I have just come back from the Pre-Elections Conference for all opposition parties. It is a tiring process although we have made some progress.
I am not in the position to reveal any details of the meeting but I will speak about my view in general of why this meeting is so important for Singapore, not just opposition parties.
I think Singaporeans are having high expectation of opposition parties as a whole to avoid 3 corner fights and most Singaporeans want to vote. It is the responsibility of ALL opposition parties to make sure that we could meet such high expectations. If not, the disappointment created may have big repercussion on all opposition parties; i.e. the middle ground voters may just abandon us altogether. No matter how we try to "differentiate" our "party branding" from each other, but there is still a substantial number of people who will view opposition as one big group.
Some people may not agree with me but this is the sentiment on the ground. People are prepared to vote for opposition but NO 3 CORNER FIGHT PLEASE!
NSP has been very open, reasonable and ever ready to negotiate so far in this whole process. Although there are still some outstanding issues to be ironed out, I believe and am hopeful that most opposition parties will come to reasonable settlement for all. It is not going to be a simple process but i just hope that everyone of us can take a good look at the overall picture. When we come to negotiation table, it is all about give and take. There must be willingness from all parties to reach a reasonable settlement for all.
The next meeting will be held on this coming Saturday (5 March 2011). I just hope that every outstanding issues will be solved by then.
Goh Meng Seng
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9 comments:
although there may be some ppl who are put off by 3-corner fight, but if 3 corner fights lead to weeding out of weak opposition parties/independents, so be it.Strong parties should welcome the opportunity to differentiate themselves during election. PPL have eyes they can see.
It is a sign of political maturity and consolidation which can do well for singapore.
Don't be afraid of 3 or even 4 corner fights.
don't think there will be 3 corner fights in GRC,no sane parties will pour in resources,unless it intends to be spoiler.
Hi
In all mature democracies ( i know we are not quite there yet), multi-cornered fights are a given. Eg in UK, In each ward, Lab, Dem, Tory plus 2-4 other parties will be there.
In Sg- with maturity of ppl, NSP/WP/SDP & others sooner of later will be able to attract enough ppl to stand for each ward.
Should we then say, NSP, you should not grow beyond the ability to put up 3 GRC's ?
We should encourage all parties to grow as fast as possible so that each party can be a true alternative to the PAP ( when it becomes fat and complacent - many in cybersphere say PAP has already reached this state).
If we continue to put avoiding 3-corner fights as be-all and end-all, we are short-changing ourselves.
Like the above post- weak parties should be weeded out by natural attrition.
Dr Huang
Hi cy & Dr Huang,
At this very moment, we have not reached the stage of a healthy multi-party system and Singaporeans are realistic people.
Their present expectation is for opposition to win a few more seats in parliament first and they do not like to see multi-corner fights or opposition disunity etc basically because they know PAP is really a big giant bully.
What will happen or how the political landscape develop AFTER a few more seats are secured in parliament will depend on the situation of Post-LKY era.
Only then, people could see value in 3 or muli-corner fights.
Goh Meng Seng
Based on today's ST The White Board Photo taken by ST photographer, there's very high chance of this election I'm able to exercise my citizen rights.
But I'm not that selfish to expect my preferred party or candidates from opp camp to contest.
BTW, one-man-one-vote system the one vote doesn't matter unless accumulation of many one-vote and opp camp need a bit of luck.
Wish you all the best for the election.
Agreed that weeding can come later. At the moment, the pressing issue is to gain control of the parliament or at least to WEED OUT PAP as much as possible.
In practical terms, a 3 corner fight is only good for PAP and not any opposition party. If my ward has a 3 corner fight, I will tear my hair out and might as well return a void vote as a sign of protest!!!!
Come on, this is going to be a historical moment. Let us work together and contest in all constituencies and avoid 3 corner fights.
I am heartened to know that opposition parties are trying to sort out issues to avoid 3-corner fight.
Thank you for all the hard work (all these years) and the hard work for the next few weeks.
I hope all opposition parties can unite together.
I wish you Mr. Goh Meng Seng can win the election.
Yes, you can.
JBJ defeated the PAP candidate as well as Harbans Singh at Anson. Do not fear a 3 way contest.
Yes, it would be better to have a 2 party contest in all the constituencies. Given the right circumstances however, a three way contest might not prevent the alternative parties from winning seats held by the ruling party.
Don't really like Desmond Lim, but if her were to appear at my constituency, i will still vote for him. Why? Becos my mission is very clear. We need to send in opposition MPs into parliament, with real veto power to vote legislations that are to singaporeans benifit.
Like what GMS has said, SG political state has not mature to a true democracy yet. At this crucial juncture, we must be very focus in our mission.
An analogy would be, you may not like stalin but you have to work with him becos the mission is to get rid of hitler. That is the main goal.
NO 3 CORNERED FIGHT please.
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