It's a historic win tonight for Singapore's opposition.
The Workers' Party rises from 6 to 10 seats in Parliament, its highest total ever. The ruling PAP has 83 seats and its overall victory was never in doubt. But the way this victory came means a lot.
Workers' Party candidate Raeesah Khan, who could be the Squad's adopted exchange student, was the story of the election. She criticized racial inequities in Singapore's criminal justice system, with police going after poor minorities for small-time crimes while wealthy Chinese church leaders embezzled $50 million. That got her investigated by police for "promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race."
Massive online support for her emerged, with #IStandWithRaeesah going around on Twitter. Poet Jee Leong Koh led Chinese Singaporeans posting #wewerenothurt to counter the dubious charge that Raeesah had in any sense been spreading racial enmity against them. I've seen some complicated free speech debates in recent days. Raeesah's case is not complicated.
Raeesah ran as one of 4 candidates on the Workers' Party slate in the newly formed Senkang district. Alongside her was Harvard economics postdoc and general heartthrob Jamus Lim. Tonight, Raeesah, Jamus, and their friends won 52-48.
The general message voters keep sending the PAP is: run things well, provide good services, and we'll vote for you. But don't do this heavy-handed stuff like what happened in the bad old days of Singaporean politics. Don't threaten the voters or they'll vote against you (that was a 2011 story). Don't send the police after opposition candidates for ordinary campaign speech.
It's a healthy message for the system.
The Workers' Party rises from 6 to 10 seats in Parliament, its highest total ever. The ruling PAP has 83 seats and its overall victory was never in doubt. But the way this victory came means a lot.
Workers' Party candidate Raeesah Khan, who could be the Squad's adopted exchange student, was the story of the election. She criticized racial inequities in Singapore's criminal justice system, with police going after poor minorities for small-time crimes while wealthy Chinese church leaders embezzled $50 million. That got her investigated by police for "promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race."
Massive online support for her emerged, with #IStandWithRaeesah going around on Twitter. Poet Jee Leong Koh led Chinese Singaporeans posting #wewerenothurt to counter the dubious charge that Raeesah had in any sense been spreading racial enmity against them. I've seen some complicated free speech debates in recent days. Raeesah's case is not complicated.
Raeesah ran as one of 4 candidates on the Workers' Party slate in the newly formed Senkang district. Alongside her was Harvard economics postdoc and general heartthrob Jamus Lim. Tonight, Raeesah, Jamus, and their friends won 52-48.
The general message voters keep sending the PAP is: run things well, provide good services, and we'll vote for you. But don't do this heavy-handed stuff like what happened in the bad old days of Singaporean politics. Don't threaten the voters or they'll vote against you (that was a 2011 story). Don't send the police after opposition candidates for ordinary campaign speech.
It's a healthy message for the system.
