My Book Review

Been busy doing my assignments. Just completed a review on an interesting book about Singapore politics and the opposition parties.

The book is:

Mutalib, Hussin. (2003). PARTIES AND POLITICS: A Study of Opposition Parties and the PAP in Singapore. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press.

Here is a sample of what I wrote:

Hussin Mutalib provides essential scholarly work on the opposition parties in Singapore. Prior to this book, little was written on the Singaporean opposition parties, even though since 1950 there are more than 18 registered opposition parties in Singapore. The next best works are the edited chapters by Rodan (1996a) and Yeo (2002). The lack of scholarly attention can be attributed to the general view that there is little value in investigating the opposition parties in Singapore since they only play a small role in the Singapore political system. Since the People’s Action Party (PAP) came into power in 1959, the party has dominated Singapore politics and has not hesitated to use their power to suppress the opposition...

Mutalib has been comprehensive in his presentation of Singapore politics and the opposition parties, but one wonders why he did not address two pertinent questions. First, given that the PAP controls the system and has won the majority of the popular votes in all elections, why is the PAP so desperate to obtain all the popular votes? The PAP has uses many tactics to ensure that the opposition gets as little votes as possible. Why not concede more ground to the opposition, up to the one quarter mark? Second, and more importantly, how does the opposition find the strength to continue their fights? The system places restrictions on their support; the PAP undermines their authority by implementing the NMP scheme; the public thinks that they cannot achieve much. Yet, they continue to contest in every election. One would wonder what will happen when the oppositions do tire of their campaigns. Would it even make a difference to Singapore politics?