Petitions galore after GE 2011 results
Calls have emerged for the removal of youngest Member of Parliament-elect Tin Pei Ling, whose Marine Parade group representation constituency team emerged victorious in the polls, and for the reinstatement of incumbent MP George Yeo into Parliament after his People's Action Party (PAP) team lost Aljunied GRC to the Workers' Party.
Various petitions with signatures ranging from less than 50 to the thousands have sprung up this General Election, most of them after the announcement of the results of the 7 May polls.
The more prominent petitions include:
1) A petition to remove Tin Pei Ling from Parliament
It aims to collect 100,000 signatures to support the call for the resignation of Tin as an MP after her Marine Parade GRC team won the polls, and to pave the way for a by-election where Minister Yeo could make a comeback into Parliament. As of 12 am on Tuesday, there were over 8,000 signatures.
2) A petition for former Foreign Minister Yeo to be back in Parliament
Various Facebook petitions have popped up calling for Minister Yeo to remain in government. One calling for Tin to be replaced with Minister Yeo has garnered more than 6,000 likes, while another petitioning for Yeo to be back in Parliament has about 2,000 likes.
3) Petition for Residents of Potong Pasir
Organisers hope to collect 8,000 signatures from residents to call for a by-election of Potong Pasir single seat ward, where Singapore People's Party (SPP) candidate Lina Chiam lost by just over a hundred votes to the People's Action Party's Sitoh Yih Pin.
The collection of signatures is on Monday (9 May) and Tuesday (10 May) from 4 pm to 8 pm at Block 108 Potong Pasir Avenue 1. There was about 2,000 signatures on Sunday.
Reactions
In response to the online petition over her resignation, Tin said on Sunday that she will work hard to listen to residents and reach out to younger people.
Her priority now is her work in the MacPherson ward, where she hopes to prove herself and gain the trust of Singaporeans.
SPP's secretary general Chiam See Tong, who gave up his seat in Potong Pasir to contest in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, said on Sunday there is no provision in the case for a by-election at Potong Pasir.
However, such reactions from people are to be expected, said director of the Asia Journalism Fellowship at the Nanyang Technological University, P N Balji.
"With the online media playing an activist's role in this election, such reactions are to be expected," he said. "The politicians, especially from the PAP, are taking new media seriously. Everybody with a complaint and a point of view will go to the online world."
And while he agrees Singaporeans should persevere in pushing for change if they feel a wrong has been done, Balji said he does not see such petitioning having much of an impact because the opposition, with its historic win of a GRC, has performed well in this GE.
Professor Ang Peng Hwa, acting head for the division of journalism and publishing at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at NTU, said, "They (the petitions) reflect strong feelings on the ground."
They could be in response to the PAP leaders' pledge that they will make more effort to listen to people, he noted.
However, Prof Ang also pointed out that such actions may be a sign that Singaporeans have not arrived "at some level of maturity".
"People should respect the outcome of the election, painful as it may be for the parties involved," he said, noting that the results represent the wishes of tens of thousands of people and comes after a long process of campaigning.
"You just have to respect the outcome of the election, otherwise it (the petitioning) may never end," he said.
