A Shift in the Wind

In the 1980s, Singapore’s first opposition member of parliament since 1966 was elected. A group of political observers sensing this “shift in the wind” decided to lay bare the ideological threads that linked the PAP’s policy choices, governance approach, and by extension, the current social structures formed by the ruling government. The result was a book providing an overview of the local socio-political landscape. Written almost 40 years ago when a historical shift in Singapore’s democracy seemed imminent, the same hope echoes today as we see the opposition gaining more seats in Parliament after the recent 2020 General Election. The critiques of the government’s authoritarian tendencies and elitist meritocracism are even more relevant today, after more than 58 years of nation building under one party.