Boundaries
Where am I, really!
I woke up and found myself in Aljunied where a hot battle is shaping up. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Mar 4, 2006

As a resident in Serangoon Gardens for 20 years, I am finding myself again on the move.

I flipped open the newspaper this morning and learned that I am no longer a voter in Marine Parade – but Aljunied. It’s going to take some time for this to sink in.

Like other senior citizens, I don’t like too make sudden changes, especially when the government is telling me that everything is doing very well.

Four election shifts in less then 20 years, I think represents three too many.

See, I started as a voter in, what else but Serangoon Gardens, enjoying my one-man-one-vote right to choose my own Member of Parliament and quite happy to elect the best person to represent me.

Which, in those days, was unquestionably someone from the People’s Action Party (who polled 70% of the votes). Then my journey began without my physically moving my butt an inch.

I became a voter in Braddell Heights, followed by Marine Parade (which promptly rendered me a ‘non-voter’) where I remained for 10 years.

Now I’m in Aljunied, where they say a hot battle is shaping up.

Luckily I have not developed any geographical loyalty in my place of residence, or else all this spinning could make me schizophrenic. I think the trick is not to take it too seriously.

I just wonder how many voters in the outside world go through the same thing. I supposed I couldn’t complain; at least I have a chance to vote this time.

Sadly, I somehow don’t see the election really stirring up the new generation.

Too many Singaporean youths have a ‘boh chap’ (‘don’t care’) attitude about politics and elections and don’t seem at all bothered about who wins or who losses - or why.

“The coming election won’t change anything, anyway. The government will still be controlling as it had done” seems to be a popular sentiment. All these frequent boundary changes simply contribute to the cynicism among young and old.

I must say it is quite prevalent in the estate where I live.

At a coffee shop breakfast this morning, an elderly gentleman asked me why was I surprised. “You should know better. Next time Serangoon Gardens may well move to Ang Moh Kio!”

Impact

Whatever the reason, incorporating Serangoon Gardens, a generally pro-PAP ward of 20,000, into Aljunied is likely to be a plus for the ruling party.

So may well be for the other switched wards. The exercise has forced the major opposition parties to review their laid out plans, making it harder to reach full agreement to avoid three-corner fights.

In hot contention are the nine single constituencies, for which there is an excess of opposition candidates.

It will be a real test of their combined resolve to cooperate for the larger good, which is to give Singaporeans an opportunity to vote.

With fewer resources, the smaller parties can only indulge in the smaller fights - not the big constituencies.

The media spin is that the changes are 'surprisingly' minimal, but the public may not share this view.

It is small only for two reasons: firstly, people had expected a far larger change and secondly, if the number of new voters has increased substantially nationwide.

I believe neither is true. I don't think people had anticipated a massive delineation exercise; if there were, the mainstream reporters or the Internet would not have missed it.

Secondly, the increase of new registered voters in the past five years - 45,000 or 9,000 a year - is the lowest in history. So is the switching around of so many (reportedly 175,000) voters really necessary?

One perception is that recent measures have probably prevented a major upset to the People's Action Party. That it will win the election handsomely is never in doubt.

The question is how many seats and how many votes can the opposition win?

The public perception is that while the $2.6B budget goodies may have raised popular votes by at least a few points, this boundary delineation may help the People's Action Party retain some vulnerable seats.

True or not remains unclear. It is hard to read the minds of the voters in their collective wisdom.
By Seah Chiang Nee