For GP Students, GE2015

As this is an education blog, I would like to share my opinions that I would be making for the vote swing amongst Singapore for this General Election, and hope that it would be relevant for the General Paper, such as for your application question, etc...

  Why the power swing happened, I shall share my opinions:

1) Loss of a great leader

2015 marked the demise of a great leader, which was Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Mr Lee has led the country for the first 50 years of independence and after 50 years of independence, he has passed on. The demise of the leader had led to Singaporeans feeling afraid and insecure about the future of Singaporeans. This has made Singaporean feel that they must vote for the ruling party, which Mr Lee has groomed and helped nurture to prepare the next generation of PAP members to continue governing Singapore with his efficiency. This mentality that Singaporeans had would definitely make them vote for the PAP to secure a presumed brighter future for Singapore rather than the opposition that does not have that experience in parliament and hence may not bring good future to Singapore for the next 50 years.

2) Loss of strong opposition candidates from GE2011

GE2015 has been met with a loss of many key strong personnel from GE2011. For example, Nicole Seah from the NSP declared that she will not take part in the general elections. She was the beating heart of the NSP Marine Parade team in GE2011, evident from Nicole Seah talking most of the time in the NSP Rallies in 2011. The loss of this key candidate caused the NSP to lose majority of its votes and even a possible seat in Parliament, if Nicole Seah were to consider contesting in MacPherson SMC or something to that extent. Another was Mr Chiam See Tong, which had the MP for SPP Potong Pasir Stronghold. After the deterioration of Mr Chiam's health, he now is unable to contest in any SMC or GRC. This is added on to the inability of him to do the simplest of thing, such as to speak effectively in rallies. The lack of the strong leader has made the team seem feeble and hence unable to lead Singapore probably. These two were only some of the example of people losing confidence of political teams and hence not voting for opposition.

3) Complacency amongst opposition

Due to the excellent performance in GE2011, the opposition scene in Singapore has been with complacency and many opposition personnel have started their own political parties, such as SingFirst and PPP. The divided amount of famous opposition personnel in GRCs have made the team look very weak, compared to those stronger ones, like the WP Aljunied Teams. This caused the people to not be confident of these new political parties, as many of the candidates introduced were new and not well known among Singapore in the political arena, hence not being able to vote for the opposition.

4) Increasing confidence of Singaporeans by PAP diligence

The PAP has been very concerned about the future of Singapore due to GE2011. The decrease in vote percentage in PAP has caused them to step up their campaigning game for GE2015. By clearly describing the facts and their plans for the future of Singapore, they have made people convinced that they are the ones that would be the best to lead Singapore. Also, they have displayed their incorruptibility by informing Singaporeans their care for Singaporean, regardless of social background. The dilligence made Singaporeans feel that they will work hard and lead Singapore effectively and to the best of ability for the next 5 years, hence vote for them, causing the vote swing.

5) Unnecessary fighting amongst the Opposition

The most prominent example is the fighting between Han Hui Hui and the Reform Party. The party accused Ms Han for attempts of character assassination and her being a Socialist Front sponsored candidates. All these attempts were used to maintain the integrity of the respectively personnel, but these were viewed by the public as forms of childishness and bring about problems and conflict unnecessarily. These made Singaporean feel that these parties that argued about one another and not work together as one solid opposition made them feel that the leadership qualities of these parties were questionable and hence caused Singaporeans to not vote for the opposition, evident from the 78% given to PAP Radin Mas Candidate, Sam Tan, as compared to 2011, which was 67%.