It was a new and unpleasant experience for Singapore’s First Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. While visiting the Ping Yi Secondary School counting centre on election night,Sept. 3,some supporters of the opposition Workers’ Party started jeering him. A week later the incident was still fresh in his mind as he told reporters that most of the booing seemed to come from young ethnic Malay Singaporeans.
Then came an uncharacteristically blunt warning from Goh,who is also deputy secretary-general of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP):Malays had better come forward with more visible support in future if they wanted the best service from the government. “If you think that the PAP is a fair government,that the PAP can look after your interests better,you’ve got to signal to us that you want us,” he added.
Was Goh,who is generally well-liked by Malays,being over-sensitive? Certainly some of the country’s leading Malays thought so. “The booing of candidates from other political parties in the run-up to the voting is a practice commonly resorted to by some candidates and their supporters.” noted prominent academic Hussein Mutalib in a letter to a local newspaper.
But Goh said that the early feedback from the grassroots after the election indicated that significant numbers of Malays had voted against the government which won 63.2% of valid votes cast. He went on to hint that the government might not proceed with the funding of Mendaki,a program to advance social and economic assistance to Malays,who make up a disproportionate number of Singapore’s low-income earners. Singapore Malay National Organisation secretary-general Mohamed Awang said his organisation viewed “with deepest regret and concern” the possibility of no funding for Mendaki. Goh’s remarks,Mohamed added,were “an invalid generalisation,unsupported by facts” and “totally unwarranted.”
The PAP’s own “feedback chief,” MP Tan Cheng Bock,also questioned whether Malays,who make up about 15% of Singapore’s 2.6 –million – people,were defecting in disproportionate numbers. The booing on election night,he said,“must have hit (Goh) hard.” Tan said he would not have secured a 70%,margin in his own constituency without the support of Malays.
Ten Malays were elected to Parliament in the recent election,many of them from the new “group representation constituencies,” in which candidates stood in teams of three of whom at least one member had to be from a minority race. The GRCs,says the government,were specifically created to ensure that Malays and other minorities were fairly represented in Parliament.
Still,many Malays have felt their loyalty questioned in the past,particularly by remarks by officials that Malays played a small role in the military because their religious feelings might be at odds with the national interest.
Some political observers believe that the government,mindful that its share of the vote has been falling in successive elections,may be trying to prod Malays back into the fold. If so,whether the strategy will work is hard to say. “Such an approach may be counter-productive” said letter-writer Hussein,“particularly if the Malays perceive such a remark as a veiled threat to them to support the PAP or else.”
Source:Strait Times 7 Oct 1988
