09 September 2015

Modelling the 2015 Singapore general elections III: The PAP campaign


As expected, the People's Action Party's campaign consisted of silly references to SG50, the Legacy of the party, and playing the LKY card as though every reverent mention of his name could resurrect the man.

And then, there was Minilee's lunchtime rally speech, quoting Papalee's House of Cards speech word for word.



It just doesn't work.

The PAP's track record in the past 5 years is a failure. Not mentioning it doesn't cause people to forget that. Playing up SG50 reminds people of how much more competent the PAP was, how visionary the PAP's founding fathers were, and how these leaders listened to the advice of foreign experts to improve the standard of living of the Singaporean people, putting Singaporeans first.

The PAP of 50 years ago kickstarted the Malayanization process, ramped up education and industrialisation, so that foreign talents could be replaced with locals while ensuring competitiveness, so that the fruits of Singapore's economy could be with more people, to create a more equal society.

The PAP of today has repudiated the PAP of 50 years ago, in every possible way.

I mentioned in my previous post that the PAP needs to prevent people from thinking its competence has fallen greatly, and that its ideological vision has shifted radically. The PAP campaign has failed to do both and now faces a real possibility that in the minds of rational voters, the utility curve for the PAP has shifted dramatically downwards, and to the far right - thus making GE2015 far more competitive than expected.

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