JULY 19 — For the first time in its history, Singapore has an official leader of the Opposition.
That may seem odd as we have had regular elections on the basis of a parliamentary system since independence in 1965, but this is the first year an opposition party has won sufficient seats in parliament for the government to consider naming an official leader of the Opposition.
From 1965 through the 70s, there was no opposition MPs in parliament. In the early 80s, Workers’ Party (WP) stalwart JB Jeyaretnam was the only opposition MP in parliament and therefore he was arguably Singapore’s first leader of the Opposition – though of course he had only himself to lead at the time.
Through the 90s and early 2000s, we’d see tiny numbers of opposition MPs elected and only now in 2020 have enough non-People’s Action Party (PAP) MPs elected to parliament for the government to formally declare the leader of the WP — Pritam Singh — officially leader of the Opposition.
While Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the WP leader would be officially designated leader of the Opposition, we still don’t really know what this will mean.
Typically, in parliamentary systems like the UK it means he will receive an additional salary on top of his remuneration as an MP and will receive funding to maintain an office as leader of the Opposition.
In many parliamentary systems, the leader of the Opposition also maintains a Shadow Cabinet with positions mirroring those of actual Cabinet Ministers and holding them accountable, i.e. a shadow foreign minister would be challenging the sitting foreign minister etc.
Now of course for Singapore, a Shadow Cabinet is probably a bit of a stretch given that there are only 10 opposition MPs — all of them from the WP but it is encouraging the government is embracing the Opposition’s role.
More MPs in parliament, a formal position for its leader within our parliamentary system — it is obvious the WP is growing. It is clearly transitioning from a fringe to a mainstream movement.
But growth brings its own challenges.
For a long time in Singapore, Opposition was simply about preventing the ruling party from having an absolute blank cheque. With limited budgets and in the face of various other obstacles, it was enough just for Opposition to get representatives on the ballot.
But now we seem to be moving towards a true parliamentary opposition.
This means the WP MPs are there not just as dissenting voices but will be expected to provide at least the basis for an alternative government.
That is the expectation of an Opposition in most democratic parliamentary systems — the Shadow Cabinet should be capable of running the country and the party should be ready and willing to form a government if the sitting government loses its parliamentary majority.
Now with 10 MPs out of 103, government may yet be some time away but the WP does have to give the matter some serious thought. How would Singapore under a WP government really differ from Singapore under the PAP?
The party’s manifesto was certainly a good first step in presenting its alternative vision. It is an impressive document touching on many key pain points for ordinary Singaporeans.
There was a clear focus on the cost of living and inequality. The future of HDB leases, fears relating to the accessibility of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) and concerns about investments made by Singapore’s large sovereign wealth funds were addressed in detail.
In some respects, the WP manifesto had it all — from macro perspectives on strengthening Asean to micro initiatives like community cafes on the ground floors of public housing blocks.
Of course one of the joys of being a small party in Opposition is that you’re not too likely to have to make good on your promises so you can make all sorts of proposals but the WP’s ideas appeared to be more than pure make believe.
There seemed to be real calculation and accounting behind the suggestions.
The manifesto indicates this is a party with serious capability, yet strangely the party itself claims it does not seek to replace the PAP — it just wants to serve as a check on it.
The WP has the manifesto of a true Opposition, by which I mean the party has the will and capability to one day form a government.
With leaders like Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim and recent rising star Jamus Lim — it has at least the beginning of a cadre that can lead a government. Its results across the areas it contested were nearly neck and neck with the government.
By granting Pritam the Opposition Leader’s post, even the government appears to recognise the WP’s potential.
So, when will the party itself openly declare that it does in fact seek to form a government? Surely after 50 years, Singapore deserves an Opposition that has the courage to say it wants, one day at least, to rule.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
