Can Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reinvent itself? That is the looming question in the city state, despite its winning a super majority in the general election on July 10, as the leadership has set in motion a succession plan. The PAP, which has been the face of Singapore’s managed democracy since 1965, secured but a pyrrhic victory in the snap ballot. The party polled 61% of the vote, which translates into 83 seats out of 93 contested. That is way below the 69.9% it obtained in 2015, during the commemoration of 50 years of Singapore’s independence and in the aftermath of the death of the country’s founder and first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister Lee’s father. The party’s record lowest performance was 60% in 2011. The PAP’s poor showing is all the more telling because the elections were called months ahead of schedule and the COVID-19 restrictions denied the Opposition even the normal, if highly limited, channels of outreach during the nine-day campaign period. Crucially, Mr. Lee has acknowledged the real meaning of the PAP’s reduced majority, which he described as a reflection of the desire of younger voters for greater diversity of voices in Parliament. In a concrete response, he has announced that Workers’ Party (WP) chief, Pritam Singh, would be formally recognised as the leader of the Opposition, an unprecedented development in Singapore’s unicameral legislature. The 10 seats the WP has won, up from six in 2015, is the highest ever by an Opposition party.
These are gains in what is in effect a one-party state, where the Workers Party opposition won its first parliamentary seat in 1981, 16 years after Singapore’s separation from Malaysia. Another dilemma for Mr. Lee is the slender margin of victory for the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, who is tipped to succeed as Premier in 2022. Whereas Mr. Lee has already hinted that he might stay on until the end of the pandemic, the election outcome could further alter the timetable. He has to fix an economy that is in recession, continue to fight the coronavirus outbreak, and adapt himself to the winds of political changes. It is conceivable that given the gradual democratisation of the polity, Singapore’s customary method of settling the leadership question behind closed doors would sooner rather than later become a subject of public debate. That is a sign of an evolving society where, besides the benefits of economic affluence, citizens recognise the value of greater political participation for its own sake and regard a respect for dissenting opinion as a necessary concomitant. Singapore’s political leadership should read the mandate correctly and fast-track the country’s democratisation process.
