Now that the candidates are known, it means Punggol East voters can start their decision process. For those who have decided to vote for an alternative candidate and would prefer to see one win, it is time to eliminate some of the choices. This would be how I would reduce the number of choices without using 1D6 (a six-sided dice).

Fortunately, the independent candidates all failed to get nominated so it saves everyone the trouble. Even if they managed to succeed, they will still be ruled out because of the requirement for the winning candidate to run the town council. While Mr Chiam See Tong also started off as an independent, he ultimately also founded his own party. In other words, the requirement to run a town council has more less eliminated the possibility of another person repeating Mr Chiam’s feat at Potong Pasir. So, that leaves the alternative candidates who are members of political parties, and I will then further disregard those from the Singapore Democratic Alliance [SDA] and Reform Party [RP].

Why do I disregard the SDA candidate? If I recalled correctly, there was what I perceived to be a “power struggle” within the Singapore People’s Party [SPP] and the SDA when Mr Chiam tried to bring the Reform Party [RP] into the fold. Even though it may not necessarily be a power struggle, the news reports of Desmond Lim’s actions – which may not necessarily portray what has truly transpired – brought back bitter memories of Mr Chiam ouster from the Singapore Democratic Party [SDP]. If there was any redeeming outcome to that little shit-storm, it would be that there will be no merger with RP. But it still left me with a not-so-sparkling impression of Desmond Lim.

The SDA also has two member parties – the Singapore Justice Party [SJP] and Singapore Malay National Organization [UMNO PKMS], but it is unlikely they could offer another candidate. In short, it is nothing more but an “alliance” in name but ‘one-man party’ in truth. A one many party is usually a bad thing, since the candidate basically do not need to worry about political continuity and I’ll elaborate a little more on that later, after I talk about Lim’s election strategy in 2011 and also why I would disregard the RP candidate.

In that election, Lim had slogans printed on his election posters which is basically an attempt to ride on the wave of resentment against the PAP. It obviously didn’t work out, because being upset with the PAP alone is never a good enough reason for most middle / swing voters to vote for an alternative candidate. Those who would typically vote anything but PAP may have voted for him, but only when there is no better candidate to consider. When I told my friend I was shocked at how badly Lim lost, my friend pointed out that Lim’s election slogans gave him the impression of Mao China during the Cultural Revolution. Non-Chinese voters will obviously feel neglected and I wondered why the PKMS did not protest (probably because it didn’t really understand those slogans anyway, and too busy with its own internal struggles). Lim can argue that the WP has been encroaching on his territory, and that he has been “walking the ground” and “serving the people” there, but most would interpret the voters’ rejection in the last contest as how they really felt about his work. It is rather surprising Lim still insist on contesting, since I was under the impression that he would have known how badly he did last round down to the polling station level.

Next, the RP. It is yet another one-man party. I had originally thought that Kenneth Jeyaretnam had over-estimated himself when he said he offered himself as the best candidate for the WP to back. I was wrong. The RP simply didn’t have any other candidate to offer as it has effectively ran itself into the ground. One only need to look at the party’s short history to come to the same conclusion. When Kenneth Jeyaretnam took over the Reform Party in April 2010, former party chairman Ng Teck Siong had called it an unconstitutional coup. Ng’s account detailing his departure, was posted on The Online Citizen. It would have been nothing more than a bitter old man’s parting shot had the party not suffered a mass resignation in February 2011. When former members like Jeannette Aruldoss, Tony Tan Lay Thiam, Hazel Poa, and Nicole Seah left and joined (and subsequently took over) the National Solidarity Party [NSP], the RP is effectively gutted. Is there any other notable person which the RP can offer now?

Even when I looked beyond the mess RP is in, I do not really know what to make of Kenneth Jeyaretnam. After the General Elections in May 2011, I recalled that he said he would look for a place in West Coast GRC to stay. I have no idea whether he kept up with that promise but if he did I could at least respect his conviction to try and eke out a niche for himself. But he has recently said he will move to Punggol East if he was elected. So whatever happened to his commitments to West Coast GRC? When he said he will not go “missing in action” in his nomination speech, did he feel a little tug at his conscience and remember the voters of West Coast GRC? It is ironical that his campaign in Punggol East is about “broken promises”. Even Desmond Lim wins hands down in terms of determination and commitment.

Furthermore, one of the “reasons” Kenneth Jeyaretnam gave for contesting in Punngol East is also one of the lamest I have ever heard – i.e. it was part of Cheng San which his father has contested. If anyone should support him because of his father, then by that very same argument, they should also resolutely support the Prime Minister not because of his own merit, but because he is Lee Kuan Yew’s son! Laying claim to another person’s legacy is no way of showing one’s own merit. What would we have thought of WP, if it had claimed to be the successor of JB Jeyaretnam’s mantle even if it no longer practice his brand of politics? Even the Prime Minister has the courage to stand up and say, “I am not my father” when we consider how long a shadow his father has cast.

For Kenneth Jeyaretnam to once again invoke the memories of his father showed that he has no grasp of election strategy, because the first few HDB blocks of Sengkang New Town which made up a large part of Punggol East were only just completed when his father was campaigning in Cheng San. Demographically, Punggol East today is a very different one from that of 1997. Even if it was the same, there is no reason to believe some of his father’s former supporters would remain loyal to him but not the WP which J.B. Jeyaretnam was Secretary-General in 1997. Kenneth Jeyaretnam may want to point out that the transfer of party leadership from his father to Low Thia Khiang took place in bitter acrimony, but why should anyone be interested in his family, or personal feuds with other individuals?

So, let me get back to the point on why any ‘one-man party’ is bad. That is because one-man parties are really not any better than an independent candidate even though there are party members to call upon which give the candidates a seemingly greater presence. As I mentioned earlier, there is also the matter of political continuity, or as some would put it – political “succession”. The lack of political continuity in the Singapore People’s Party is one of the reasons why Mr Chiam’s foray into Toa Payoh-Bishan GRC did not turn out as well as that of Low Thia Khiang’s into Aljunied. Political continuity in a party also means that a candidate would be less likely to be self-serving. While it can be argued that Desmond Lim and Kenneth Jeyaretnam may still be able attract new talents if they are elected, an election victory will only compliment a leader’s charisma and leadership qualities but not replace it. To put it into perspective, even Dr Chee Soon Juan has been more capable in attracting talents into the SDP in spite of the fact that he has not been able to contest in two General Elections for half a decade. Meanwhile, the SDA and RP have not been able to make the same progress in that aspect. The SDP’s recent dramatic and yet bold withdrawal from this by-election, may perhaps explain why the SDP is doing doing way better in terms of talent recruitment even when I may consider that its ‘branding’ may have perhaps been poisoned beyond redemption. Above which, the SDP may have ‘lost face’ here, but it had earned the grudging respect of some for its courage.

Lee Lilian of WP thus stands out among the rest of the alternative party candidates even before we consider her own merits. I am not saying that the eligible voters of Punggol East who are considering an alternative party candidate must definitely vote for her because that choice has always been theirs to made. I am only presenting my view why she is the best candidate to vote for, if voters would like to prevent a decisively PAP win. That’s not forgetting that voters must also put their feet down and put an end to the aspirations of willful, myopic and egoistic politicians.

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