By the way this Bukit Batok by-election

by Bertha Henson

WE SAID the Bukit Batok by-election will be held no later than June – and we were right! Yippee! Please allow us to blow our own trumpet. But seriously, there is little reason for Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong to delay the by-elections now that the hefty business of scrutinizing the Budget is over.

We’re all feeling hot because of the weather but not so hot under the collar as to harbor resentment against the G. The Budget, while not goodie-laden for individual households, doesn’t do anyone any harm.

Not that the Budget should be specifically tailored for Bukit Batok residents (there will be an outcry!), although you can bet that both the People’s Action Party (PAP) and the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) will unfurl some local plans for the single-seat ward in the north-western part of Singapore. Bukit Batok residents can expect some intense wooing, and plenty of visitors, including VIPs, swarming around the heavily-contested ward. Which will, hopefully, be devoid of rats.

It looks like a straight race between PAP’s Murali Pillai and SDP’s Chee Soon Juan, unless a dark horse trots into Keming Primary School Nomination centre on April 27. So how will this battle shape up and how is this coming by-election different from the two previous ones?

There are two ways all three by-elections are similar:

1. All three incumbents vacated their seat because of personal indiscretions. That is, another woman was involved. There was much less drama surrounding ex-PAP MP David Ong, compared to the fireworks that accompanied ex-WP MP Yaw Shin Leong and ex-Speaker of Parliament Michael Palmer.

2. All three are single-seat wards, which means there is little excuse for the PM not to call for a by-election, never mind that a neighbouring MP can be designated as “caretaker’’. If an MP drops out of a Group Representation Constituency (GRC), it is more acceptable to argue that the rest can take over his job given that all MPs had obtained a proper mandate from the same voters in a general election (GE).

What are some of the interesting points in the by-election?

1. The opposition seems to have gotten its act together in making way for the SDP to contest. The area, after all, has been SDP’s old stomping ground for years. In the GE last year, SDP’s Mr Sadasivam V lost to Mr Ong by a whopping 47 per cent. In the Punggol East by-election in 2013, there was a four-way fight.

2. This is a straight fight between a party big-wig and a community leader. The last time this happened was in the Marine Parade GRC by-election in 1992, when then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong took off his PM hat to contest. It is worth noting that the SDP, including Dr Chee, was a contender. It was also Dr Chee’s maiden foray into the polls. Mr Murali, however, has Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, an MP for the neighbouring Jurong GRC, in his corner.

3. It is a straight fight between a Chinese and an Indian, in what is a heavily Chinese populated ward. The last time the PAP fielded a non-Chinese in a single seat ward was in 2011, when Mr Palmer won his seat against two other contenders. But in a straight fight, how? Will the oft-heard, supposedly conventional wisdom that Singaporeans are not race blind take hold?

4. By-elections traditionally favour opposition parties because there is no fear of the G being thrown out of power. So why not give one more seat to the opposition? In the 2012 Hougang by-election, WP’s Mr Png Eng Huat won handily with 62 per cent of the total votes, against PAP’s Mr Desmond Choo. Punggol East was a closer fight, with WP’s Lee Li Lian pipping her next best rival PAP’s Koh Poh Koon by 10 per cent.

5. This by-election is shaping up to be even more “local’’ than the previous two. The issue of integrity surfaced topmost in the Hougang by-election while infrastructural complaints occupied the minds of the younger population in Punggol East. The work of the Town Council and how ready SDP is to manage this will be a topic on residents’ minds, and this is likely to take centre stage. In fact, the SDP has already announced a transition team for the Town Council. As for the PAP, the promise is business as usual, as the housing estate is now managed by Jurong-Clementi Town Council.

Much will probably be made of the people in rental housing in Bukit Batok and how they will be looked after. The PAP has started a new food distribution mechanism that allows residents to pick and choose what they need from an array of necessities

Anyway, this is just a primer for those interested in following the Bukit Batok showdown. You can bet that over the next three weeks, we’ll be deluged with news about this corner of Singapore. TMG will be doing its part too by giving you a tour of the sights, sounds, and key attractions in the area.

Yup, we’ll be watching the key attractions closely. So get on board with us!

 

Featured Image by Natassya Diana.

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The post By the way, this Bukit Batok by-election… appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Bertha Henson