Unfree and Unfair: How Elections Legitimate Authoritarianism in Singapore

• In Event: No Straight Road to Democracy: Political Transitions, Elections and Repression in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This paper explains how elections in Singapore have been designed to legitimise authoritarianism in Singapore and continue to do so. It considers the history of elections in Singapore from 1946 to the present, and analyses the causal factors which have shaped the conduct and purpose of elections in Singapore. In particular, it argues that the electoral structures of Singapore’s independent state are essentially in continuity from the colonial state. Elections in Singapore were designed from the beginning as a mechanism to legitimate authoritarian government. They thus cannot be understood in the same context as genuinely democratic elections. The paper concludes by examining the legacy of this history on the current structure of elections in Singapore in light of the most recent General Election (2015).

Thum Ping Tjin (P.J.) is a Research Associate at the Centre for Global History, and coordinator of Project Southeast Asia, University of Oxford. He was previously a Visiting Fellow at the International Institute of Asian Studies, Leiden University and Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. His work centers on decolonisation in Southeast Asia, and its continuing impact on Southeast Asian governance and politics. He is also creator of “The History of Singapore”, a weekly radio show in Malaysia. Dr. Thum obtained his DPhil in history from the University of Oxford.
http://projectsoutheastasia.com/people/academics/pingtjin-thum

Author

• Ping Tjin Thum, University of Oxford