{"id":17517,"date":"2017-07-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2017\/07\/18\/illiberal-democracy-and-the-future-of-opposition-in-singapore\/"},"modified":"2021-02-03T16:58:56","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T08:58:56","slug":"illiberal-democracy-and-the-future-of-opposition-in-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2017\/07\/18\/illiberal-democracy-and-the-future-of-opposition-in-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"Illiberal democracy and the future of opposition in Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo credit: “PAP Speech” from SRN’s SG Photobank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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One of the perennial questions asked concerning Singapore politics is that of the present and future role of the opposition. It is a question of ever increasing importance as the Old Guard of the ruling People\u2019s Action Party (PAP), so long known for its cautious – and some would say
\nrestrictive – approach to governance, has begun to fade into the political backdrop. In his article ‘Illiberal democracy and the future of opposition in Singapore’ (Third World Quarterly, 2000), Dr. Hussin Mutalib (formerly from the Dept of Political Science) nonetheless sheds light on several important aspects of Singapore\u2019s political landscape that the opposition can make use of in order to better influence on the country\u2019s future.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The first of these is an understanding of the PAP\u2019s philosophy of what he calls \u2018illiberal democracy\u2019, and the way in which its continued competent performance are used in tandem to impede the opposition. Mutalib then seeks to show that the PAP is not, as some may think, monolithic or invincible – that there are still cracks and fissures which have been less talked about. Nonetheless, he presents part of the party\u2019s history, whether they be the large-scale schisms that birthed the dominance of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew\u2019s faction or those that in modern times have seemed too small and insufficient to break the party\u2019s united front.<\/p>\n

He then reflects on the changing economic landscape of the world at large and the fact that a heavily-structured system like Singapore\u2019s may prove ill-equipped to react well to these changes. He points out that should opposition parties reform themselves in order to take advantage of the fractures that will likely arise as the Old Guard fades out and the government faces these new challenges, he believes that they stand a good chance in increasing their relevance within the country\u2019s political future.<\/p>\n

To learn more, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the perennial questions asked concerning Singapore politics is that of the present and future role of the opposition. It is a question of ever increasing importance as the Old Guard of the ruling People\u2019s Action Party (PAP), so long known for its cautious – and some would say restrictive – approach to governance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":17518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28132,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517\/revisions\/28132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}