Snap Insight: PAP cadres chose cautious renewal in challenging times

The current conditions of governance will require more imagination from the party to create the platforms that allow 27 first-time PAP MPs and future political candidates to foster that crucial human interface between politics and policy; and from cadre to leaders.

Singaporeans need to be confident that the PAP continues to have a good feel for their daily struggles in this changing world. Quality political dialogue will allow leaders, especially if they are younger, newer and seem to come from the same mould, to earn the right to be heard by their constituents. 

Party-based work allows for this melding of heart with head on an ongoing basis. Politics, as the art of making the impossible possible, happens at that retail level, and all political parties neglect that at their peril.

Gillian Koh is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, National University of Singapore.