulah Singapura..." not "Berjaya Singapura".
    The oppositon in Singapore may not have won the way their Malaysian counterparts did in 2008, but the outcome of Singapore's GE 2011 is certainly a blow to its one-party system of government. Its overall popular votes went down to just above 60%, although personally, I think there isn't much in terms of major issue in Singapore.
    Good politicians and MPs like George Teo became sacrificial lambs like Shahrizat Jalil did in 2008, because electorates wanted to vent their dissatisfaction against government policies.
    One thing I notice about their campaigning or 'rallying' - there wasn't much mud-slinging unlike in Malaysia. Perhaps it has to do with the history of post-election defamation suits Singapore is infamous for.

    Mom-o-Success

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  9. Anonymous11:59 am

    Oops! Apologies Rocky..... You're right it's "Berjaya Singapura" the first time round.... It seems so long ago that I sang the song during the school assembly....:)))

    Mom-o-Success

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mum-o-Success,
    We sang the same anthem in school! I remember the first few lines of the pledge: "We the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves to be 1 united people, regardless of race and religion ..."

    I also remember the alternative anthem: "Mari kita rakyat Pasir Panjang, Sama-Sama Telanjang, di padang .."

    Btw, Pasir Panjang, if it's under West Coast GRC, was retained by the PAP. In the 60s, it had the whitest of beaches. I believe Sang Nila Utama saw that beach from a vantage point before he took sail and got caught in the perfect storm, landed somewhere on the island, and founded Singapura.

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  11. Anonymous2:22 pm

    'ello, why bother whether PAP, won all or lost any seats...

    Like the Lees gave a shit about the opinions here.

    Go take care of our own backyard 1st...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Don't be so excited bila opposition won 5 seats! U see Dato, esok there will be some of them arrested under singapore ISA.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous2:25 pm

    What happen to Malays in Singapore after this election? Same old story bro

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous2:26 pm

    I have a strong feeling lee Kwan yew will pass away tomorrow

    ReplyDelete
  15. Tak Payah Tau2:33 pm

    Singapore is an out-post for those Zionist-Illuminati pigs. Period.

    Local politics is too small to digest. Try to understand and comprehend Global Politics that those damn New World Order (NWO) proponents are trying to do..., i.e to control ALL governments.

    The whole world is controlled by MONEY or CURRENCY...! What is Money? And who are those damn bastards who controls these money..?

    People need money.., they control the money supply..., so they CONTROL people. They control You and I....! Simple as that.

    Singapore is an just out-post for international finance. Period.

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  16. Anonymous2:43 pm

    LKY and his goons passed the PAP SMEAR TEST, however with bits of blots....

    Salleh Telegu

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  17. Anonymous5:35 pm

    Rocky, LKY did not apologise, he only stand corrected. Where on earth will he ever apologise? It was Nicole Seah of NSP who apologised on behalf of him (and Chinese Singaporeans).

    For the alternative anthem, after 'sama sama telanjang', we normally sang 'miang miang".....lol

    Mayu Singapore

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  18. Anonymous7:48 pm

    Pak Samad co-founded PAP. A historical fact which PAP wish they can erase.
    Another fact, as someone wrote before.."The irony is,Samad a Malay & Devan Nair and Indian, provided PAP with the support of the Chinese left"
    How many Sinaporeans today know these facts, I wonder.

    Wak

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  19. Anonymous7:30 am

    totally different take of yours when commenting on DAP's win ( or shall i say BN's bad beating) in Sarawak?

    anyways cheers

    i guess one cannot bite rhe hand that feeds

    mm

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous10:03 pm

    Rocky, I recall reciting the pledge every morning in primary school - in Malay, followed by the English translation. Guess what? Even Wikipedia refers to the Singapore pledge as original Malay version, and translated English, Chinese and Tamil version.

    Haah... I don't recall your Pasir Panjang version, perhaps among the boys, there could've been some pulau version, considering that we were all anak pulau, south of Pasir Panjang....lol...!

    A sibling, who's a PAP grassroots supporter, said it was shocking that they had as many as over 1,000 spoilt votes in some constituencies - which never happened before.
    Over here, if we are not happy with the performance of our preferred party, we can simply not turn up on polling day. But over there, since voting is mandatory, the next best thing to do is spoil their votes, and they sure did it in big fashion.
    Anyway, whatever praises heaped on Singapore's PAP, and criticisms thrown at Malaysia's BN, according to a worldwide study on the Happy Planet Index (2007 & 2009) Malaysia is in the top 40 positions of the happiest countries to live in, and Singapore falls way behind at 130-something position...

    Mom-o-Success

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