Singapore in 2012: A Year of Scandals, Attempted Political Engagement, and Socio-economic Anxieties

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Introduction

The year 2012 began with a scandal that involved two senior civil servants who were arrested and charged with corruption for granting government contracts in exchange for sexual favours. Later in the year, another fifty-one individuals including some rather prominent personalities were charged for procuring commercial sex from an underaged girl. In the political arena, the single member ward of Hougang was the scene of a by-election when the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency, Yaw Shin Leong, was sacked from the Workers’ Party (WP) that he had previously represented. The sacking came in the wake of allegations of extramarital affairs and the party’s inability to get him to account for his behaviour that was deemed to be in the public interest. The by-election was subsequently won by the Workers’ Party again though with a marginally narrower lead of 62.1 per cent over the People’s Action Party (PAP). Towards the end of the year in December, PAP MP and Speaker of Parliament, Michael Palmer, resigned his seat in the single-member ward of Punggol East over an extramarital affair. It is likely that a by-election will be called in order that the constituents have representation in Parliament. Apart from these highlights, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced a National Dialogue to uncover domestic preferences on important issues and values going forward. And in the socio-economic realm there was a concerted effort to raise the base wages of the lowest income earners while anxieties persisted regarding property prices and availability, the high cost of living, and the overload on the country’s infrastructure. Legal action against the City Harvest Church for misuse of funds also attracted some attention. The issue of the large number of foreign workers in the country continued to draw attention, notwithstanding government pronouncements to raise the salary bar for special individual work permit holders and slow the intake of foreigners to assuage local anxieties. Furthermore, in late November, foreign bus drivers from China staged a strike that rattled the government’s management of industrial relations.

Domestic Political Issues: Hougang By-election and National Dialogue

The most important political event in 2012 was the by-election for Hougang constituency’s single-member ward. The seat fell vacant when incumbent Yaw Shin Leong was sacked by the WP. Yaw who was rumoured to be involved in extramarital affairs did not respond to the WP’s call to explain his behaviour. The incident naturally put the WP in a negative light, and it went to great lengths to explain to the public that it was unaware of Yaw’s trysts and chose to sack him to retain the party’s integrity and support. The WP, which had risen to significant political popularity in the general election of 2011 by winning a total of six seats, was clearly put on the defensive and had its work cut out for it in terms of convincing the over 23,000 voters that the indiscretions of its previous member had no bearing on the party. In a clever and orchestrated strategy, the party immediately fired Yaw and went public with its pronouncements that such lapses in conduct were irresponsible and unacceptable, hoping to claim the high moral ground and emerge from the situation unscathed in terms of voter support and public perception regarding the party.¹ There was some discussion at the local constituency level on whether the by-election would disadvantage the WP or whether the generally negative mood against the PAP government at the national level would prevail.² Whatever the public perceptions at the ground level were, the WP’s Png Eng Huat eventually recaptured the seat with 62.1 per cent of the votes on an approximately 94 per cent turnout of eligible voters in the constituency.³ In the previous election, Yaw had polled 64.8 per cent of the votes to win the seat. Consequently, there was a marginal erosion of support for the WP but it...