| Age,
Melbourne November 6, 2001 Editorial THE party in government had fought the election as one in which it needed a resounding mandate from the people to steer the country through perilous times. It received it. If this sounds like John Howard's dream come true, it is not, or at least not yet. The people of Singapore voted at the weekend, though it is remarkable that they bothered, given that the opposition alliance was unable to field candidates for two-thirds of the seats. Before the election Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said 60 per cent of the vote would be a satisfactory mandate. In the end, his People's Action Party (PAP) increased its majority from the 65 per cent it won at the last election in 1997, to 75.3per cent. Moreover, the achievement of a modest one-quarter of the vote does not translate into a proportional number of seats for the opposition parties. Because of Singapore's first-past-the-post election system, opposition parties will have just two of the 84 seats in the new parliament. They have never had more than four. Even Mr Goh has at times bemoaned the lack of an effective opposition - though this did not prevent him during the election campaign shoring up his party's support by cutting Singapore's already low taxes and announcing more spending packages. The PAP has the mandate it wanted (a "sterling showing", said the clearly unbiased the Straits Times), and it will need it for tough times ahead. Singapore is entering its deepest recession in 30 years. The economy has contracted by almost 10 per cent in the past year and unemployment is 5 per cent, which for Singapore is a record high. Mr Goh's first task will be to attend the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Brunei, which aims, among other objectives, to create an ASEAN-China free-trade area that could become the biggest free-trade area in the world. The next most "urgent" task, according to Mr Goh, is to put in place a new team over the next five years. Mr Goh is expected to relinquish the prime ministership by 2007. His most likely successor is his deputy, Lee Hsien Loong, who just happens to be the son of the republic's founding leader, Lee Kuan Yew, now "Senior Minister" and still the real power in Singapore. Since its independence in 1965 Singapore, with few resources other than its people, has provided the world with a remarkable example of prosperous, orderly nation-building. Indeed, it is its prosperity and order that have allowed the Singaporeans to be fairly indifferent to notions of democracy and freedom. If banning chewing gum is one of the prices of a safe and comfortable society, then Singaporeans are happy to accept it. The worry is that disappearing jobs and reduced living standards might threaten that equilibrium. It is to be hoped Singapore does not have to cope with these in any large measure. |
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