Meritorious of a rigid political system
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HIS visit to Australia and New Zealand has reinforced Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's belief that the one-party system in Singapore must continue — and the same goes for the policy of placing Opposition-held wards at the end of the lift-upgrading queue.
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Over the last nine days, Mr Lee met various leaders from the two countries, including Prime Ministers John Howard (Australia) and Helen Clark (New Zealand), as well as their respective opposition leaders, Mr Kim Beazley and Dr Don Brash.
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And after having a more intimate look at their political systems, Mr Lee is convinced that while their no-holds barred arguments make for "more exciting" politics and "compulsively-viewable interviews", they do not necessarily result in more sound policies.
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The end-product of rigorous parliamentary debates might not necessarily be for the good of the country, as such "endless debates are seldom about achieving a better grasp of the issue but to score political points", he commented.
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Speaking to reporters as he wrapped up his visit, Mr Lee said: "I think when you look at Australia and New Zealand and other countries with two-party systems or parliamentary democracies like us and elections in our politics, you will understand how different and unique the Singapore experience is.
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"You look at their politics in Australia between Howard and Beazley. All the time, Howard says something, Beazley says he got it wrong. Beazley says something, (Howard) says: 'You said something different last week or three years ago'.
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"So ceaselessly, back and forth, whatever you do, I'll say you've done it wrong. If I can't find some (way) to be different from you, I will look for something else so as to establish my own brand name."
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Mr Lee also said that such party politics might lead to policies that are detrimental to the nation. He pointed to the Australian government's decision to deny Singapore Airlines access to the trans-Pacific as an example.
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"The National Party (Mr Howard's party's rural-based junior coalition partner) has certain interests - to look after the rural populations, to look after the towns and far-flung outbacks - and one of their interests is to have air services fly to all these places. It's not economical for airlines which provide those air services, (among which) includes Qantas.
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"So, when you say you want to open the trans-Pacific route and run an open competition because it is good for Australia, Qantas then says: 'Well, if you do that, we are going to have to cut back on all these non-economic routes. We are doing you a favour, doing national service.'"
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But while the system might work for Australia because it is a diverse country with many different interest groups, Singapore's society is more homogeneous, with the Government also having "made sure that all the constituencies are mixed and integrated".
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"In Singapore, we have 84 constituencies, but basically they are all more or less the same. You don't have a rural area, a city area. You don't have a very working class area versus a very upmarket area. We have made sure you don't have a Malay area or Indian constituency or Chinese constituency.".
Because the People's Action Party (PAP) sees the whole of Singapore as a "natural constituency", it fights for all 84 seats during every election.
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But the party's dominance in the political landscape has caused Singaporeans to "lose the perspective that party politics is party politics" - that people vote for a party not just because of national reasons, but because "it benefits himself or his community", said the Prime Minister.
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"If we only talk about national interest and put it above party politics, in theory, that is ideal - but in reality, that's impossible," he said. "And that's why you end up having HDB priority (for lift upgrading) and a difference between the PAP and Opposition wards. It's necessary. Without that, the system cannot work.
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"Because if we treat everybody the same ... the first thing the Opposition will say and has been saying is: 'It doesn't matter. They'll have to take care of you anyway. Vote for us, you will still have a PAP government' - which was what (Workers' Party candidate) Sylvia Lim said during the elections.
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"And that becomes a real problem because if everybody believes that, where are you going to produce that PAP government?"
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But what about PAP supporters who stay in Opposition wards?
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Said Mr Lee: "We have no choice but to respect the wishes of the majority of the voters. We know that there are PAP supporters in Opposition wards. In PAP wards, there are also Opposition supporters. If you voted for an Opposition MP, you have to depend on him to work for you." -
The strength of SG parliamentary system lies in its administrative and legislature efficiency very often achievable because of the fact that the parliamentary majority come from same party. Contrary, its flaw lies at whether it can be accountable to masses when it come to policy-making. A crucial point to note henceforth is how to maintain this policy-making efficiency level yet holding accountability to the public. If this can be successfully workout, we are not far from achieving a utopian political system.
Associating a one-party rule with communism is absolutely wrong. A country can still be a democratic nation running on a one party rule as long as it preserve the traditional universal manhood suffrage of electing officials to office, neither does it neccessarily means that having two or more party in parliament is a more democratic nation than the other. If comparison need to be done this way, we can rightfully claim we are a more political efficient nation than the rest of the world.
Furthermore, there is no distinctive social divide among her people this homogeneity can be attributed to part of the clever tactic of the GRC concept. Be it either to secure itself into power or genuinely to integrate the various social groups, I would rather it posing a tougher challenge for the opposition than risk disintegrating the society fabric humbly built from the onstart since our nation independence.
To sum it up, the political system in SG is doctrinise to be a robust and a perfect model. However often giving public the misconception that the imcumbent government is trying to secure itself into power but the actual fact is to deter any simpleton opposition to get by and secure electoral vote without a tough fight. A tough fight means sincerity and genuine desire to serve the citizens, not beating the system, taking short cut or contempt the law of the land. Quoting what MM Lee had said in one of the TV dialogue: "You can't completely eliminate opposition." But clearly with a rigorous system like this laying the nation foundation for politics, it can prevent power from slipping in the wrong hands, as there is no gap for opposition to infiltrate in other than gaining public trust and laying foundation to be first class to match a world class PAP.