The costs of the GRC system.

A Yahoo article on why GRC systems should be abolished.

For years, with relatively little competition, it was a way to bring POTENTIAL ministers and MPs in to the system, to groom them on the fly and to see how they turn out. This year, with unprecedented competition, it turned into a key issue, an idealogical battleground, as the culmination of the peoples frustrations took form in the shape of Tin Pei Ling. The PAP probably saw good reason in wanting to nurture her, but the choice to bring her in the way they did,to nurture her in parliament as opposed to having her stomp the ground as an aide to one of the MPs or ministers, was the primary source of backlash against the GRC system. People had reached the point where they were less willing to vote for a team because they had one star player if they felt the opposition offered a better choice. That's why SM Goh team barely, BARELY won.

And even before that, the constant redrawing of the GRC boundaries with no clear reason why and seemingly with no good reason had been wearing away at the patience of the electorate for a long time. Dividing Aljunied was the straw that broke the camels back there. And the result of that gamble? The loss of three seasoned politicians, including our foreign minister. Unless a procedure is introduced soon to nominate ministers, as someone from SDA alluded to wanting implement(the name eludes me right now), this is one helluva blow that will take quite some time to recover from. Don't get me wrong, I think the WP team that took Aljunied is of extremely high calibre. That does not mean Singapore politics has not suffered a heavy loss.

And then there is Bishan. One of the most beloved symbols of the fight against autocracy, against the use of carrots and upgrading to win votes, one of the bravest men in Singapore politics, right up there with JB Jeyaretnam as a symbol of Singaporeans willing to fight for what they believe in...lost. While the minister who let a terrorist escape on his watch, who never apologised, who never did the right thing by taking full responsibility for what happened, stayed in.
I will be honest, when I saw the result, and how much that fella's team had won by, I cried. It was a body blow to our democracy, to our voice, to the grand scheme of things in Singapore. In putting people like WKS and VB in wards such as Bishan and Holland-Bukit Timah, we essentially protected out worst in our best areas? And our best? We gambled in the most contentious areas. Those two did not win on their own merits. They won because their areas are in good condition and their electorate is comfortable. Not a direct result of them at all.

Some say the real winner in this is Tin Pei Ling. I disagree. She will probably work hard, she may prove herself. She may not. Whatever. There are plenty of nondescript faces in parliament as it is. Even some of the members of the opposition teams were very nondescript, with at least one team relying on the star power of one member. So even if the opposition had gotten in instead of TPL, it would have been one star, and a few people one cannot be entirely certain off as well.
So no.

One the one hand, we can say the real winner was Singaporean Democracy. Everyone had a chance to vote, and while the media was far from ideal(faaaaaaaaaar from it), there was also much more coverage of the alternative parties and their ideas than there has been in a very very long time. And while there were articles blatantly demonising them, they were still a far cry from the kind of thing we saw in the 90's. People became politically aware, more and more people were politically involved, rallies reached a fever pitch in emotion that has not been seen in I-do-not-know-how-long. Many, many victories, in that regard.

But if the GRC system is not discontinued, if we continue relying on a system of politics that has proven itself to be so flawed as to be DANGEROUS to the political well-being of Singapore, then ultimately, all the small victories matter very little, and there is only one loser in the long run.


Singapore.