Post-Election Conference 2015 - Session 2: Parties, Policies and People

SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director David Chan and SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan spoke about the 2015 General Election (GE 2015) at a post-election conference organised by the Institute of Policy Studies, in which they gave their analysis of the election campaign and the poll outcome, and discussed the implications of GE2015 for politics, policy debates and Singaporeans. Prof Chan’s speech focused on two areas, namely psychological capital and people centricity. He also touched on a few emerging trends that he expects to see in the next few years - people becoming more interested and involved in the elections, political parties becoming more preventive and pragmatic; a greater focus on the character and competency of political candidates; politics becoming much more widespread and whole of society; and public service becoming much more inter-connected. Meanwhile, Associate Prof Tan noted the growing political consciousness and awareness, rising importance of post material issues, and receptivity to more political diversity and competition. He concluded that the ruling party has done very well, but the question is whether they will have the courage and political wisdom to engage in political reform.