PAP balks
at splitting up to create an opposition
South China Morning Post. November 18, 1999
BARRY PORTER in Singapore
THE dominant People's Action Party (PAP)
has been pondering whether to split in two to provide the republic with
a more credible opposition, but balked at the idea.
"We've gone through this not once, but several times, whether for Singapore's good, it would be better to split the PAP ourselves," Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong reveals in a book to be launched on Sunday to mark the party's 45th anniversary.
In four decades of PAP rule, conventional opposition parties have never been able to muster more than a handful of parliamentary seats.
In the 1997 general election they won just two.
PAP's elders are now questioning whether their continuing total dominance is healthy, given mounting demand among young Singaporeans for greater public debate.
However, they have decided in favour of maintaining the status quo.
Mr Goh said: "Supposing we split ourselves on purpose so that there is an alternative party made up of equally good men. And then you contest on the basis of personality, ability to articulate ideas, some differences of views on policies, their timing and implementation, but essentially we agree on the basics.
"Then we asked ourselves, look at the cabinet, supposing we decide so-and-so leads one faction, and then the other faction remains behind, would that be better for Singapore?"
This may appear better for Singapore, but it would divide the pool of available ministerial talent, said Mr Goh, who took over as PAP secretary-general from its founder Lee Kuan Yew in 1991. "You need one good team," he said.
The PAP has been continuously in power since elections in May 1959, shortly before Britain granted Singapore self-governing status.
The party was founded in November 1954 by a group of English-educated professionals.
When in 1961 a merger between peninsular Malaysia and Singapore was sanctioned, tension arose between moderate and radical wings of the party leading to the defection of the latter who formed the Barisan Sosialis party (Socialist Front).
For a short period after the split, Barisan Sosialis gave the impression of being an alternative government before fading away.
The PAP's founder and first secretary-general Mr Lee went on to reign as prime minister for 31 years.
His eldest son, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, now widely expected to succeed Mr Goh as PAP secretary-general and prime minister in 2002, cannot foresee an early end to one-party rule.
"We are not likely to end up with two equally plausible parties, unless something very drastic happens," said Mr Lee, the PAP's first assistant secretary-general in the same anniversary book For People Through Action By Party.
Independent political analysts tend to agree.
Kevin Tan, a constitutional law lecturer at the University of Singapore, said: "There is no doubt that single party dominance will continue for some time yet. The impetus for change is not there yet."