Thoughts on the new dawn.
So much hope from this GE. A flight-to-safety wipeout would have been back to more of the same. Thankfully the vote was anything but. Courageous yet balanced, and definitely rubicon crossing in terms of institution building. The ground has spoken, and even the old guard have recognised the new dawn. The old accepting the legitimacy of the new is itself a privilege of the old system but nonetheless key to stability in transition to a less fragile two party setup - a long long way to go but a critical first step.
WP has really done the nation a service in showing us what credible, constructive and respectable opposition looks like. And this is respect in the broad sense - beyond just respect for opponents and more importantly fundamental respect for voters. That politics should be about fairness of playing field, balanced arguments and ultimately trusting the people to decide. This is the very core of democracy. Not a subset instructing but an actively engaged demos of people collectively deciding, learning, and deciding again.
Our long run resilience as a nation will depend equally on the decisions themselves as on our maturity and capacity - jointly as a society and every one of us individually as voters - to understand, accept and learn from the trade-offs inherent in choices made. At the development frontier there are no sure bets. Instead of leaving the betting to a self-reinforcing subset, we need a diversity of representation and views toward a nimble rolling portfolio undergirded by collective understanding, responsibility and quick learning from calls that go wrong.
We have taken success for granted for too long. And in leaving decisions to a subset, have resulted in isolation both ways - voters isolated from the reality and responsibility of choices and the subset isolated from the aspirations of the ground and increasingly perceived as lacking in respect. We need a new politics of responsibility and respect to close the gap. And hopefully this GE has set things decisively in this direction for the days to come.
In this phase of great power transition we need vision, leadership and statecraft. We cannot technocratically administrate our way to continued success. Technocratic brilliance does not in any way necessarily culminate in vision. If anything it seems to often culminate in committees and overcomplexity. We need a new guard of leaders with vision - inspired by and to inspire the aspirations of the people - and we will need our government service more than ever, to subject the details to the sternest tests that theory can bear and implement the resultant policies as streamlined, clear and effectively as possible.
So where is this new guard? We know the PAP slate and now we have the emergence of a credible alternative with the WP. Whereas the rest of the opposition had vestiges of the old era eg PSP with TCB / LHY, SDP with CSJ, WP ran and won ground with the new guard. And their rejuvenated leadership did seem to have a more palpable connection to the ground than the 4G. Ball is firmly back in the 4G’s court for a response. There is a sense of tension and constructivism given the capabilities of the incumbent and the momentum of the upstart. Really looking forward to the 14th Parliament.
Time will tell which of the new guard leaders, now or yet to come, has the brilliance of heart and mind to step up to the front and take the helm for the next lap. But this GE has given much hope - with two different but credible platforms formally engaging in Parliament, only more and diverse talent will emerge. As they say it takes two to tango, let the music begin! 🇸🇬
