Now that I’m home and finally sitting down, my body is reminding me that the last election rally I attended was 10 years ago. Turns out there’s a difference between standing in a field all night at age 26 and doing the same thing at age 36. But it’s okay; if Tan Cheng Bock can hit the campaign trail in his 80s I can survive attending rallies and writing newsletters! 💪🏼 💪🏼 💪🏼
I’ve thought about it and this is what we’re going to do: every night, I’ll write a wrap summing up the day’s highlights, plus a reflection on whichever rally I attended/watched on a livestream. (I'm hoping to go to a rally in person every night, RIP my legs.) This means there’ll be a new issue of We, The Citizens sitting in your inbox every morning to catch you up on the previous day/night’s events, all the way until Cooling-Off Day.
Highlights
Beware bots and misinformation!
CNA reports detecting suspicious online behaviour involving bots, targeting both the People’s Action Party and the Workers’ Party. The Ministry of Digital Development and Information says it’s looking into it. Elections are prime time for this sort of funny business, which is why media literacy and critical thinking is really important.
Much ado about GST
The Goods and Services Tax, raised by the PAP to 9% at the beginning of 2024, is a major sticking point in GE2025. Multiple opposition parties propose reducing the GST or, at the very least, exempting it for essential items like basic food items or medicine. Responding to this, K Shanmugam, the anchor minister of PAP’s Nee Soon GRC team, argued that GST takes “from the top” and redistributes it to everyone:
The GST is primarily paid by the top income earners. The top 20 per cent pay most of it… If someone goes to a restaurant and pays S$100, he pays S$9 in GST. If someone goes to a hawker centre and pays S$10, they pay 90 cents in GST. That S$9 is taken by the government and redistributed to those who are having the S$10 meals.
Okayyyy... while it's true that rich people probably pay more in dollar amounts, the GST is a regressive tax, which means that it imposes a larger burden on lower-income households. While someone who pays $100 in a restaurant pays more in GST, a person who chooses to eat in a restaurant like that can also afford the $9 tax. But for someone who goes to the hawker centre because that's all they can afford, that extra 90 cents could be a big deal.
Here's another example: A person who buys a $7,800 diamond necklace from Tiffany & Co. can pay another $702 in GST for it because (1) the necklace isn't essential for survival so, if they find it too expensive, they can simply not buy it, and (2) if they still decided to buy it, then they're wealthy enough to afford that GST. But a poor family or single mother with a baby can't decide to not buy rice or infant formula because those are needs, not wants. When the price goes up because of GST, they can't just turn around and walk away—they have no choice but to struggle with that financial burden and things add up very quickly. GST or CDC vouchers are only temporary aids that don't solve the fundamental problem.
This is the issue with GST. This is why people are feeling the pressure and hurting. But maybe someone who lives in a Ridout Road GCB can't understand that.
When you point a finger at someone, three fingers point back at you
Delivering his first rally speech of GE2025, the PAP’s Ong Ye Kung demanded that the SDP’s Chee Soon Juan provide a better explanation as to why he “abandoned Bukit Batok to come to Sembawang West”. He attacked Chee for describing Sembawang West SMC as “a lonely island” cut off from the rest of Sembawang, saying that such a portrayal was politically beneficial for the SDP secretary-general who'd made a “calculated political move” to contest in Sembawang West.
Ong first entered politics in 2011 as part of the PAP team that contested in Aljunied GRC and lost. In the next election in 2015, he abandoned Aljunied and joined the PAP’s Sembawang GRC team instead.
Chee is unable to contest in Bukit Batok because Bukit Batok SMC—where he’d stood for election in the 2016 by-election and 2020 general election—has been absorbed into the new Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC and no longer exists. Chee, a politician, therefore made his calculations and decided he’d have a higher chance of winning a seat in Parliament if he stood in another SMC rather than pour his party’s limited resources into fielding a team in a GRC many times larger than his original turf. He did this because trying to win a seat in Parliament is his literal job as a politician.
As for characterising Sembawang West as “cut off from the rest of Sembawang town”, that's because the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee carved Sembawang West out as an SMC this year. Sembawang West has indeed been “cut off”; this is demonstrated by the fact that the voters of Sembawang West cannot vote for Ong because he is the anchor minister of Sembawang GRC, an entirely different constituency from Sembawang West SMC.
