Yes, I agree 100%. I have been an advocate of opposition alliance (not just merely opposition co-operation) for a while now.

What we need to do now as opposition supporters is to launch a writing campaign to write to all the opposition leaders urging them to unite under one banner.

When opposition leaders see their supporters urging them to unite, maybe this will spur them to do something.

I strongly believe that the oppositions have done all that can. An alliance is NOT going to help if you have a bunch of pathetic electorate (you and me) who only know how to complain. Hey you could have a alliance comprising of “God”, “Allah” and “Buddha” and it will still not win, if all you get is an electorate that do nothing but complain.

The electorate should stop being pathetic and get off their backside and start SUPPORTING opposition party. Stop expecting the oppositions (JBJ, Chee, etc) to make personal sacrifices, whiles the electorate do nothing but complaining.

[[1. i am talking the opposition’s performance AS OPPOSITION. not as government. have they done a good job AS OPPOSITION?]]

My answer to that is absolutely, 100%, YES!

You must have missed the tons of parliamentary speeches made by opposition MPs, the myriad of alternative policies proposed by various opposition parties. Not to mention the exposure of government failings and dirty tricks by the opposition.

[[2. given all government failures u listed , what guarantee that opposition will do a better job if they r trusted as government??]]

The guarantee is by the 2- or multi-party system. In the commercial world as in the political world, if there is a monopoly, the incumbent has no incentive to work hard for us the consumers. Once there is PROPER competition, the competitors will work hard for us. Thus ensuring that they do not make bad judgements, knowing that if they do, they will be voted out. Currently, there is no system to vote PAP. So let’s not kid ourselves about opposition forming the next government. I am happy if they can capture one or two GRCs. Forming the next government can slowly happen over the next one or two GEs.

[[gahmen’s bad policies are NOT proofs that opposition will produce better ones. opposition may well do WORSE if they take over.]]

But you don’t know that. The Japanese people has the guts to vote out the LDP due to its bad management, with ZERO ideas of DPJ. Are we so afraid of the unknown?

Anyway, as I said, opposition forming next government is a red herring. Once we have a genuine opposition (about 30% to 40% of MPs in parliament), I am sure PAP will wake up to serve us instead of ourselves. Despite my criticism of PAP, I do not believe they are pure evil. Well, if they are, they will be eventually voted out anyway.

[[for me, the only acceptable line of argument to justify voting for opposition is
“opposition has done excellent in their job AS OPPOSITION. they have consistently voiced out viable alternatives policies, and their critics of gahmen policies have time n again proven to be true”.

again, how has the opposition perform AS OPPOSITION??]]

Well, isn’t that true now?

I guess my question to you should be : in what way has the opposition (given their current resource and numbers) not done their job? Have you gone to the estates of Hougang and PP to take a look? Have you ever watch any of the parliamentary debates conducted by opposition?

Imagine a product being developed that does not go through safety and quality checks. Do you think that is good? Currently, that is what is happening. Then you blame the QC people they are doing a bad job when you should have staffed 20-30 QC guys there instead of only 2-3 and blamed them for doing a bad job.

Think about it.

In Singapore context, it can be done under the umbrella of existing SDA, which is an alliance of 4 small parties. Unfortunately for SDA, one party has quit (NSP), one party has been absorbed (SJP) and one party is now in political limbo (PKMS). So really SDA is no different from the main party SPP.

Either SDA start getting WP, SDP and RP to join it and NSP to re-join, or these 5 big parties to form a new alliance, for lack of better term, let’s call it ABC alliance.

ABC alliance then should contest in the upcoming alliance with :-

1.) One alliance platform (culled from the common items of each party’s manifesto)
2.) One alliance resource (candidates of each party can mix and match to form a GRC team, as done in SDA before)
3.) One alliance brand.

This way, opposition voters cannot be choosy. They either have to vote for PAP or the opposition alliance. Most will likely vote for the alliance as they hate PAP.

Some fence sitter or even former PAP voters will also vote for such an alliance as it will be seemed to be more credible and organised. Not many people want to support the small guy but they will definitely look up when the small guys banded up to become a big guy.

We have to take it one step at a time. First get the votes and get more opposition MPs into parliament first. The rest will attend to itself.

All you need to do is to look north to see how PR did it. Malaysia has not descend into chaos yet and in fact it is getting better.

If we fail to do this, then one day, we truly will be begging to admit back to the Malaysian federation (it may not even be a bad thing).

Er, do you not realise that the oppositions, like I said in my last reply to Kelvin, that an alliance as defined by Kelvin has already been in place since the agreement on “the bye-election” strategy. Ever since, the opposition has avoid a three-cornered fight. So the real problem is the electorate (you and me).

Quite often the electorate will be saying they want to punish the PAP but when it comes to the vote, they will then vote for the status quo. Then the usual excuse oh, this party is too radical, that party is not credible, so on and so on.

The time for the opposition has come. Please unite and take your place in parliament.

Perhaps u shld just address the ISSUES & QUESTIONS raised, examples given in that post u are replying, instead of regurgitating the well worn excuses and avoiding/side skirting……not really a DEBATE, is it, just like the wayang in Parliament.

Er why is an alliance between the opposition parties consider a dream scenario?

The oppositions have already been operating in the form of alliance as you have defined in your footnote for many years since the implementation of the “by-election” strategy. So they have already been in a alliance for oh at least 20 years now. So clearly not a dream!

The real problem is not whether they work as an alliance or not. The real problem is whether people want to vote for them!

Given the kind of attitude that exists the title of your blog should be: “Will the people vote for all the election parties standing this time: a dream to far!”

Hate to say this but I think you need to do more research. Argument seemed very weak.

1. i am talking the opposition’s performance AS OPPOSITION. not as government. have they done a good job AS OPPOSITION?

2. given all government failures u listed , what guarantee that opposition will do a better job if they r trusted as government??

gahmen’s bad policies are NOT proofs that opposition will produce better ones. opposition may well do WORSE if they take over.
for me, the only acceptable line of argument to justify voting for opposition is
“opposition has done excellent in their job AS OPPOSITION. they have consistently voiced out viable alternatives policies, and their critics of gahmen policies have time n again proven to be true”.

again, how has the opposition perform AS OPPOSITION??