Opinion | Singapore election: NCMP scheme lets losers win but at what price?
- Singapore’s non-constituency MP scheme was devised to satisfy voters wanting a PAP government but also elected opposition to keep them in check
- But is there a Catch-22 when ‘best losers’ among opposition candidates accept the role?
Very few Singaporeans would remember M.P.D. Nair, a unique political figure long forgotten and reduced to the footnotes of history. He was a former opposition politician with the Workers’ Party (WP), who had the honour of being the best loser in the 1984 general election.
Up till then in the island republic’s history, being the best loser was a meaningless title which would at best elicit a rueful sigh and a consolation toast from party comrades. But Nair was different.
He was offered the chance to enter Parliament as the first Non-Constituency MP (NCMP), a clever constitutional creation that the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) was introducing in the 1984 polls.
Nair and his party turned down the offer, pointing out the real purpose of the new scheme was to encourage Singaporean voters to return all parliamentary seats to the PAP.
Because such was, and still is, the curious phenomenon of the Singaporean voter, who wants the PAP as the government yet hopes to have some opposition voices to keep the rulers in check.
