The GRC voter's dilemma

The GRC voter's dilemma
April 02, 2011 Saturday, 06:00 AM
Cassandra Chew on the quandary GRC voters face when deciding which situation they prefer, and what consequences they can live with.
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Have you ever picked up a bag of onions that you thought was perfect, until you spot a mouldy little one in the corner of the bag?
It’s one of the drawbacks of shopping in a supermarket, where everything is pre-packaged for your convenience.

Shoppers will then have to decide if they want the perfect onions enough to buy the bag with the spoiled ones, or if they prefer to settle for another bag with just average-sized onions.
This dilemma is a little bit like the ones I would imagine voters in Group Representation Constituencies (GRC) face when they decide who they want to vote for.
Unlike single-member constituencies (SMC) where voters decide simply based on the merits of one candidate versus the other, the GRC system, intended to ensure minority representation, presents voters with a packaged deal of some sort.
Here’s how things could play out:
Vote for the People’s Action Party (PAP), and you are likely to get an incumbent minister, an existing Member of Parliament and three newbies – one of whom is a potential minister.
Vote for an opposition party, and you could get an incumbent MP, three long-time party members whom Singaporeans are familiar with, and a new face.
They could be frontbenchers, but their abilities, like any other newcomer, have not been tested.
I know a few friends who would have no problems voting for the ruling party, because it is helmed by a minister who is known, and perhaps even well-liked.
They also feel a responsibility to keep them in power to ensure a stable government, they say.
But as the slates of candidates for both sides are steadily being revealed, some have found themselves wondering if they can continue voting in the same way.
One has decided that he dislikes one PAP candidate who is being fielded in a GRC so much, he will vote against the party at the risk of losing a minister.
Another is upset that under the GRC system, a candidate whom she thinks is unqualified is more likely to become an MP than an opposition candidate whom she feels is more worthy.
Netizens have called for these new faces to be fielded in an SMC instead of a GRC, so that voters get a chance to decide if they want them as their representatives.
But given that the PAP has taken pains to ensure new and young blood is injected each term, for the sake of party renewal, the party is unlikely to send its newbies out to the SMCs.
So what’s a voter to do?
At the supermarket, I usually go for the bag without any bad onions. To me, getting average onions is better than having to deal with the rotten onion at all.
I know of others who would pick the bag with the bad onion and then look forward to the moment they can toss it out, all for the sake of the perfect onions.
When voters head to the polls, they too will have to decide which situation they prefer, and what consequences they can live with.
Only voting at the polls, unlike shopping in a supermarket, affects everyone else’s lives too.
http://blogs.straitstimes.com/2011/4/1/the-voters-grc-dilemma
http://www.straitstimes.com/GeneralElection/Blogs/Story/STIStory_654745.html

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