Some are expecting high cost of living and policies that seem to neglect interest of Singaporeans to make a serious dent on the ruling People's Acton Party’s majority. The timing of the court case of opposition Minority Leader Pritam Singh, for lying under oath, is seen as a political move by PAP. On the other hand, the political, social and cultural upheavals in the Western world, escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russo-Ukraine war, as well as the China-Taiwan tension, paint a very apprehensive landscape on the economic horizon for Singapore. The unnerving externalities should bear more heavily on the minds of practical Singaporeans. In times of great uncertainties, it’s natural human behaviour to cling to the familiar.
How familiar are we actually about the choice of political parties we have? What do we know of their ideologies, goals, and policy priorities? The labels of party types readily helps one to have a sense of what an organisation is all about.
Communist Party:
They believe in public ownership of properties and means of production, a classless society working for the government which is owned by them, no suffrage and a centrally planned economic system. Klaus Schwab’s ‘own nothing and be harpy’. Communist Party of China of often quoted as an example, but they have evolved and no longer recognisable as such.
Socialist Party:
They believe in social justice, economic equality, and the welfare state. Policies are wealth redistribution, universal healthcare, and workers' rights. Tend to have large government (because they get involved in running in people’s live.) Sometimes they add ‘Democracy' to their name to ‘Socialist Democratic Party' to let it be known they are not full-fledged communists. Labour Party is an example.
Liberal Party: Basic ideology is a belief in individual rights, freedoms, and equality. Policies skew towards democratic governance, free market balanced with various social support systems. The Democrat Party of US is an example.
Libertarian Party:
Very strong on individual liberty, limited government, and free-market, tending towards laissez fare. One could say more idealistic inclination.
Conservative Party:
Conservatives are all for tradition, order, and stability. They advocate free-market competition, small government, support social conservatism and generally get out of the way how people live their lives and run their business. An example is the Republican Party in the US.
Nationalist Party:
They prioritize national sovereignty and cultural identity. Policies tend to be protectionist and race or religion biased. An example is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India.
Fascist Party:
Their ideology is subordination of individual interests for the betterment of the nation or race. It manifests in a dictatorial, military regime, regimental society and forceful and violent suppression of opposition. This form was popular in 20th century Europe. Example was Mussolini's National Fascist Party.
Labels provide basic understanding, but in reality, all parties have some components of other parties. Foremost is the fact parties all naturally have a national sovereign interest. And within each party there is a spectrum of Centre, Left and Right. For example, for Liberals, going more to the Left means more towards Socialism and a controlled society, ie totalitarianism. Going to the Right is a move towards lesser government controls ie smaller government, more capitalistic. This Leftist, Rightist and Centrist friction is a source of internal power struggles.
The Fascist party is a nasty label no party will name themselves that because of its association with Adolf Hitler. It is a label that others will accuse a party of. In the mirror politics of the US, the Democrats and Republicans accuse each other of being Fascists. But neither are correct. Fascist is a combination of Socialism and Ultra nationalism. In fact, Adolf Hitler’s party was National Socialist German Worker’s Party. Nazi is short form for Nationalsozialistische (National Socialist). Republicans are averse to Socialism. The Democrats are anything but nationalists as evidenced in their anti-American policies such as open borders. The diatribe is Democrats insist Trump is dictatorial and his MAGA supporters are similar to Mussolini's blackshirts (disregarding Trump has been in office for 4 years and he sent no political opponent to jail), whilst on the other hand, the Biden admin is veering towards dictatorship with suppression of free speech, lawfare against Republicans and their supporters, anti-Christian policies, etc.
Three other party labels have not been mentioned. These are the Green Party which is simply a party of environmentalists, Religious parties such as India’s BJP and Race parties such as Malaysia’s UMNO. Religious and Race parties are in the nature of ultra-nationalists.
In our part of the world, political parties are not in the main born out of ideological convictions in the political spectrum but more on racial, religious, and tribal loyalties, and personality cults.
Coming back home to Singapore, which label best associates each brand of political party. We can only do so based on actions and speeches made.
Statism is a doctrine that political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. Meaning in the people's relationship with the state, the government has the right to impose obligations on citizens, by coercion, if necessary. On the spectrum of statism, PAP is on the extreme right as it believes a strong, authoritative state is necessary to enforce moral and cultural values. Thus the party has a tendency to swing more to the Authoritative Right of the Political Spectrum.
PAP ideology is democracy with a hierarchical society based on meritocracy. He who plants the corn gets to eat it. This comes with the acceptance inequality is inevitable but which is mitigated by social safety nets. Hard work and education is seen as a leveler.
PAP supports open market capitalism. In a capitalistic market, almost all governments play a regulatory and interventionist roles to make sure all players behave. PAP practices a form of economic statism called dirigisme which is a doctrine where the state goes beyond regulatory and interventionist roles. It plays a directive role over the market economy. It plans the direction for the market and incentivises market participants to fulfill state objectives. This means dishing out billions of dollars in grants and subsidies as well as spending massively on building the infrastructure to attract market players. These policies often meant substantial investment in setting up state corporations in strategic domestic sectors.
On the political spectrum I would put PAP to the right of the Conservative Party towards Authoritarianism. But it presents some conflicting nature. It tends to the right but it evolves bigger government due to dirigisme that requires more state participation in the market.
The opposition parties are unknown quantities. I would think Workers Party, Progress Singapore Party and Singapore Democratic Party are pure Socialist parties. Chee Soon Juan's SDP possibly has a liberal streak. The Reform Party, People’s Power Party, and People’s Voice I see more as activist groupings. The other parties I have no idea at all.
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