Excerpts from Siew Kum Hong’s blog:

What. A. Night.

The Workers’ Party has now cemented its position as the second party in a two-party system, albeit one that remains heavily skewed in favour of the People’s Action Party. The WP will be celebrating its groundbreaking win in Aljunied GRC, and rightly so. The strong results of even its lesser-known candidates demonstrate the power of the WP brand — indeed, a study by an Australian polling firm shows the WP brand to be as strong as the PAP’s.

What does it mean for the PAP though? How will the PAP respond?

First and foremost, the PAP lost because it had lost touch with the ground. It had clearly under-estimated the extent of antipathy towards it by a large margin. Was this because of a failure in the intelligence from its grassroots organisation (aka the People’s Association, even though it is a statutory board), or did the leadership simply ignore or overlook the grassroots intelligence? Those of us on the outside will never know.

Read the full article on Kum Hong’s blog here.

 

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