By The Kopi, an online journalistic site, recently interviewed Prof Bilveer Singh who thinks that PAP will entirely wipe out opposition in this GE (‘This NUS Professor Predicts That GE2020 Will Be a Landslide Victory for the PAP‘, 29 Jun).
Prof Singh is the Deputy Head of Political Science Department in NUS. He is the author of a number of books on Singapore’s politics: ‘Is the People’s Action Party Here to Stay?’ (2019), ‘Understanding Singapore’s Politics’ (2017) and ‘Politics and Governance in Singapore: An Introduction’ (2007).
In the interview, Prof Singh thinks PAP will win by landslide in this GE. “It is without a doubt that GE2020 will be a landslide victory for the PAP. In fact, the opposition may be entirely annihilated this election. Singaporean voters will run back to papa,” he said.
He warned not to overestimate the power of social media. He explained that in times of crisis, Singaporeans will run back to the ruling party. “We would rather forgo time for check and balance, accountability and transparency if it means securing our bread and butter as quickly as possible,” he opined. He noted that many Singaporeans have been living on government handouts during the Circuit Breaker.
PAP has proven throughout Singapore’s history that it could craft strong policies to revive the economy during a crisis, Prof Singh said. He cited 3 instances: Lee Kuan Yew after independence, Lee Hsien Loong during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and Heng Swee Keat during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. As such, he thinks that it is still likely PAP will win by a generous margin because of its track record of handling crises, despite slip-ups like Ivan Lim.
With regard to the presence of Lee Hsien Yang in this GE, who is the brother of PAP Sec-Gen Lee Hsien Loong, Prof Singh is of the opinion that Singaporeans would prefer family feud to be separated from national politics, especially it concerns the legacy of the much-loved founding PM Lee Kuan Yew.
“GE2020 will be like 2015, it will be another ‘freak election’ (for opposition), because of Covid-19. But what is more exciting to come is GE2025. It will be a referendum on the 4G leaders and not the 3G leaders… the PAP will have to prove themselves (by then),” Prof Singh said.
PAP will win big for GE2020, says managing editor of online lifestyle publication
Managing editor and co-founder of online lifestyle publication Asia 361, Katherine Goh, wrote an article that was published on Alvinology.com saying that PAP will win big this time (‘Statistics Don’t Lie – Why The PAP Will Win Big For GE2020‘, 1 Jul).
“Statistics don’t lie,” the article said.
“For this reason alone, one can boldly predict the People’s Action Party (PAP) will win BIG for the Singapore General Elections 2020 (GE2020). In fact, they may even make a clean sweep, taking back the previously Workers’ Party (WP)-held wards of Hougang Single Member Constituency (SMC) and Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC).”
The article said that it has been empirically proven that voters will lean towards the incumbent ruling party in times of crisis. “There is no worse crisis than the current COVID-19 pandemic-turned-economic-recession, which is definitely in PAP’s favour,” it added.
It went on to quote the example of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, whose ruling coalition scored the largest parliamentary election victory in South Korea recently.
“President Moon’s approval rating shot up from 42% to 57% during the COVID-19 crisis — a considerable difference of 15%. Again, add this difference to PAP’s popular vote in GE2011 and GE2015. The results are 75.1% and 84.9% respectively.”
“Even if you were to take the best performing opposite ward, Hougang SMC and add on a 15% swing to PAP, they go from 42.3% in GE2015 and 37.9% in GE2011 to 57.3% and 52.9% respectively.”
“Sorry to burst the bubbles of all the opposition supporters. The PAP is going to win big in the election and it is likely even Hougang will be wiped out.”
In any case, if these experts are right, PAP Sec-Gen Lee Hsien Loong will be able to do what former PM Goh Chok Tong couldn’t do previously – to attain a clean sweep with zero opposition in Parliament. Mr Lee himself will have achieved the same as what his father did in the 60s and 70s, a 100 per cent domination of the Parliament – a world’s first among all the first world countries in the globe.