Post-political Elections: Opposition Party Rallies as Popular Mobilisations in Singapore

Abstract

Although opposition parties in Singapore do not win a large share of votes in parliamentary elections, opposition rallies draw massive turnouts and vociferous expressions of support. Few analyses of Singapore’s elections have addressed the political significance of these popular mobilisations. This article brings the concept of post-politics to an analysis of the 2015 election, to develop an interpretive framework that accounts for the apparent paradox. I show, firstly, how elections are constructed by the PAP government as a post-political exercise, in which citizens’ practical interests in the efficient administration of their country should override any principled or ideological objections they have to the PAP’s mode of government and prompt them to return the ruling party to power. Through a reading of the opposition’s rally speeches, audience responses and interviews with party volunteers, I then show how opposition rallies create spaces where it becomes momentarily possible for citizens to publicly and performatively assert those aspects of their political subjectivity which this reductive construction of their vote elides. The concept of post-politics allows us to see how these officially sanctioned events become spaces that allow for the staging of popular political discontent, which the regular institutions of government do not permit.