I have to say I have never seen any logic behind the opposition's protests regarding boundary changes ahead of each General Election. The gerrymandering accusation has always been thin, as I explained here recently (again!), due to Singapore's small size and highly blended society (thanks to PAP's own policies of ethnic integration).
It just doesn't have the features that would permit effective gerrymandering as it is, for example, seen in the USA (where it's been done by both parties for over 200 years now).
Suggesting that PAP is using past voting patterns to influence the boundary redrawing process is silly, because every area was once dominated by the PAP. If those trends were supposed to continue then nobody but the ruling party should have won a single seat.
Workers' Party itself benefited from creation of Sengkang GRC and hoped to capitalise on the birth of Punggol GRC, which closely resembled the former in size and proximity to WP's core.
Yet, at the same time, it didn't stop Pritam Singh from lamenting how EBRC was trying to "box in" the Workers' Party.
Really? Dear Mr Singh, if you're reading this, your party exists in the "boxes" created by EBRC. You directly benefited from the process, being able to win two GRCs, giving you 9 out of 10 elected MPs.
Even funnier were Tan Cheng Bock's lamentations, also alleging that PAP "machinery" helped defeat the PSP with boundary changes:
PSP lost the West Coast-Jurong West GRC by 20 percentage points – 60 to 40. It received 8,000 fewer votes than in 2020, despite the constituency growing by 12,000 electors.
The core of the West Coast was left untouched, it only lost bits and pieces to the east, in Sentosa, Harbourfront, Telok Blangah and Dover area, and received Taman Jurong instead.
To allege that boundary changes played any role in this embarrassing result is ridiculous. The party had five years to show its quality and simply failed at it – while Tan Cheng Bock himself hasn't helped with his endorsement of Tan Kin Lian for presidency in 2023.
So, why do they really complain?
Two reasons. First, and obvious: it is politically expedient to cast shadow on the ruling party, alleging that it is rigging elections against honest opposition.
It's completely baseless but enough people buy into the fearmongering about big, overpowering PAP. It also helps to deflect responsibility for any upsets, keeping their ranks loyal. It's easier to say: "we couldn't win against PAP machinery" than "we messed it up again". It moves responsibility outside, away from the leaders.
But the second reason, which I have never seen mentioned before, is that they simply do not want to put in the effort that would be required to succeed.
It is simply much easier to play the victim card rather than think, plan and act ahead.
If you know what the boundaries are ahead of time, you can devote all of your resources to that one place and ignore everything else around it. It's cheap and easy.
It allows you to ignore thousands of Singaporeans you don't deem attractive enough as voters.
All of Singapore's opposition parties have exhibited this cynical opportunism – serve only those that can vote for you, nobody else.
You could witness it when the Workers' Party suddenly abandoned Marine Parade, after walking the ground there for the past two years.
And the best part is that the reason for the switch to Punggol was... the new boundary!
WP hasn't set foot in the area for years, but when it turned out that Punggol GRC will perfectly line up with Sengkang, be of similar size and represent similar populations, Pritam Singh immediately made a beeline for it, leaving stunned Marine Paraders on their own.
Yeah, the EBRC was to "blame" for that – but not because it made Marine Parade uncontestable but because it made Punggol so attractive for the Workers' Party, that it believed it could win it despite not having invested any time there before the GE.
The allegation that new boundaries of Marine Parade made it harder to compete is ridiculous coming from people who spent decades in politics.
Boundaries change every five years – it's a given. You want to tell me that after spending 20 or 30 years in politics you couldn't anticipate that a few blocks might be moved one way or another? That Marymount SMC could, potentially, be absorbed?
It means that either you are dumb or you think I am.
All it would have taken was to send your troops on walkabouts around your target constituency as well. Cover those extra areas just in case. Would that have been too much to ask? Is a party that talks about national governance all the time not able to cobble together a team of people to visit Singaporeans right outside of the past boundaries? Is this how you treat them?
Campaign period lasts five years
But they haven't done it and then, as ever, started complaining five minutes before the GE that evil government isn't giving them enough time to campaign in the newly redistricted areas.
Seriously? You've had FIVE YEARS to do it. You could and should have sent people on walkabouts to the places of interest and around them, to cover all of your bases. You just didn't want to.
Opposition parties just want to have it easy. They demand everything is served to them on a silver platter, so they can expend minimum amount of effort and resources – just like they have grown used to in the parliament, where their contributions are limited to complaints.
When have they ever written and proposed an actual bill? Not for it to be passed, given the PAP majority, but to even prove that they are capable of doing the job or being better at it than the government.
Shouldn't they? After all, on what basis are they scrutinising PAP's legislation when they have never put any forward themselves?
But they don't, because they consider it to be beneath them. They don't want to put in the effort and prefer to just complain that their poor electoral performance is because EBRC moved boundaries (in line with changing distribution of local population – as it has done for decades).
Why put in the effort if you can just claim PAP is running a dictatorship?
Any serious political party in Singapore should be able to organize enough people to visit all Singaporeans at least once in five years, and multiple times in places they wish to contest.
If they're unable to, they shouldn't be in national politics.
