Many people have overlooked one very important fact of these two protests in Hong Lim Park... Even without any opposition party acting as organizer, it can draw a sizable crowd. Particularly, Workers Party is no where to be found but yet, thousands and thousands of people attended these protests.
What does this mean? It means that the anger on the ground is REAL and opposition party branding itself, doesn't effect such anger. It was PAP's own doing that has caused such dissatisfaction and anger on the ground. It also means a dangerous signal... next time round, not only WP will win seats into parliament, as long as there isn't any multi-corner fights because this anger, when translated into protest votes, will be independent of opposition parties which stood against PAP. Singaporeans are just angry with PAP and will have only one singular aim... to teach PAP a good lesson and vote PAP out of parliament, irregardless who they send as candidates.
This is the hypothesis I held for the Punggol East By-Elections. WP won in a 4 corner fight with such big swing, dumping the other two opposition parties so badly, basically because of this anger. Voters are voting strategically, they just want PAP to lose and WP in their view, has more chance of winning over PAP. Thus, all votes swing tactically to WP.
The danger is looming for PAP if it continues to brush aside such signs....
Goh Meng Seng
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