Despite writing about Singapore for six years now I think many people still misread me. They think I'm just some ang moh who came all the way to the city-state and fell in love with the PAP that he's willing to blindly support no matter what.
The reality is that it matters less to me who governs but rather how people in the society think and the choices they make on this basis – because it's them that you interact with on a daily basis.
In other words, what I like about Singapore is not that it's governed by the PAP but that most Singaporeans are decent and sane enough to keep voting PAP in power, given the temptations of populist, destructive and cynical opposition.
I wouldn't mind if there were more opposition MPs if they were decent, reasonable people. After all, there must be some disagreements even within the ruling party itself.
As long as the goal is finding solutions to problems to aid constructive progress of the country I don't see why we should practice blind groupthink. It's healthy to discuss and, yes, disagree on things.
But it's also pretty clear that the quality of the opposition in Singapore is simply atrocious.
A few years ago I thought that some of them were at least decent people. Wrong but decent. I do not think that anymore, especially after this electoral campaign.
Which is why I welcome their thorough repudiation by the society.
None of the dirty tricks worked. None of the empty, reckless, populist promises. None of the destructive and vile identity politics.
Workers' Party has failed to gain ground on the PAP and only inherited two NCMP seats from the PSP which has been wiped out of the political scene.
We won't be suffering Leong Mun Wai's antics in the parliament just like we won't have to deal with candidates who ran in the GE because of the war in Gaza. WP's attempt to exploit the conflict for domestic politics failed spectacularly, and its vice-chairman, Faisal Manap, is likely to get into the parliament only by the skin of his teeth, barely securing an NCMP seat in Tampines (to the dismay of Chee Soon Juan, who lost his chance by a few tenths of a percent).
Yes, WP has kept its strongholds and even extended its lead in Sengkang – but that's where they skirted controversy and had popular enough candidates to take them ahead of PAP's weakest team. If anything it is proof that if they want to mean something in local politics in the future they should stay away from polarising issues. Singaporeans don't want them to play any role in domestic governance.
Of course it would be better if none of them made it to the parliament because none of them deserve it.
But I understand we can't have it all and that it's impossible to expect every person in the society to be able to see that.
Which is why I celebrate the relatively stable two-thirds that continue to. You're the ones that make Singapore great.
