Singapore – David Wee has spent the majority of his life living in the same terraced house with his family in the east of Singapore.
But over more than 40 years, the Wee family have been a part of five different electoral constituencies.
Government critics have accused the Singaporean government of gerrymandering, which is deliberately bending constituency boundaries to favor a particular political party, since the election changes that took place shortly before every general election.
According to Singapore’s Elections Department, which is overseen by the Prime Minister’s Office, the latest boundary changes – the most extensive in years – were driven by voter growth and future housing developments.
The People’s Action Party (PAP) will take control of Singapore on Saturday despite criticism, which is expected to result in the election of 2.76 million voters.
The PAP has won every election in this prosperous global financial centre since declaring independence in 1965.
Elections in this country are seen as a test of public opinion of the ruling party, despite the PAP’s low chances of losing. This election is also seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who took over from former premier Lee Hsien Loong last year.
Voting is also compulsory in Singapore – where elections are held every five years, and though modelled after the United Kingdom’s Westminster parliamentary system, one of the quirks of Singapore is that voters are either part of a single-member voting constituency or a Group Representation Constituency (GRC).
People in a GRC cast ballots for teams of up to five politicians rather than just for one candidate. Within each team, at least one candidate must be from a minority ethnic group.
The team vote is supposed to ensure minority representation in the city-state’s parliament, but critics claim it is a group-to-group parachute maneuver.
The vote will see 97 members of parliament elected in 33 constituencies made up of 15 single-member constituencies and 18 GRCs. The PAP has already won a walkover for a five-member team, so only 92 seats will be contested today because one of the GRCs has no contest.
For David Wee, constituency boundaries are not really an issue.
He told Al Jazeera, “It’s something that can happen to anyone, especially if you live in a Single Member Constituency, which can be easily absorbed” into a GRC.
What is an issue though, he says, is the rising cost of living, inflation, and other concerns around life and work in one of the world’s richest nations.
He continued, “I will support anyone I believe can best serve the residents,” noting that Singapore’s voters are now more selective and shouldn’t be taken for granted.
“Our voters have become more educated”, he said.
After all, he continued, “Singapore is a developed country, not a developing country.”
Singapore bling
Singapore is one of the world’s most expensive cities, with some of the highest living standards globally.
It has the most expensive cars in the world, along with a top-notch public transportation system, along with congestion pricing, road tax, and other costs. This is because owners must pay thousands of dollars for a vehicle’s ownership.
“If you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it”, said Lim Meng Wee, 57, a consultant in the local real estate capital field who has owned several cars over the years.
“A car is a very expensive luxury,” says one author. It eats into your balance sheet and you will have to keep working harder. He said, “I know of people who bought cars and returned to public transportation after two to three years.
Singapore’s economic success, generally low crime and expectation of personal safety for citizens has come in tandem with a low tolerance for dissent.
That has been put into practice by a number of laws, including those that prohibit racial and religious feelings from being hurt, as well as detention without trial. Labour strikes are outlawed too, and a permit is required for demonstrations, which is strictly observed.
In an effort to make a point about the administration of justice, a prominent dissident was fined for assembly in 2020 for upholding a cardboard sign with a smiley face outside the State Courts.
In February, six people in their 20s were questioned by police and had their electronic devices seized over a protest at a local university against Israel’s war on Gaza.
Critics and media outlets have been the subject of defamation lawsuits by government ministers, while many politicians and activists were imprisoned from the 1960s into the 1980s.
In addition, the majority of the media is unwaveringly pro-establishment, despite the country’s 123rd-placed status as the world’s second-largest press freedom. All media outlets must tread carefully with a government accustomed to taking matters to court when unhappy with coverage.
A defamation lawsuit against Bloomberg News, which is ongoing, was brought by two ministers over a report on multimillion dollar real estate transactions in the nation.
Singapore at 60 – the social compact going strong
This island nation, which has about six million people and is multicultural and multilingual, celebrates its 60th anniversary in August.
It turns 60 as an economic heavyweight, and one of the cleanest, safest, least corrupt places in the world. In 1965, the GDP per person was about $500. Last year, figures from the International Monetary Fund showed the figure was about $93, 000.
All of this has been accomplished under the leadership of Singapore under the leadership of the PAP, which Lee Kuan Yew co-founded and is still the only governing body that the country has ever had a history with.
Over those six decades, Singapore’s version of the social compact has seen its citizens accepting fewer freedoms in exchange for the PAP ensuring stable economic growth and the availability of good jobs. However, it seems to be changing.
The PAP has held a parliamentary supermajority for decades, though the 10 opposition politicians elected at the last election in 2020 represented an all-time high in parliament and forced some soul-searching among the governing party’s leadership.
