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COMMENT: What we should ask about the PAP’s flyer drop

COMMENT: What we should ask about the PAP’s flyer drop

Kirsten Han is a Singaporean blogger, journalist and filmmaker. She is also involved in the We Believe in Second Chances campaign for the abolishment of the death penalty. A social media junkie, she tweets at @kixes. The views expressed are her own.

Speculation over impending elections got another little boost recently when news broke that People’s Action Party (PAP) activists had distributed flyers at night to residents of Aljunied Group Representative Constituency (GRC), encouraging them to question the Worker’s Party (WP) on lapses in the management of the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC).

The flyers once again hammered on the point of accounting and corporate governance lapses in AHPETC – a new pet topic that the PAP will probably never tire of poking.

Some think that this is a pretty low blow from the PAP, but negative campaigning is really just part of the cut and thrust of politics. It’s often a built-in component of political campaigning. Play up your capabilities while exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses; it might be petty, but there’s nothing new about such politicking.

The actual content of the flyer aside, there isn’t anything wrong about asking constituents to question political parties who are vying for their vote. In fact, it’s good to have the electorate be critical and asking questions. It’s only bad practice when the electorate asks questions about one party while giving a free pass to the other.

While there are certainly concerns that people living in WP constituencies can and should raise, there are also a host of questions that can be put to the PAP. The list can start from conflict of interest issues regarding Action Information Management Pte Ltd (AIM) – why did software developed by multiple town councils get sold to a company owned by a political party, and isn’t that hugely problematic and vulnerable to abuses of power?

The list can also include questions over why grassroots advisers are always PAP members, even when in opposition wards, and can never be the other way ‘round. Or why it’s actually okay to openly say that opposition wards get shunted to the back of the queue for upgrading, when the funds are public. Or why our election system is such that the Prime Minister can state, point-blank, that the elections will be called only when the PAP is ready – isn’t that a clear signal of a hugely uneven playing field in Singaporean politics?

And, while we’re at it, is this non-election period flyer distribution business even legal? After all, members of the Singapore Democratic Party went to jail for having tried it.

That the PAP has done this is interesting when we start to wonder why they did it, and why now? (Was the skewering they gave WP in Parliament not enough?)

The action in itself, though, is nothing special. Citizens would do well to be prepared for such political stunts from political parties and to critically question them all.