For WP, the challenge of great expectations

• Main Author: EUGENE, Tan K. B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Social Influence and Political Communication
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3761; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/5719/viewcontent/TODAY_20130201_1.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

SMU Assistant Professor of Law Eugene Tan commented on the Workers’ Party’s (WP) rapidly rising political stock and analysed its future. In many ways, the WP has been able to capitalise on the fading lustre of one-party dominance, as well as on a growing demand for a healthy opposition parliamentary presence as an enabler of good governance and to make the Government more responsive. But now, flush with success, the WP has wasted no time in deftly managing growing expectations. Also, WP has to carve out its own brand in politics to win votes in its own right. It needs to go beyond merely criticising policy flaws and raising parliamentary questions, and will have to manage its selection process carefully even as it receives a groundswell of interest. In short, the WP has to win votes in its own right — rather than gain votes that are cast against the PAP.