Singapore: Campaigning for the Future

Southeast Asian Affairs 2007 SINGAPORE Campaigning for the Future Ho Khai Leong The year 2006 witnessed several important events in Singapore, all of which have long-term political and economic significance. First, Singapore held its eleventh general election since independence, the first led by Lee Hsien Loong since becoming Prime Minister in August 2004 and Secretary General of the People's Action Party (PAP). Second, Singapore hosted the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group, amidst civil society organizations' protest and negative international press coverage on the Singapore government's refusal to admit a number of activists. Third, the investment of government-linked Temasek in Shin Corp, the family business of Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed in a military coup in September, weathered legal problems and continued to develop into a policy lesson in government-business relations for both the countries involved. Singapore's economy picked up steam in the middle of the year, and experienced a relatively robust growth rate of 7.7 per cent. At the end of the year, the PAP government announced its intention to increase the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by 2 per cent, that is, from 5 to 7 per cent. The century-old Penal Code was given an extensive review and public feedback was sought, but Internet free speech was curtailed with the imposition of stricter regulations. Smoke haze from fires in Indonesia covered most of the country in October, prompting once again an urgent call by ASEAN to help Indonesia fight the forest fires. Two stalwarts of independent Singapore, S. Rajaratnam, Minister for Foreign Affairs (1965-80) and Deputy Prime Minister (1980-85), and Lim Kim San, who was credited with the public housing programme, passed away at the age of 81. Ho Khai Leong is Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 298Ho Khai Leong General Election 2006: Entrenching PAP Dominance Singapore's general elections are awkward events. Despite incessant appeals from the PAP government to Singaporeans to be more engaged and active in public affairs, there are few opportunities for the citizenry to demonstrate their political choices and preferences. Singaporeans really get only one moment every five years to express their judgement about issues and the performance of the government, and elections are still an imperfect vehicle for doing so on a mass of issues that accumulate between elections: the cost of living, job security, economic restructuring, ministerial salaries, influx of foreign talent, HDB up-grading, and to a lesser extent, freedom of speech and association. The eleventh general elections were held on 6 May 2006. Lee Hsien Loong, who had been Prime Minister for 20 months, decided that the time was right to call for an electoral mandate: "Give me and my team a strong mandate so that I can continue to serve you."1 He also told Singaporeans about the long-term significance of their votes, which would determine the future of Singapore in the next 20 to 30 years. The parliament was dissolved on 20 April 2006 by the President of the Republic and nomination day was set for 27 April. The nine-day campaign set by the PAP was characterized by an unusually intense political posturing. Earlier, on 3 March, there was the customary report released by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee, which comes under the purview of the Prime Minister's Department.2 Given the extensive changes proposed in previous years, the surprise was that the changes were not as sweeping and drastic as many observers had expected. Two Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) (Ayer Rajah SMC and Bukit Timah SMC) were absorbed into Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs), and two new SMCs (Bukit Panjang SMC and Yio Chu Kang SMC) were created. The number of total parliamentary seats remained at 84. As was the case in the previous general election in 2001, the government attempted to "sweeten the ground" before the election by announcing in February the Progress Package with the Budget for financial year 2006-2007. It was a S$2.6 billion extra-budgetary measure, with S$500...