I hope this clears it up for Ong and that he spends the rest of his campaign time being more respectful of Singaporeans’ memory and intelligence.
Party political broadcasts
Keep an eye out for the first of two batches of party political broadcasts today. Eight parties will be delivering messages on these broadcasts. The Infocomm Media Development Authority has allocated time to each party based on the number of candidates it’s fielding. This means that parties fielding fewer candidates—like the Singapore Democratic Party and the National Solidarity Party—only get four minutes per language broadcast, whereas the WP gets six minutes per language broadcast and the PAP gets 14 minutes per language broadcast. This makes zero sense to me because every political party campaigns with one manifesto regardless of the number of candidates it’s fielding. Why should the PAP get more than double the amount of time the WP gets—and more than three times the amount of time the SDP gets—to talk about its platform?
Rally Reflections: SDP at Choa Chu Kang Stadium
My first rally of GE2025 was SDP's at Choa Chu Kang Stadium, where all the party's candidates spoke. Although it was nowhere near the massive crowd that turned up at WP's rally in Sengkang, there was quite a steady stream of people entering the stadium from 7pm onwards. To raise funds for their GE war chest, volunteers sold Chee Soon Juan's books, flags, fans, clappers, "Tak Boleh Tahan" T-shirts and a range of Danny the Democracy Bear plushies. (I now own plushie merch from the three main opposition parties in Singapore 😎)
As expected, the cost of living (and the aforementioned GST) was a big topic of focus among the speakers. There was plenty of criticism of the "rules of the game—gerrymandering, the timing of the election, the overall disadvantage that opposition parties face. But there was a deeper, more fundamental thread running through the night: the sense that Singapore isn't as it should be, that Singaporeans aren't doing so well, and that we still have to fight to make sure those with power actually listen to us and work for our interests.
Ariffin Sha used his speech to hammer home a message: it's not just about winning or losing, it's also about the margin of victory. The SDP's youngest candidate, who's part of the team going head-to-head with Prime Minster Lawrence Wong and his PAP team, isn't delulu about the SDP's prospects in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC. He knows they're highly unlikely to triumph but points out that how Wong wins can make a big difference—and that this applies to the PAP's performance across Singapore, too. "A PAP that wins with 80% of the vote is very different from a PAP that wins with 60% of the vote," he declared. If Singaporeans want a PAP that's more attentive and responsive to our needs and desires, then we shouldn't let them win too comfortably.
The final two speeches of the evening—delivered by the SDP's stars Paul Tambyah and Chee Soon Juan—urged Singaporeans to overcome fear and strive for democratisation. "The more you fear, the worse your quality of life," Chee warned, before launching into a series of immensely quotable exhortations:
"The PAP offers fear; we offer hope."
"They say 'be careful'; we say 'be courageous!'"
"They say 'stand in line'; we say 'break free!'"
And my favourite, especially considering what I wrote in the Nomination Day wrap: "They say, 'This is as good as it gets.' We say, 'Just wait till we rise together.'"
The SDP is working at full-tilt, with not-very-much in terms of resources, in a very tight timeframe. Their operations aren't as sleek or well-oiled as WP's looks at the moment. But, as someone who knows multiple SDP candidates and volunteers personally—including Ariffin, Paul and Dr Chee—I can attest to the party's doggedness and earnest desire to work for a better Singapore. I don't always agree with the SDP or its individual members, but in my interactions with them I've never been shut down, even if they might not have liked what I had to say. And, over the years, I've seen Paul show up again and again and again in support of civil society and independent media, even (especially) when there was no one to notice or give him credit for it.
We, The Citizens isn't endorsing any party or candidate because, let's face it, I'm just one person with one person's opinions for you to take or leave as you see fit. But I'm perfectly comfortable with saying that I think Paul Tambyah and Chee Soon Juan should be in Parliament, and that I hope the voters of Bukit Panjang and Sembawang West GRCs will give them that chance this year.
Update log: I've added the National Solidarity Party and Singapore United Party's manifestos so we have everyone except Darryl Lo, the independent candidate!
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