Beware, the PAP is trying old tricks to con middle-ground voters ------------------------------------------------------------------- Threat / Framing the mind --------------------------- During the PAP’s 60th anniversary rally held yesterday, PM Lee Hsien Loong said that the next general election would be “a deadly serious fight” as it would be about who formed the government, and not how many parliamentary seats the opposition would win. While it might sound like the PM’s speech was meant to encourage his party members to work harder for the coming general election, seasoned politicians should have no problem identifying the PM was delivering a political message or threat to the middle-ground voters. Some strategists called it “framing the mind”, i.e. before your audience have a chance to start thinking about an issue, you fix a border in their minds and lead them to think along your way, so that they will arrive at the conclusion which you want them to hold. The PM’s speech, no doubt will be widely covered in local media, was intended to glue as much middle-ground voters’ attention as possible onto just one single, narrow question : “You can only choose either the PAP or an opposition party to be the next government, who is in a better position to be that next government?” Any naive voter who falls into the PM’s trap will start to think about which party has prior experience and the required resources to form a government. Coupled with the anticipated high profile grand celebrations of “SG 50” (on taxpayers’ money), you can guess which party this naïve voter will ultimately vote on polling day! Middle-ground Voters ----------------------- Why only targets at the middle-ground voters? As I had written on several occasions, neither the PAP hard-core voters nor Opposition loyal voters could, as a group by itself, produce a government; the middle-ground voters are the king-maker! Down right into the PAP’s bone, the ruling party knows that whatever it says, the PAP hard-core voters will always vote for its candidates and the Opposition die-hard supporters will never vote for the PAP. With this in mind, the PAP has all along recognised that it is highly unproductive to focus on hard-core supporters of either side, resources should therefore be deployed on winning (or conning) the middle-ground hearts! And most middle-ground voters are politically unsophisticated! They tend to be easily manipulated or blackmailed – a skill which the PAP is very good at, given the huge resources at its disposal! Opposition Parties ------------------ Personally, I think opposition parties should avoid clashing into the PM’s strategy, unless they strongly believe the Opposition Camp has successfully convinced the majority of middle-ground voters that it is ready to form a government – which I honestly believe most middle-ground voters don’t hold such a view at this moment. Hence, it would be silly of any opposition party to let itself get bogged down with issues relating to its readiness to govern Singapore. Given that no single opposition party is likely to contest all constituencies in the next general election, and there is no formal or concrete plan of opposition parties having agreed to forming a coalition government, it would perhaps seem more credible of each opposition party to pursue pragmatic strategies, focus on voters’ daily issues and impress upon middle-ground voters that things will undoubtedly get worse if they continue to vote for the PAP. When marketing party’s alternative policies ------------------------------------------ On the point of credibility, I noted some good opposition parties have been actively doing research on policies and formulating alternative proposals with the view to improve Singaporeans’ lives. Unfortunately, many middle-ground voters due to lack of political savvy do not seem to appreciate such great efforts. The usual comments made by them (and even some opposition supporters) were along this line, “Even you are elected, you will not be the government, why do you keep talking about your proposed policies? Get Real!!” I think the problem lies with communications – and it is important that such misunderstanding be avoided as far as possible because those opposition parties may be mistaken as lacking in credibility – in the eyes of middle-ground voters. Perhaps when marketing its proposed policies during election campaign, the opposition team should take care to emphasise the reasons why it is common for opposition parties to come out with alternative policies. Of course, I don’t think it is a good idea to let the PAP tied you down in long debates on the minute details of your alternative policies – another strategy often used by the PAP to hijack Opposition’s agenda. Management of Town Council --------------------------------- In view of the series of sorties carried out by National Environment Agency and Ministry of National Development against the town councils managed by WP since last general election, one should expect the PAP to stir up more fears among middle-ground voters that their residential estates will be under poor management should they vote in an opposition party. We trust the opposition parties would be able to come out with a simple and yet effective counter-strategy to address this line of attack. Never understand the fears or stupidity of middle-ground voters. Let’s all be vigilant ------------------- The PAP knows that the next general election will be fought on extremely bitter ground. It will come out with plenty of dirty tricks and underhand tactics to minimise its expected heavy losses. Both opposition parties and supporters must remain extra vigilant! cc. Kojak Bt
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 07:10:38 +0000
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