SINGAPORE, Sept 12 — With the smaller Opposition parties making little impact this election, political watchers said these parties may be losing relevance to voters, and a period of consolidation or reorganisation is in order if they want to become a viable force.
Apart from the Workers’ Party (WP), the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and the Singapore People’s Party (SPP), all the other Opposition parties took less than 30 per cent of the vote share in all the constituencies they stood in.
Of the smaller parties — namely the National Solidarity Party, the People’s Power Party, Singaporeans’ First (SingFirst), Singapore Democratic Alliance and Reform Party — political watcher and former Nominated Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong pointed out they “don’t really stand for anything, other than possibly xenophobia.”
“I think it’s going to be more and more challenging for the smaller parties if the Workers’ Party is the only Opposition party that will have representation in Parliament,” he said, adding that the SDP had managed to carve out a clear niche of social justice.
There is space for more Opposition parties in Singapore’s political landscape, but parties “really need to think hard about their strategies and whether it’s viable for them,” he said. For instance, SingFirst has a niche — xenophobia — but “it’s a negative” one.
Siew also singled out the SPP for coming in below expectations. Only Mrs Lina Chiam, who stood in Potong Pasir, polled more than 30 per cent, but her vote share of 33.59 per cent was a sharp decline from the 49.64 per cent seen in 2011.
“I am not sure if the SPP would continue as a viable force given that I can’t imagine Mrs Chiam continuing to do much more for a longer time,” Siew said.
Singapore Management University associate law professor Eugene Tan said that, apart from the WP and the SDP, the threat of the other parties becoming irrelevant was real.
“They may want to think about consolidating their resources but sometimes their political ideologies and their personalities may be very different, so that may make consolidation easier said than done,” he said.
Parties must create a niche for themselves and show they can create political value, but this may be difficult to do in Singapore given the limited policy options, he added.
Associate professor Alan Chong of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies said there are Singaporeans who hold very liberal views and will continue to vote for the Opposition. “But people are still looking for the right Opposition and so on.”
He expected the smaller Opposition parties to possibly undergo a period of internal reorganisation. “So some people will have to be pushed out of the party, some people will voluntarily leave. There will be leadership renewal, there will be more infighting before they can consolidate,” he said.
He added that the WP itself went through difficult periods, where some members left and the party’s leaders had to manoeuvre for their “ideal combination.” “It’s in the nature of successful political parties,” he said. — TODAY
