GE 2015/16 – A new political gambit

In the western version of politics called democracy, the winner is the party that won the most votes. Historically, the opposing parties would be out there canvassing for votes, for the hearts and minds of the voters. The more voters they can convince to their sides, the better the chance of winning an election.
 
Political parties thus often go all out with all kinds of strategies to win votes. Pork barrel politics is a famous and seldom failed tactic. Throw money to the voters to buy their votes. The other is fear. Frighten the voters so that they have no choice but to vote in your favour. How to frighten the voters and strike fear in them? A third method is to discredit or fix the enemies. Run down the enemies, find faults with them, show off their mistakes and blunders to the voters, but do not in the process expose your own mistakes or the dirty tricks one is using. It can backfire. The voters today are not daft. They are watching with a cynical smile.
 
Today, we are seeing a new strategy evolving, initially unintended, but starting to gain a foothold among the political parties. In this strategy, it is about making the least mistakes to the point of doing nothing. Not losing votes is wining if the other parties are well known for shooting their own feet. The more they shoot themselves, the more votes they will lose. And not only that, these votes could go to the opposing parties.
 
The game is on. Do less to preserve and protect one’s position and votes. Let the enemy happily make mistakes after mistakes to do themselves in. Such a strategy is easier to apply for the opposition parties and has a negative bias for the ruling political party. The opposition parties not in govt can disappear or be invisible when issues crop up. The ruling party must deal with the problems and if handed badly, would lose votes for sure, especially when the election is around the corner. The opposition parties may at worst be disregarded for non involvement and they could fall back on not being able to do anything as they are not the govt. They could also remain reticent completely and let the ruling party foul it up completely.
 
It looks like this strategy is working and very cost effective for the opposition parties when the ruling party has a penchant to trip on everything they stepped on. And the opposition parties are happily counting the number of trippings and the number of votes flying their way.
 
Looks like in this GE the ruling party is working very hard trying to win votes and working very hard unintentionally to lose votes. Think Brampton bikes, Aim, hawker centre roofs, AHPEC TC accounts, rats, Hong Lim heckling, PME jobs, population, CPF, Medishield Life, and the latest, Thaipusam. This is another very hot potato to handle with extreme care.
 
Who will be losing votes and who will be picking up votes? It is tough time for the ruling party. They have to work carefully hard this time, to win votes and not to lose votes. The opposition parties only need to play it safe, consolidate their positions and hold the ground, and picking up the loose votes sent flying their way.
 
The game is on.

PS: Kopi almost dried up.