PAP’s image problem: a repressive, bullying and intolerant party

At a gathering of friends today at our HQ (coffee shop), someone said with exasperation, “Now then PAP MPs dare open their mouths, and talk about what went wrong in the General Election.”

Party-whip notwithstanding, if there were serious concerns affecting the PAP, they should have had the moral courage to speak up. 

Now that the PM has spoken up
and even apologized, PAP MPs feel obliged to jump onto the bandwagon and have their say as well.

The public see them simply as Yes-men, trust me. Over time a culture of groupthink had evolved though the ruling party has denied this is the case. 

With more than 80 MPs in the last Parliament, you would have expected one or two PAP MPs to have had the guts and moral courage to speak up but sadly all preferred to play safe, not to rock the boat and simply chorused Yes, Minister!

Call me cynical if you like, but unless PAP undergoes a sea change and be less repressive, bullying and intolerant of dissent, it’s just rhetoric all this talk about what went amiss and how to rectify them. 

If the tide was strong in GE 2011, it might be a tsunami come GE 2016. Dismiss it as wishful thinking at your peril.