MPs
With special rights?
That's what PAP hopes to create in Potong Pasir and Hougang if it wins, definitely not its best idea. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Mar 26, 2006

In his foray into 'injun territory' Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who is renowned for his friendly disposition, played hard-ball politics and launched an initiative, which seems rather.. well.. unusual.

He suggested that the party whip be lifted in Parliament for the PAP candidates if they win in the two opposition constituencies.

The idea presumably is to try to assure the Hougang and Potong Pasir voters that the two PAP candidates will be able to speak out - and vote - independently if they were to win.

According to CNA, he used the word "suggested" which implies this is not yet a done deal. That's why the immediate reaction is that it's a vote-winning ploy.

At the moment, it is probably just an idea, no different from another that he announced several years ago about organising the party's own in-house debate, a slate of PAP MPs taking on the government as though they were the opposition.

The idea then - and now - is: "You don't need an opposition. The PAP will act as one."

The idea fizzled out - as this one should when the party thinks through its impact. Suggesting it today is even more corny.

Will it work? No way.

My view is that many older heartlanders would not understand what 'lifting the whip' means. And voters who clamour for a genuine 'check and balance' in Parliament, not a simulated one, will probably scoff at it.

Besides, it will have a negative impact for the party and all its other members of Parliament, who will not have this 'special rights'.

The immediate effect could be a furore among voters of the other PAP constituencies, whose representatives do not have it.

"Why the discrimination?" I can already hear every one - voters and PAP candidates - asking (at least in private). It will be counter-productive.

It is also interesting to hear Mr. Goh putting his smiles away to deliver a tough - more than implied - warning to the voters of Hougang and Potong Pasir that their estates would pay the price of upgrading if they insisted on voting opposition.

Will the 'gloves off' approach work to wrestle back the two wards? It is at best, a high risk game.

Playing hard-ball politics when the PAP is already so powerful could frighten some Singaporeans into voting PAP, but it could also alienate others.

And I'm not referring only to Hougang and Potong Pasir.

(Updating: Since then. Mr. Goh has retracted the suggestion.)
By Seah Chiang Nee