Nearly two years after the May 2011 watershed elections — when the ruling party’s popularity dipped to a historic low of 60.1 per cent and three office-holders were voted out — Singapore’s leaders have yet to come to grips with the angst sweeping the nation.
Two recent events show how the government is being blindsided. First, a blemish on the country’s proud 26-year record of having no strikes. Bus drivers from China refused to go to work; what made it worse was that their employer and the government never saw it coming.
Second, a seemingly innocuous statement by the Workers’ Party on why it did not perform well in an audit of town councils snowballed into issues of transparency, conflict of interest and the involvement of a company owned by the ruling People’s Action Party in business.
Then came the resignation of the speaker of Parliament because of an extramarital scandal. And the government’s crown-jewel achievement, stellar economic growth, is now under strain with the economy just escaping a technical recession. Full story
