Quora Answer: What Do Singaporeans Want from the Opposition to Give Them a Chance to Govern?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What do Singaporeans want to see from the opposition in order to give them a chance to govern?”

There are two main things that we do need to see.  The first is that we need to see credible candidates.  The Opposition has far too many yahoos.  There are people who turn up every election cycle, but you never see them otherwise.  There are people who can barely speak in public, embarrassing themselves.  There are people who play fast and loose with the facts, and seek to win on emotive issues.  There are people who spend far too much time cozying up to foreign interests, causing us to doubt their loyalty to the nation.  And, for me personally, we have people who can barely speak proper English in a country where English is the language of business and governance.  This causes me to doubt they understand the laws they are supposed to draft and vet.

The second is that we need to see less complaints and less whining about “unfair” conditions, and actual policy proposals.  I am not interested in vapid talk of “more democracy”.  I want to know about economic proposals, and the numbers to justify them.  I want to know about job creation, monetary policy, trade issues, wealth distribution, not idiotic ideas such as abolishing National Service, a flat tax for wealth, and the plight of refugees.

I am not someone speaking about people I have read about.  I have actually went down to speak to many of these people, to listen to their ideas, and I was even a volunteer for one of the parties.  Whilst I support the need for a credible Opposition to challenge the PAP, and prevent groupthink, I am against this idea of simply voting for the Opposition for the sake of it.  I am a pragmatist, and I vote for the party that gives me what I want.  I have no ingrained loyalty to any faction, and that makes me just like most Singaporeans my generation.