Which electorate? There is a huge base of WP voters who would not want any collaboration with SDP. The only people who would deem it “opposition unity spoiler” would be SDP supporters. The middle ground swing voters who would chose between PAP and Opposition depending on the mood of the day would more likely choose WP.

to be fair to the two individuals you criticize, grassroots work is a lot more difficult than international grandstanding – you have to compete with the strong PAP and WP organizations already present, and there is a tendency for quarrels to start over small issues (like what caused Chiam See Tong to leave SDP and SDA, and Hazel Poa/Nocole Seah etc to leave RP), whereas websites and foreign reporters, even ST, readily report visits to Yale etc. I am not aware of NY Times or Wall Street Journal reporting CSJ’s visit to Puggol…

The 25% we are disputing about, what you might consider swing, I would to put it in the swing category albeit with the “caveat” strongly pro PAP leaning. I would argue that historically these 25% have voted for stability as befit a centrist voter and they thus tend to vote PAP. .

The difference between our two positions is the difference in political strategies over the long term. Firstly if as you claim the hard core PAP base can be reduced to 30% and they lose completely the swing vote we are already talking the region of a total loss of PAP dominance and in unchartered territory.

I do not see that happening and the PE and the BE should be taken together and one should not flag the PE as the decider for all political change to come.

A questions you have not answered. How should the SDP or WP win over the 25% whether we define it as a hard core PAP vote or Swing Vote with strong PAP leaning ?

Locke

He has been wronged and demonized in the past. And he is stuck in the past. His antics is very personal and that clouded his judgement.
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What is wrong likening himself to those great people? Nothing to feel sneaky about. Isn’t it precisely because of our tendency to associate ourselves with people we like or admire that fashion, idol-fan relationship, concerts, books, photos, videos etc have a place in our society. Hence, not a point for debate or discussion here.

Regarding the point about him being stuck in the past, I feel that we can’t comment unless we know him enough. (Do you?) I don’t even know if the decision to contest in this BE comes from him alone. I heard it is a group decision and that the majority of its members wanted to. If it is true, then it may be a little unfair to accord that to him. Right from the start, I, too, feel that contesting in Punggol was unstrategic and I certainly feel that it is an act of impatience, ignorant of ground feelings. Fortunately, like what Alex wrote, I, too, heaved a huge sigh of relief on learning that SDP decided to withdraw and I am glad to read the mostly positive remarks and cheers from netizens of social media. Judging from these positive comments, I get the feel that this turnaround event has upped the SDP’s standing to a notch higher.

However time and experience have now demonstrated that the greatest political threat comes from parties with strong grassroots connections and support. The ‘elite’ opposition candidates have actually done very poorly. This should not be surprising because the ‘elite’ PAP candidates would also do very badly without the benefit of the strong PAP grassroots network (which, one day, will start to question the PAP policy of favoring parachuting elites into a constituency to contest instead of picking say, the Branch Secretary or local community organizer – but that’s a story for another day).

So I agree that releasing CSJ to contest makes all the sense in the world. He and his party are not quite unelectable, but without more focus on what matters for local elections (grassroots work, recruiting supporters) and less on international grandstanding, they don’t have a chance. Unfortunately for CSJ and KJ they seem to enjoy their international grandstanding a bit too much.

He is on record as likening himself as Gandhi. I have the sneaky suspicion that he associates himself with the likes of Nelson Mandela and Aung Sang Su Chi. Except, unlike those 2 towering figures, he has not won any election.

He has been wronged and demonized in the past. And he is stuck in the past. His antics is very personal and that clouded his judgement. For the sake of the survival of SDP, he should pass on the baton.

I welcome the other parties: NSP, WP, RP in Sembawang GRC. I am one of those who opt for the more the merrier alternative parties except for SDP. In fact, it would only make strategic sense for SDP to concentrate all their firepower in Holland BT GRC given their limited resources & low membership & small number of volunteers. Last GE2011 vote count is the strongest indication.

How much damage SDP has done to itself will be seen in Holland BT GRC if they choose to contest this ward again. But now that SDP has shown its farcical & illogical side, will the constituents of Holland BT GRC forgive & forget & still give them their blessings of almost 40% vote in last GE2011?

I think not. Holland BT GRC will wake up & come to their senses & turn towards PAP or a better alternative party like WP or NSP or RP.

There is too much vendetta going on with SDP brought on by CSJ. Note CSJ’s determination to contest Tanjong Pagar GRC for the very obvious reason that his old arch enemy is the anchor man there. He is that old man who put him in jail & who also made him a bankrupt.

Too bad, SDP was a whole lot better in GE2011 when CSJ was quiet.

As the SDP acknowledge the electorate likes so call opposition unity or at least the show of it. Well it could demonstrate to the electorate that it is prepare to cooperate. One area it could do so is to say established a working relationship with Workers Party to get its member involved in running town council.

Like it or not, running Town Council is going to be a fact of life, when winning a seat. Certainly the SDP ain’t going to get any cooperation from the PAP, let alone not getting screwed. Obviously the Workers Party with such experience would be a useful base to draw lesson from and assure the constituencies where the SDP plans to stand that it could run town council too. Maybe a useful project that SDP and Workers Party could work on is developing an open source town council software. So at least if the SDP wins a constituency it would have a solution to run in day one.

SDP should be seen to make the request so electorate would see the party as willing to learn from a fiasco of its own doing. And if Workers Party rebuff, the electorate can clearly see who is the ‘opposition unity’ spoiler.