I posted these reflections and comments on my personal Instagram page, during and after the 2025 Singapore Parlimentary Elections. For archival purposes, they are saved here.

Disclaimer

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my educational institution or employer.

On trade-offs (29 April 2025)

Just some personal thoughts. feel free to disagree

One.

Don’t believe them when they say theres no trade-offs in voting opposition as PAP will return to government. Simple math will tell us why. 97 seats - 49 to form government (51%) Considering only the 3 largest opp: WP (26) + PSP (13) + SDP (11) = 50 If these 3 parties win wherever they contest (and they are not in any multi corner fight against each other) becos residents think theres “no trade-off”, you’ll call Pritam Singh the PM on 4 May as leader of a coalition government. So before you vote thinking to play political games, think again. You should really just vote for who you want to form government. Whether you want a PAP government or a WP-led coalition. And before you think coalition sounds like a good idea, look around in the world…

Two.

Now given that all opp parties in SG claim that they are not gonna form government, I don’t see how voting them into parliament is gonna make your life any easier. They are not going to be the policymaker (unless it becomes scenario 1 above^). All they’re gonna be are noise makers in parliament complaining and offering “alternative” populist ideas that no one knows if they actually work. As PM says “all the seats and none of the responsibility”. Now assuming we have 1/3 opp MPs, if the cost of living doesn’t get lower, you’re still gonna blame the PAP gov. So its not like voting opp to be “check and balance” is gonna really solve anything. Rather you should vote for the party that is intending to do something, the party that actually wants to govern (unless again u actually want a coalition government).

With a stronger government, SG will be taken more seriously in the world, and theres a higher chance of anything becoming better, as opposed to more noisy people in the room. Its like your group project of 97 ppl, would you rather have more doers or more ppl to “check” your work and give you alternatives?

Who’s actually working for Singapore? Vote for the people you

On the best team forward (1 May 2025)

The hypothesized change from a PAP government to a WP (or PSP) government is highly unlikely to be within the next 5-10 years, until someone other than PAP actively tries to become the government.

Until it happens, are we satisfied with 5-10 years of subpar PAP performance because we chose future changemakers over current experience? Can we tolerate 5-10 years of subpar policy and policy implementation, because we deliberately weakened the first team and allowed them to be replaced by those with less experience?

Even Man Utd and Tottenham crumbled within 1 season, with absenteeism of first team players. No doubt the reserves and u21s are promising, but you can’t replace experience so easily and expect performance.

I think until the substitutes and reserves are ready to play for the first team, we should just keep the best players in, as much as possible.

On unity and voting preferences (4 May 2025)

Singapore chose stability in an uncertain world, and l’m relieved that we decided its not the time for political experimentation. We also strongly rejected the mosquito parties, which shows that we mostly don’t vote opposition for the sake of doing so.

There’s no point being bitter about the close election results, and we can exercise out civic duty again in 5 years, IF we feel the government hasn’t done right by Singaporeans.

Now its time to get behind the PAP government, unite as Singaporeans and work together for Singapore. Remember that PAP’s wins are now Singapore’s wins.

i think its a fallacy to say “dont complain for the next 5 years because we voted for this party or that party”. Granted we shouldn’t be complaining anyway (count your blessings!)

but voting for party A doesn’t mean that one is in full agreement or has full confidence in party A. It could be that party B doesn’t seem to be any better or doesnt command more confidence.