SINGAPORE (AP) – As the day turns into night, they gather in the green field in the eastern corner of this island nation just above the equator. Some have come with foldable stools, some with picnic mats while others settle down on bare grass waving blue flags and yellow inflatable hammers. Soon the crowd swells to about 30,000, waiting to hear the star of the night’s show — opposition leader Sylvia Lim.
A policewoman-turned law teacher-turned-politician, Lim is the face of Singapore’s resurgent opposition that just three elections ago in 2001 had hit a political nadir. Its leader, the late J.B. Jeyaretnam who attained folklore stature in the country’s politics, had been bankrupted after contesting a series of lawsuits unleashed by the ruling People’s Action Party. The Workers Party and another opposition group had only one seat each in the 84-member Parliament.
As Singapore heads into another general election on Friday, the PAP is set to extend its 50-year hold on power by another five years. Only, this time the inheritors of Jeyaretnam’s mantle – Lim and her colleagues in the Workers’ Party – are presenting the stiffest challenge ever faced by the PAP, and will likely emerge as a potent force in what has been a virtual one-party state.
“Have you seen how the PAP deals with the opposition? You need a lot of guts to come out and speak up against them,” said oil technician Voon Swee Heng, 59 at Lim’s rally last Sunday where blue party flags with the hammer symbol abounded. “I like to hear her talk. She flags out Singaporean issues like that of the population, train breakdowns and education. Things that concern me,” he said.
The Workers Party is riding an anti-establishment wave, thanks to the disenchantment with the PAP over the rising cost of living, income inequality, restrictions on freedom of expression, and a rising tide of immigration to fill not only low-paying jobs but also middle and high-paying positions.