Running on empty, the PAP is incredibly able to pull Singaporeans along for the ride

The gas tank is empty. The same old story is repeated, the same old tricks and tactics are regurgitated.
But we have to brace ourselves for a lot more of the same from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) in the weeks ahead because in a general election, they go into full swing.
A tried and tested tactic is to conflate loyalty to country with loyalty to government.
We are already told that national flags will be distributed to every household. The same goes for National Day Parade funpacks.
The message: It is everyone’s duty to display patriotism.
Of course, those of us who know better know that loyalty to government is not patriotism, patriotism is loyalty to country. But they always choose to conflate the issue, which is especially important for them in election season.
Then they will evoke how late Lee Kuan Yew and his comrades defeated the communists and how they secured independence for Singapore.
The message: If our founding fathers could make such grave sacrifices, why can’t Singaporeans show their undying allegiance and support to the PAP?
Talk of the founding fathers and past accomplishments will go into overdrive, that’s for sure. This must be the only country in the world that keeps harping on the past as a way to remind its people of what the future holds. Yet there are those who continue to get suckered into it.
Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said last week that this year’s NDP will showcase the Singapore Spirit, turning adversity into triumph.
This is one message they endlessly harp on: Let’s display the Singapore Spirit, let’s rally together as one people, one nation. It also means we have to support the PAP to show the world that we are SG United, so investors will not run away, the economy will stay resilient, all challenges will be overcome, all uncertainties will be dealt with.
For those of us who who have heard the same old story, and been at the receiving end of the same old tricks and tactics, it will be deja vu!
But it has worked for the PAP for decades, so why wouldn’t work it work for them again?
Singaporeans, it seems, are an easy lot to bamboozle.