Political analyst and former newspaper editor PN Balji said, “Lee Kuan Yew’s generation delivered everything that we see here in Singapore.”
“He was a great statesman”, he told Al Jazeera.
However, increasingly, Singaporean voters want a greater say in governance and eschew the “fist in velvet glove” approach to government, along with the authorities ‘ willingness to intervene in citizens ‘ lives, leading to the label of “nanny state”.
Social housing, according to Balji, is an illustration of the PAP’s gloved-fist strategy.
For years, the PAP openly told voters that their residential public housing properties would not be prioritised for upgrading if they voted for the opposition.
All of these policies were put in place when the leadership’s attitude was to “we’ll just push it through.” You don’t vote PAP, you don’t get upgrading? Let’s try this right away, Balji said.
Social media has emboldened Singaporeans to the point where the “fear factor” no longer exists, he said.
In high-tech Singapore, bread-and-butter issues are also dominant, along with the long-standing argument that more opposition voices are required.
Cost-of-living concerns, exacerbated by a two-step rise in a goods and services tax (GST) – now at 9 percent – since 2023, have dominated the political debate.
In response to a $4.9 billion fiscal surplus for 2024, authorities have already allocated just under $1 billion in handouts and rebates to help cover the cost of daily expenses.
But the larger-than-expected surplus led many to question the government’s need for the GST hike, with the main opposition Workers ‘ Party (WP) asserting that it had “turbocharged” inflation.
United States-imposed tariffs have also heightened economic unease.
The PAP has less frequently cited the claim of Singaporean exceptionalism, according to former WP lawmaker Leon Perera, as a result of slower economic growth in recent years.
“Three generations of Singaporeans grew up with an exceptional leadership that delivered outcomes of a higher standard than other developed countries”, Perera said.
He claimed that other developed nations are increasingly becoming aware of the issues that we face, whether it be inflation, sluggish real wage growth, or high levels of inequality.
“The PAP is at an inflection point because it is the transition to the new prime minister that I think is a catalyst for voters”, he added.
Inderjit Singh, a former PAP lawmaker who served in parliament for almost 20 years, claimed that prior to that time, people “saw their lives improve enormously” and that they “were willing to allow the government to play a dominant role” in their lives.
But Singh acknowledged that the cracks have been showing, with a cross-section of Singaporeans who feel they are “sliding backwards” in terms of the cost of living and the affordability of public housing.
According to Singh, “the younger Singaporeans have had a good life, and they think the future will be more difficult than the present.”
He also pointed to the “huge surge” of new immigrants at a rapid pace that has diluted national identity.
He remarked that all Singaporeans should take pride in the fact that the country has always had a cohesion and prosperity.
Singapore’s ‘ 4G ‘ generation v the founding fathers
Neophyte Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who took office in May, is a member of the “4G” leadership, which still reigns in Lee Kuan Yew’s shadow.
“One of the biggest issues for Singapore at 60 is leadership”, said Balji, who believes the current PAP leaders cannot be compared with Lee’s generation.
Many Singaporeans appear to agree with online chatter, based on the conversation.
A long-running public dispute between Lee’s children, including Wong’s predecessor as PM Lee Hsien Loong, also continues to divide Singaporeans and generate international headlines. A former transport minister was imprisoned in a high-profile corruption case, which hasn’t improved things.
Another point of contention for many: Singapore has the highest-paid ministers in the world, thanks to the PAP’s insistence that competitive salaries were essential for guarding against corruption.
Wong is the highest-paid global leader with a salary of almost $ 1.69 million annually. A junior minister gets about $845, 000 while a backbencher is paid about $148, 000.
Wong co-chairs the government’s COVID task force, despite not being Lee’s replacement as finance minister.
While the 52-year-old has enjoyed high approval ratings and there is little danger of the PAP losing power in this election, he is expected to improve on or maintain the party’s vote share of more than 61 percent from the last election in 2020 – which was one of its worst performances ever.
A slate of young, highly qualified WP candidates is also facing resurgent opposition, and the ruling party has appeared agitated and vulnerable during the campaign.
The former PAP lawmaker Singh said that while Singapore’s management of the COVID pandemic was exemplary compared with many other countries, the jury is still out on Wong and his peers.
“I believe the 4G leaders haven’t yet demonstrated their ability to solve these problems to Singaporeans’ satisfaction,” he said. Some of the trust in the PAP has eroded in the last 10 years or so”, he said.
He said, “Simply saying, “Feel me,” will not suffice; it will be important to present a compelling plan that people can believe will be successful.
“If the PAP can do it, they should be able to win a good mandate. If not, we can anticipate even more voter eroding.
