Synthesised GP Blog

Voting 'conspiracy'?

I refer to the article, "Elections matter even if everyone knows who will win" published on The Straits Times, Friday 27th Jan 05, Insight. Are our elections just a mockup to ease pro-democratic allies and citizens? Is it really necessary?

Lim mentioned in her article that,"...the difference between an American democracy and a Singapore democracy... [is that] we in Singapore know way before polling day what the outcome of a general election (GE) will be."

Voting is the choice of people deciding the choice of government yet strangely, this choice of government had been unchanged for a few decades now. The status quo had diminished our GE to nothing short of a holiday: a mockery for politics. PAP had never risked losing seats in the Parliament in their 40 years or so of power.

Undeniably, there is no harm as yet to keep them in power. They have done a good job as a government of the republic and I (along with most Singaporeans) have no reservations to their stay in the Parliament. With their clean, transparent take in leading the country, corruption is too far to be smelt. It almost seems like we could do away with the polls for a couple of years.

However, the question lies in the very basis of democracy - to give people the power of selecting their government. If we do not have the polls, we are writing an open invitation for autocracy which is as risky as communism or dictatorship. The implications of allowing any political party to automatically go to power would create so much assurance that it may start to take for granted the situation.

Then, we will be heading downhill.

Polls in short keep the political part in power on their feet as well as allow people to dispel any emerging autocratic leaders. Let us not allow a moment of convenience destroy any empathy of our citizens towards maintaining the integrity of the Government.

posted by synthesis @ 9:58 AM