Tin Pei Ling effect

On the moment PAP announced Tin Pei Ling, it has created a storm of negative comments within netizens. The PAP leaders and the medias think that's because of her young age. They got it all wrong! There are many young and capable people around, and being young doesn't deserved to be bashed. It's also not because of Kate Spade bag. Who in this country doesn't have luxury stuffs. Have one or two of these doesn't deserve to be bashed too. Definitely not stomping the feets or universal studio. These are just moments of immaturity behavior and answer.

So, what has got onto the nerves of everyone? It's the answers she gave when was asked about her views of the education and medical in Singapore. For both of these questions, her answers is both of them are affordable in Singapore. If she were also asked about the cost of livings, housing price, everyone could have also guessed what her answers will be like. Education and medical costs are amongst one of the highest concerns of Singaporeans. Saying these are affordable, gives people the perception of either or both of the following:

1. She is disconnected from the ground and doesn't understand the concern of common people.
2. She lacks the courage to speak her own personal views, if that might go against the party policy.

What people want is someone who will speak up for them. People don't need another PAP MP to echo what the rest are saying. Putting her at Marine Parade doesn't help this. It only makes thing worst as this is like she will be in parliament by default.

Now she is in parliament, nothing could change no matter how unhappy the people is. We will be seeing her in parliament for the next 5 years. SM Goh has mentioned that we will see her very differently in 3 years time.
Now, she will be under tremendous pressure to try to prove herself. Changing a negative image isn't that easy, especially she has generated so much dissatisfaction. Performing as good as a normal MP doesn't help. She has to perform better than that. People will want to see her speaking for them, especially when debating policy that affects the people. Does she has the capability and courage to do that? Time will tell. Doing well in McPherson alone won't be enough as the dissatisfaction is country wide.

PAP will also be under much pressure to make sure she proves a credible candidate. If she doesn't improve within the next 5 years, PAP network of candidate recruitment will be an easy target for the opposition in the next election. Voters will also have more doubts on the new candidates they introduce.

Will she becomes the achilles heel of PAP?

佘雪玲效应

这一届的大选出了一位亮丽的新星- 佘雪玲。可能有人会说，若佘雪玲在单选区或其他的集选区竟选，她可能已经当选了。那国民团结党的吴明盛是不是该负起这策略上的疏失呢？我倒觉得吴明盛在这一点是成功的。这股佘雪玲旋风还有其他的客观因素存在的。

先说发掘这名新人，若排除其他的侥幸成份，那吴明盛的眼光是值得我们赞赏的。 在提名日之前，没人会料到佘雪玲这股风暴会刮得这么热烈，现在来说国民团结党在选举的排阵失误，就有点事后孔明了。

真的把佘雪玲派去競选其他的区就能胜出吗？那可不一定。国民团结党推出佘雪玲是在人民行动党推出陈佩玲之后。那时陈佩玲已经在选民间刮起了一股不满的情绪。在这时推出另一位年轻的女性候选人让人民有个比较，把她放在马林百烈集选区就变成理所当然的了。 国民团结党是不是有这个想法就不得而知了。

佘雪玲会得到这么多的支持，或多或少该感谢陈佩玲。当人民对一方的不满情绪越高，给另一方的支持也就越高， 这是对比的， 也是人的普遍心理。当得不到自己所需要的，人们就会倾向于在其他的地方寻找，佘雪玲就给了人们这另一心理寄托。照着一论点延续下来，若没陈佩玲，或佘雪玲在另一区竟选，她所得到的观注就很有可能没这么高了。

但国民团结党也没完全失败。输掉马林百烈集选区是在意料之中的，但在这次的选举中却发掘了一位亮眼的新星。 佘雪玲在这短短的一个月里，已经表现出她的热忱，大无畏，敢怒敢言的个性。她的领导才能更是让人侧目，假以时日， 她必能在新加坡的政坛发光发亮。 国民团结党现在起应立即给她适当的栽培， 人们将很期待五年后的佘雪玲。

GRC - a double edge sword

When GRC was implemented, it was definitely a fortress for PAP. That was the time when opposition was not strong and were unable to field a strong team to have a chance of winning a GRC. PAP just have to field one or two ministers in a GRC and fill the rest with who ever they gather. Votes vote for the team mainly because of the anchored minister, and less because of the rest.

In this election, things have changed. Opposition parties are now able to attract talents to join them and form a team with a realistic chances of winning. Also, it is rather obvious now that field a weak member can pull down the votes even if the anchored minister is a heavyweight.

By losing Aljunied to WP, PAP will be facing an uphill task to try to win that back in the next election. Firstly, WP will be working extra hard to try to secure this GRC. As can be seen from Hougang, they are capable of getting the support from the resident. Even if the elected minister decided to move out of Hougang, the support for his successor is still there.

PAP is in a difficult situation now. To win Aljunied back, PAP will need to field a strong team, probably with 1 or 2 minister (or minister capability). Which current minister will want to risk their career by going to contest in Aljunied. Will PAP risks another minister to try to win back Aljunied? The stake will be very high, as this might mean losing another minister. Even if PAP field the PM, SM, or MM, it is still not a guarantee that they will win back Aljunied in 2016. Without taking this risk, and thus fielding a "normal" team, chances of winning will be slim. This will be a difficult question for PAP leader to try to solve.

Opposition parties will be more confident on contesting in GRC. The formula is simple, gather a few reputable candidates, form a A team, and focus on one GRC. If WP can manage Aljunied well, then voters in other GRC will start to know that having an opposition parties to represent them isn't a bad choice. So, in election 2016, we can probably see numerous strong opposition team contest in many GRCs.

PAP's Marine Parade number of votes isn't that impressive. PAP probably loses some votes due to fielding a candidate which was not recognize by the public as one that has the quality to be a MP. This new trend shows to all parties that even if you have a strong anchor candidate in a GRC, other candidates play a part too. Selection of candidate has to be more careful in future, as fielding an incapable candidate can really bring the whole team down, even losing the election.