Howard Lee /

As General Election 2011 was drawing to a close, you would surely remember Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong making statements about steering the People’s Action Party towards a path of change that will better answer the needs of Singaporeans.

His point was also echoed by Brigadier General Tan Chuan-Jin and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, and finally by “the force within the PAP”, Mr George Yeo, in what could have been the most shocking indicator of internal dissent among the PAP ranks. Never mind that this particular direction was little more than a desperate attempt to salvage the PAP’s flagging margins and save Aljunied GRC from falling to the opposition – neither of which the PAP succeeded in doing, I might add.

At the point of utterance, these statements signaled that the PAP has finally come to its senses and is willing to listen to and serve the people. Enlightenment mixed with a healthy dose of humility. Yipee, pop the bubbly. So poignant, that here they are again for good measure.

 

“When these problems vex you or disturb you or upset your lives, please bear with us. We’re trying our best on your behalf. And if we didn’t quite get it right, I am sorry but we will try and do better the next time.” – Lee Hsien Loong (Straits Times, 3 May)

“Some feel that you’re being talked down to, that there’s not enough listening, that we need to be more compassionate and less calculative. Whether real or not, if we are unable to address these perceptions and sentiments, our moral authority to lead will erode.” – Tan Chuan-Jin (AsiaOne, 4 May)

“(Gen Y) know what to do and how to think, so just give them the facts. (We have) to encourage them to seek out diversified, alternative views and they’ll come to their own intelligent conclusions. They want to be engaged and involved, they want to be talked to, not talked down to.” – Goh Chok Tong (Today, 6 May)

“These are the sorrows of the people, of individuals who are unable to keep up… in this election, throughout Singapore, there is a cry from the heart that wants to be heard… Unless we engage young people and allow them to teach us, I don’t think we can communicate with them. Once there’s communication, the influence becomes two-way … And this is what our country should be.” – George Yeo (Today, 6 May)

For those of you who trusted in these statements and as a consequence contributed to the PAP’s 60.1% vote count, you would be eager to find out how the PAP will keep its latest promise. Days are still young, but here is a sampling of how the PAP’s plan for internal change will pan out, in the weeks following polling day.

 

“When you talk to an older person, you just have to say a few words and you’re on the same bandwidth. The young, you have to be prepared to invest half an hour or even longer on just one idea because it’ll be back and fro. But I think it’s worth the time and we should do it.” – Ng Eng Hen (Today, 8 May)

 

“We’ll be here to serve the residents and we want to work with them for the next five years.” … Mr Teo said that his six-man GRC team would do their best to listen to residents’ needs and meet their expectations. – Teo Chee Hean (Today, 9 May)

 

“It’s not good enough just to do the right operation … It’s very, very important to talk to the patient – to explain these choices and the different trade-offs and make sure the people of Singapore understand this and participate more actively in the decisionmaking process.” – Vivian Balakrishnan (Today, 10 May)

 

…more needed to be done to engage the young and to listen to what they had to say… “We need to empower them by giving them space as well as the resources for them to do so. I think this is something we’ve been doing but we can do it better…” – Tin Pei Ling (Today, 10 May)

 

…what needs to be done is to change the perception that the PAP is a long-time ruling party that is quick to look past public views – even though it has made policy decisions with the best of intentions… “So the way of governance is just a means. My sense is thatbecause the end objective is quite clear, the means will adjust.” … it is “premature to pinpoint the specifics” of what changes are needed – it can range from policy to execution, to communication and touchpoints… – Tan Chuan-Jin (Today, 13 May)

Sound’s good so far? Take a look again. Can you see the disclaimers? (You know there is a reason for the deliberate text formatting.)

Even if we assume that the devil is in the details, it is clear from these post-election statements, after the dust has settled and the electoral threat (has been perceived to) have subsided, that the PAP is intent on one thing only moving forward: Better communication of policies to bridge understanding with citizens and reduce resentment.

If there is any real intent to change policies to better serve citizens, and not merely a one-way communication plan, those intentions have yet to show. If anything, the vast and open promises have already been tempered with an interest to continue with hard-selling with no room for response, which pretty much describes the party’s social media campaign.

In particular, the views of Tan Chuan-Jin, now slated to be the “agent of change” in the wake of George Yeo’s demise, speaks much about the PAP’s continual belief that what they are facing is no more than a “perception” or public relations problem. It is strange indeed to hear such words from Tan. He has shown much disregard for alternative opinions, since during his earlier rally, he has been insistent that the opposition was spouting “shallow rhetoric”. The same shallow rhetoric that 43.4% of the voters in his constituency bought hook, line and sinker, I guess.

But the PAP has forgotten that the key crux of discontentment is no longer that the PAP does not listen, but rather that the PAP has gone overboard in pretending to listen. We are way past that stage now, tired of the consultative government that Goh Chok Tong has sold us as his first election promise, but are aware that, to the date of his final retirement from Cabinet, has yet to fulfill.

In the 2011 general election, the people voted for change, not just in communication, but in policy. The PAP, however, has so far demonstrated that it is slumbering too much to realise this properly.

If the PAP really intends to bridge the wide gap that has been slowly but persistently etched into the nation, and has only with this general election shown its true face, it must be prepared to make some real change. The next question is how.

The writing is on the wall, just read it – If ten days of campaigning has not given the PAP any insights to the cause of the people’s angst, then nothing can save it from certain doom. But if drawing ideas from the many blog and Facebook entries online is too much for their DNA, the least they could do is turn to the newspapers and the entries on REACH. Impoverished as the conversation (if you can call the black hole Complain Central conversational in any way) may be, the unadulterated threads on REACH minimally provide a sign post for where the people are feeling pain. The question is how many of these grouses have been acted upon.

You don’t have to sleep with your enemies, just consult them

If the PAP intends to win back some of the near-40% of voters it has lost, then it pays to ask what made them vote the way they did. The logical answer will be what they voted for – opposition policies. To brush aside support for the opposition as merely a rejection of the PAP risks taking the Darth Vader ultimatum – “If you are not with me, you are my enemy” – to its exclusive, bitter and stupid extreme.

To date, there is no conclusive evidence that the near-40% opposition votes are simply protests votes against the establishment. So do the smart thing. PAP will learn nothing unless it takes a serious look at what people voted for in the opposition, and for lack of better ideas immediately available within itself, try implementing some of these ideas that do make sense. Elections are done, forget about the partisanship and start serving the people.

Don’t just listen, do

And here is the heart of the matter. For all the consultation exercises, the tax-payers’ dollars that have been invested in forums, town halls and social media exploits, what has been accomplished? Have the citizens seen positive change coming from these efforts, or do they see them as merely platforms for them to rant, from which they hear only the faint echo of their own voices? The PAP needs to be honest with itself, and realise that letting the people talk is not the same as valuing and acting on what they want done.

For whatever interests the party has been fueled on, there is only one that matters now – that of the people. Kill the sacred cows for real, and finally get some innovative and daring ideas into Parliament for a change. Be Attentive. Be Accepting. Be Adaptable. Use that as a slogan if it wants, but unless the PAP begins to really change instead of talking about it, the people will make the change on its behalf.

The writer is not in the business of dreaming up catchy manifesto titles, but believes that an “A” Team needs more A’s in it, besides their school grades. Or more Be’s.

 

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