TR EMERITUS

It has been broached in the past. Now Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said it again. A multi-party system is not good for Singapore. For someone who had, during the 2006 General Elections, said that the government would have to waste time fixing the opposition if too many are elected into Parliament, such a view should not... 

作者:严燕松（Gerald Giam） 译者:李显涛 许多新加坡人向来都有个误会，以为选举投票会被人知道，不可能保密。我和许多人交换意见，无论是受教育或者没受教育的，几乎大半都这样认为。虽然选举局在每次大选都苦口婆心地教育选民两件事：投票是强制的和投票是秘密的。然而成效不大，我想这也表示新加坡人不太信任政府。 更不幸和叫人失望的是，有些反对党的支持者和反人民行动党人士所开的博客却助长这种迷思，他们的做法只有徒增那些想投给反对党阵营的选民的精神负担。今天我在淡马锡评论看到一封读者来信，作者就建议人们投废票，他说这样一来就不会因为反对行动党而被盯上，并且废票的数目如果够多的话，无形中也就增加反对票的比例云云。 这是大错特错的，我着重谈其中的两点：第一、人民行动党不会知道你到底投给谁，即使他们很想“盯上”，也无从下手。第二、废票并无法影响票选的结果，比如说有10张选票：6张投给人民行动党、3张给反对党、1张废票，那么行动党的得票率还是66.6%（6除以9张有效票），不会把... 

BURSTING at our seams. This is a frequent phrase used to describe Singapore these days, after its population crossed the five million mark. Hardly a day passes without a citizen or two complaining about over-crowdedness or shortage of amenities or rising costs associated with the mass arrival of foreigners. With immigration...