Volunteers from the ruling People’s Action Party and opposition Progress Singapore Party were allegedly involved in a scuffle at a walkabout in Bukit Gombak earlier in January. -- Photo: Tan Cheng Bock/Facebook
SINGAPORE (SCMP): A rare spat between two political parties in Singapore has emerged as the city state enters an election year, with volunteers from the ruling People’s Action Party and opposition Progress Singapore Party (PSP) involved in a scuffle.
Former members of parliament and political observers told This Week in Asia that such a conflict between the parties reflected a more hotly contested ground ahead of a general election that must be held by November.
The incident, which has seen cabinet ministers in the usually calm political landscape weigh in, surfaced last week when PSP volunteers alleged they were harassed by their PAP counterparts in a walkabout in Bukit Gombak, a town in the west of Singapore.
A PAP member of parliament later countered, saying that PSP volunteers had started the confrontation and even slapped one of her volunteers and pulled another by his shirt.
Police have confirmed they are investigating the case after a report filed by a PSP volunteer.
Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth as well as Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling, the MP for the area, accused the PSP of twisting the facts. One of her volunteers last Thursday posted two videos of the incident.
Low’s post was shared by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong on Facebook, while the volunteer’s post was shared by Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Thursday with the caption “PSP conduct”.
Tan Cheng Bock, secretary general of the opposition Progress Singapore Party, at the nomination centre ahead of the 2020 general election. -- Photo: AFP
PSP founder Tan Cheng Bock, a former PAP MP, on Friday stood by his volunteers, noting that the video published by the PAP volunteer did not show slapping but only subtitles alleging so.
He urged Low to produce evidence of the alleged manhandling. Tan said if PSP volunteers acted aggressively, disciplinary action would be taken but if they were falsely accused, the party would fight the allegations fully.
During a walkabout on Sunday, Tan said his party wanted to “fight a very clean fight”, adding that he expected his party members to “conduct themselves well”.
Speaking to local media, Tan added: “In my olden days, we had very, very terrible encounters, so we are quite used to it. But that time, we wanted to put it away. We cannot have that sort of behaviour back in Singapore.”
Low said in a Facebook post on Friday that her volunteers would hand over all evidence to the police.
Heating up
Former MPs said they had never experienced physical violence from opposition volunteers when they were campaigning, suggesting a rise in temperature on the political battleground ahead of the next election.
Singapore’s political arena has seen more competition in recent years. The 2015 general election marked the first time all seats were contested, and the most recent 2020 election saw the main opposition Workers’ Party win a record 10 out of 93 seats.
The PSP, a new party in the last election, narrowly lost in the West Coast constituency, with the PAP winning by just 51.68 per cent. The result was the PAP’s slimmest victory in the last election.
“If the recent PSP-PAP altercation is any indication, passions seem to be running high in the coming general election,” former PAP MP Hong Hai said.
Former PAP Joo Chiat MP Chan Soo Sen recalled getting cheered on by residents when he and Workers’ Party members shook hands on the 2005 election campaign trail. “Singapore is a society ruled by law. Resorting to threatening behaviour is not our style.”
While Chan noted that Singaporeans should not be divided over their support for different political parties, some activists might get carried away during outreach efforts.
Former speaker of parliament and PAP MP Charles Chong said: “Regardless of how stiff the competition may be, if such actions win votes, then I think we are in for very troubling times.
Singapore’s PM Lawrence Wong speaking at a press conference in Bangkok in November. The next general election will be Wong’s first as Singapore’s leader. -- Photo: AP
“If harassment of political opponents wins votes, then it will only encourage contending parties to do more and more of such actions and that would be troubling.”
Chong pointed out that during the run-up to the 2001 general election, Chee Soon Juan, leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, drew ire from voters after he confronted then-prime minister Goh Chok Tong with a megaphone, indicating Singaporeans’ disapproval of such a style of politics.
Following the 2001 incident, Chong said the PAP reminded volunteers to be courteous and urged them to be “on their best behaviour” while campaigning in public or encountering political opponents.
“Our candidates and campaign volunteers cross paths with the opposing teams quite often while electioneering. The encounters are normally cordial or we try not to get into each other’s way. Hostility and bad behaviour are not positively regarded by Singaporean voters,” he said.
But Chong said that both ruling and opposition parties would be more careful after the recent incident, given the amount of negative attention it garnered.
Political observers point to how the coming polls will be hard-fought, leading to heightened tensions between parties.
Bilveer Singh, a politics professor at the National University of Singapore, said: “The coming general election will be one of the hottest in recent memory as the issues affecting the electorate are existential – very high costs that even the regular cash handouts are not able to address.
“Hence the contestation during general elections and the possible emergence of a loose coalition among the opposition will give the PAP under Lawrence Wong a run for its money,” said Singh, referring to how the election would be Wong’s first as prime minister.
Singh said a repeat of the Bukit Gombak incident was probable in hotly contested areas, depending on how the opposing sides provoke each other.
But he added: “In the end, the blame game of who caused the tension may be irrelevant if there is a ground-up pressure [by voters] for change.”
Eugene Tan, Singapore Management University law professor and political observer, called the political landscape “more competitive and contested than it has ever been since independence”.
He added: “But I see the incident as an aberration that does not speak to the civil way outreach by political parties has always been done outside of the election season. It is not how Singaporeans want to see politics degenerate into. Politics in Singapore is not a physical sport, and cooler heads and even-handed minds are needed.”
Likewise, Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior analyst at Solaris Strategies Singapore, said: “Civility in politics is still viewed as important by middle-ground voters, many of whom tend to vote pragmatically during election time.”
Tan argued that both parties came out worse off as the dispute distracted the public from the contributions of volunteers on the ground. “The dominant narrative will run ahead ... and, as expected, [this has] degenerated into a ‘PAP said, PSP said’.”
Yet he pointed out that the PAP had more to lose from such incidents as the incumbent and the party had to come across as more magnanimous.
“No party, especially the PAP, would want to be accused of bullying politics and the reality is that voters tend to lean towards the underdog – in this case, the opposition rather than the ruling party,” Tan said. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
