Since Singapore’s independence in 1965, the People’s Action Party (PAP) has dominated Singapore’s politics. PAP, co-founded by the late Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father and longtime elder statesman, and now led by his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, is in a political environment called for by Freedom House. has won every election held in the country. “Partly free.”
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However, despite what experts like Freedom House call a restrictive electoral environment, the PAP has achieved considerable success in developing Singapore into a global financial hub and is a respected voice in regional affairs. Through force, it has long enjoyed genuine and important national legitimacy. It is also credited with creating a national social contract that emphasizes meritocracy, advanced bureaucracy, and the rule of law, underpinned by a sense of social equity, at least outside of politics, as Freedom House pointed out. obtained. To be fair, there has always been a huge income disparity between Chinese, Malays and Indians. Nevertheless, that sense of fairness and meritocracy permeated the island nation.
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Moreover, the PAP has consistently achieved high economic growth, taking Singapore through different stages of development and pushing the city-state higher up the value-added chain. The PAP, on the other hand, attracted the island’s brightest minds and talented people and gave them room to think independently within the bureaucracy and government. The party then used its talents to dominate a small number of weak opposition parties come election time.
But now Singapore’s social contract appears to be increasingly unraveling. The PAP is battling corruption scandals and struggling to find people of the same caliber to fill its positions. Meanwhile, the Li family is at odds with itself, and the bureaucracy is reportedly losing its ability to generate breakthrough ideas. What’s more, the PAP now faces credible challengers at the ballot box.
The PAP’s troubles began in early July, when a special anti-corruption police unit arrested Transport Minister S Iswaran in a corruption investigation. At the same time, Malaysian billionaire Ong Ben Sen was arrested for questioning regarding his dealings with Iswaran. Shortly before these arrests, K. Shanmugam, Minister for Law and Home Affairs, and Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, had come under intense public scrutiny over the prices they paid for luxury properties, but an investigation cleared them of any wrongdoing. Ta. Then, in late July, it was revealed that Parliament Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin had been having an affair with another MP, Cheng Li Hui, also a PAP member, and both were forced to resign from parliament and the party.
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These scandals may not be comparable to scandals in other countries. Furthermore, two senior members of the opposition Labor Party recently resigned after admitting inappropriate relationships. However, the incident received little attention because Labor did not place unyielding integrity at the heart of the party’s identity. The PAP is amplifying the damage recent revelations have done to the party. State broadcasting channel News Asia, which is effectively under state control, called the aftermath of the scandal “the most serious crisis of public trust in recent years.” The Straits Times, another state-run national newspaper, published a column with the headline: “Is the PAP brand in crisis?”
This kind of coverage of the ruling party would have rarely been seen in these news outlets before, and shows how shocking the scandal was for Singaporeans. In his speech in early August, PM Lee himself acknowledged that the PAP, which has placed unyielding integrity at the heart of its identity, had “taken a hit”.
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Meanwhile, the Lee family, which has served as the city-state’s glue, is embroiled in a protracted and intense conflict that could do lasting damage to its prestige. The dispute centers on what to do with the home of family leader Lee Kuan Yew. Mr Lee is said to have wanted the building to be demolished after his death so that he would not be immortalized, but the government wants to preserve it as a monument to Singapore’s founding father. . The controversy led to the brother and sister-in-law of Lee Hsien Loong, who was planning to destroy the house, to be investigated by the police on suspicion of lying about Lee Kuan Yew’s will. The couple then fled into exile, claiming they could not receive a fair trial in the city-state.
But for many Singaporeans, it’s not just politics that increasingly feels like Singapore’s fairness and standards are deteriorating. Income inequality has also attracted attention and become the focus of public anger. In a high-profile online incident earlier this year, a middle-class woman published a social media post praising an affordable bag she bought as a “luxury item,” but clearly a wealthy Singaporean who could afford something more expensive. People ridiculed him. fashion accessories. Inflation has also hit Singaporeans’ wages, with the impact on the poor and middle class being even greater. And all this in a city ranked as one of the best places to live in the world.
Moreover, as Farah Stockman pointed out in the New York Times, Singapore’s judiciary, renowned for its fairness, at least in non-political cases, has recently begun to hold different standards for the wealthy and the working class. It looks like it is. In one case, Stockman accused a forklift driver at a container yard of accepting bribes of $1 per person, or about $7 to $10 per day, over two years in a scheme to allow truck drivers to jump. He pointed out that he was sentenced to two months in prison. At the beginning of the line for loading and unloading cargo. On the other hand, “According to the U.S. Department of Justice, executives at the Singaporean conglomerate Keppel Corporation paid millions of dollars in bribes, but were given a “stern warning.”” Singaporean judicial officials said: It says it doesn’t have a strong case against Keppel executives. take it to court.
These issues may cause Singaporeans, especially the young people who are most skeptical of government, to question the quality of those currently leading and serving the PAP and the bureaucracy, but both are excellent. This is a big difference from the past, when the company was perceived to be highly efficient. Achieve clean governance. Moreover, these concerns come at a difficult time for Singapore. An aging demographic, the challenge of balancing increasing US-China competition in Southeast Asia, the rise of industrial policy and the decline of global free trade all put Singapore’s long-term economic health at risk.
Loss of its reputation for both clean governance and efficiency could seriously damage Singapore’s image both domestically and internationally, further exacerbating its growing economic challenges. And as Mr Stockman points out, Singapore’s bureaucracy, once encouraged to debate internally, urgently needs new ideas to strengthen its economy and reinvent itself. It is now much more authoritarian and rigid internally. I’ve done it in the past.
Meanwhile, as elections are scheduled to take place by 2025, Prime Minister Lee, who remains trusted, reaffirmed his intention to step down and replace him with current Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. However, Lee did not specify the exact timing of his resignation. Some may have thought that Mr Lee would resign well before the election to give Mr Wong time to build up his reputation before going to the polls. However, Mr Lee remains prime minister and has hinted that he may lead the PAP in the next election campaign. This is despite the fact that he originally named his successor in 2017 and announced that he would step down within a few years.
While Mr Lee’s hesitation is not exactly a vote of confidence in Mr Wong, Singaporean expert Michael Barr said Mr Wong may have taken the job because of his strong loyalty to the prime minister. Suggests. Mr Barr further suggested that although Mr Wong is a very capable administrator, he has yet to fulfill his potential as a political leader. Additionally, he was chosen to succeed Lee after his first choice, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, withdrew from consideration two years ago.
Twenty years ago, Singaporeans dissatisfied with the PAP could not do anything about it because there was no effective opposition to the ruling party. But the country now has substantial political opposition in the form of the Workers’ Party and several other opposition parties, and voters are moving in their direction. In the most recent elections in 2020, the PAP won around 60 percent of the popular vote, which, while high, was much lower than in previous elections, and the opposition has become more organized and active since then.
Singapore has an electoral system, and experts such as Freedom House say the PAP has an easier time converting popular votes into seats than opposition parties. But even Mr Wong admits that the ruling party can no longer take elections for granted. Before this spate of scandals, there was speculation that the PAP would hold early elections by 2025. Now, they may try to use their time until the last moment, hoping that their plans to boost growth this year and next will work out. And voters are said to be motivated more by their own wallets than by memories of scandal or a sense of social division.
But even if that plan were to unfold perfectly, the PAP could face the most serious electoral challenge in any case, given the seeming breach of Singapore’s social contract and self-image. There is sex.