GE2020 showed that the PAP no longer has a monopoly on talents. PAP desperately needs to rebrand their image, otherwise, they risk losing their ruling majority one day.
Over the past 2 weeks, what struck me most was the vast difference in how the PAP and the Workers’ Party campaigned, how they countered their political opponents, and how they responded in moments of crisis. If anything at all, one thing I can see clearly is that:
The PAP needs a new image, and they need it badly.
1. The PAP brand is no longer working.
2. Singapore now knows the PAP no longer has a monopoly on talent.
In an alternate world, someone like Jamus Lim could have very well been a PAP candidate. But he chose to join the Workers’ Party instead. Why?
Was all of that really necessary?
I would recommend that the PAP think seriously about engaging PR folks to help them navigate future general elections, so as to avoid similar fiascos. Otherwise, they risk alienating their voters further with such actions.
Any Public Relations practitioner worth their salt will tell you that a crisis represents an invaluable opportunity to turn things around. To do this successfully, you need to be able to identify what the core of the issue is and what the public really wants. In some cases, an apology may not even be necessary.
At various turns, the PAP had opportunities to turn events to their favour, but they failed to make use of it. Here’s two examples:
- The Ivan Lim scandal – why was the public so angry? The way I see it, it was largely because (i) no Singaporean wants any politician with a questionable character in our government and (ii) the accusations against Ivan Lim undermined the rigour of the PAP’s candidate vetting process. I don’t think any one of us can say to have had pleased everyone throughout our lifetime, and we most certainly don’t expect the same holy standards applied to every single one of our politicians.
What could have been done instead – Ivan, what was so hard about acknowledging that not everyone in your past saw you in the same light but add that you’ve changed over the years as folks highlighted your (blind) faults to you + you hope the public will continue highlighting your weaknesses in the future so that you know where to improve? And for the PAP, why did they pass up the opportunity to shed light on the yardsticks they use to select their candidates? Unlike the WP, who has been very open about how and why they select their people, the PAP has largely remained silent on this part.
Contrast this to the way WP Chief Pritam Singh turned the Raeesah Khan’s crisis into a win for the party and won praises for his leadership, while taking the opportunity to clarify on how the WP selects (and stands by) their candidates - “PAP-lite” vs. Wonderboy Jamus – I don’t know about you, but I found the “PAP-lite” comment incredibly insulting. A better strategy would have been to acknowledge the WP as a worthy opponent (come on, they’ve seriously gotten stronger over the years) while pointing out that the PAP had already considered many of the policies that the WP proposed in their manifesto, but yet decided on a different course of action because [insert reasons here].
What could have been done instead – during GE2015, Tharman Shanmugaratnam did a point-by-point rebuttal to the Opposition’s policy alternatives. He did it again this time round in addressing WP’s calls for a Minimum Wage. And I, for one, was looking forward to more PAP candidates pointing out the flaws in the opposition’s proposals, but was disappointed that we hardly got that level of discussion at all. After all, I don’t believe the PAP hasn’t already thought about many of the proposals that the opposition raised, but didn’t enact it for other reasons unknown to us.
TLDR: What’s next?
Now that all that election drama is over, I’m actually glad that the PAP has lost yet another GRC, and hope that they will learn from this and do better the next round. Singapore’s brand of politics has worked beautifully since our founding, and if the PAP does not do better, then we risk losing that advantage – one key characteristic being that of long-term planning and policy-making because we’ve always had the same party in power.
We should take heed from America, where their frequent change in political leadership has caused a growing shift towards populist policies and overhauling what the previous government has done (remember how Trump tossed aside ObamaCare and the Trans Pacific Partnership so quickly after he got elected into power?). I wouldn’t want to see that happen to Singapore.
In the meantime, I look forward to seeing how this new government will see us through the crisis, because it isn’t going to be easy. Our hopes are on the newly-elected MPs now.
Did you agree with my take on how the PAP could and should have done better? I’d love to hear your views in the comments below!
7 comments
one of the things i noticed is that PAP didnt seem to be taking their opponents manifesto and suggestions seriously. Their real competitors are WP, PSP and to a certain extent, SDP.
For WP, Vivian just called them PAP-lite.
For PSP, well one thing is that PSP didnt have a solid manifesto and only seemed to be riding on TCB's brand and just kept calling for alternative voices.
For SDP, in Vivian's english debate he just kept asking SDP how they plan to pay for these proposals and invoking the word 'falsehood', and for the chinese debate i read a summary where Ong Ye Kung also asked how SDP plan to finance their proposals. Seems like their attack strategy for SDP was very simple HAHAHA
If Jamus Lim had joined PAP, would he have the chance to even sit at that debate table? The answer is no, because the seat is taken by Vivian. He would have been just an unknown face, riding on someone’s coattail to enter into parliament. So for people who have something and want to contribute, are they better off joining the opposition?
pap will never learn,once they are in supermajority again will do what they like,ignoring the ground.
never trust a liar the third time.
how many times they promised,but changed track.
gd examples of U turns
are 30% hike water prices,no need to increase gst,etc.
over elitism will 1 dy kill pap
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Halototo
Siswi SMA di Perkosa
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