Blogs & Elections Pt II

So after posting my previous entry, I went on to think about how similar Malaysia’s situation is, to Singapore’s.

History is often a good way to study the present, so I peeked into history and there I found my answer.

What has historically been the main trigger for the people to stand up to its government?

Suppression? Perhaps.

Yet the true trigger had always been frustration towards the government. The fall of the Qing Dynasty, fall of the Tzar, fall of the Weimar Republic, fall of the absolute monarchy in France and Europe, fall of the USSR- they had all fallen to the frustration of the people.

This frustration of the people brings about the desire for a change.

And that is what happened in Malaysia. Frustration of the people had finally swung the pendulum towards the opposite direction; the whole political scene changed.

It is not done overnight, but accumulated over a period of time.

Yet this same frustration is not present in Singapore. While there might be problems with the policies of the ruling party, Singaporeans are notoriously known to be short-term-memory voters. Furthermore, these policies are often made to look less than they really are. For example, the GST increase from 5% to 7% is not a mere increment of 2%, but an increment of 40%.

While this frustration towards the government does not exist, we cannot expect anything like the Malaysia GE to happen in Singapore’s GE. The pendulum continues to swing for the ruling party.