THE TEMASEK REVIEW

By Fang Zhi Yuan, Chief Editor

According to SDP’s website, Mr Tan Kin Lian will be gracing its event at Hong Lim Park on 31st December 2008 with a speech.

SDP will be holding a New Year Eve Countdown at Hong Lim Park where it will be lining up a panel of speakers to honor the memory of the late J.B. Jeyaretnam.

While fellow opposition leaders Mr Low Thia Kiang and Mr Chiam See Tong have been avoiding SDP as a plague, it is indeed gentlemanly and courageous of Mr Tan to accept SDP’s invitation to speak at their event.

Undoubtably, SDP is the only true blue opposition party left in Singapore which dares to confront the ruling elites heads on.

On principles and paper alone, Dr Chee Soon Juan should have become the de facto opposition leader in Singapore.

Though I do not consider myself a SDP supporter, I will gladly cast my vote for them should they contest in my constituency in the next General Election, but with an impending bankruptcy suit looming over their heads, will SDP still be in existence by then ?

While I respect SDP for their conviction and determination, they remained unelectable at the ballot box. In fact, Dr Chee has already given up on the electoral process as a viable route to effect much needed changes in the system.

In spite of the controversies enshrouding the non-violent activism it espouses, SDP did force the government to yield some ground in the recent token permitting of outdoor protests at Hong Lim Park.

Unfortunately in the long-term, SDP is unlikely to win any more new fans. The crowd attending its countdown at Hong Lim Park will indicate how far it will go in the next few years.

By associating himself with SDP, Mr Tan is sending out the message that he does agree with some of the political methods being employed by the SDP.

Will this be an asset or hindrance to Mr Tan’s own political ambitions in the future should he decide to run for public office ?

What Mr Tan needs now is both a political vehicle and a grassroots machinery to lay down the ground work for him.

Being in the PAP for 30 years, he should be more aware than anybody else of the importance of having grassroots support to organize an election campaign.

There is already a “Volunteers for TKL” group which is charged with collecting signatures for his petition to run for public office from which he can build and expand upon.

As for the political platform, Mr Tan could well afford to set up a new party on his own or join an existing one, perhaps the now rudderless Reform Party founded recently by J.B. Jeyaretnam before his untimely demise with little or no political baggage.

Mr Tan is one of the few high-profile establishment figures who have crossed over to the “opposition” in recent years (if opposition is the correct word to use). It is a coup for SDP to have him speak at their event. However, will Mr Tan’s urbane middle class supporters continue to stick with him if he continues to lean further towards SDP ?

If Mr Tan has indeed set his sights on running for political office, he must remove all possible obstacles in his path on the parliamentary route. Unless he intends to stay an activist all his life, it is neither pragmatic or wise to be labelled as part of the “SDP gang” by the state media.

Both the electoral process and extra-parliamentary activism play equally important roles in breaking the PAP’s political monopoly and they are not mutually exclusive of each other.

Without civic consciousness and activism, an uninformed and naive electorate will always be swayed by the carrots and stick approach adopted by the PAP. With no MPs in Parliament, there will be no independent voices to provide an effective check and balance on the government.

To put it bluntly, SDP needs credible moderates like Mr Tan more than Mr Tan needs them. Mr Tan’s kind gesture to SDP will surely win him the support of hardcore opposition voters, but he needs to ensure that he does not ailenate the middle ground at the same time in doing so.

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