What exactly is a “mandate”?
(Commentary/Opinion Piece by Editor)
Post originally published on 12 July 2020 on Facebook and Instagram.
During this GE2020, we kept hearing PM Lee saying that PAP needs a “strong mandate”. What is this mandate thing actually? For some reason I just can’t help picturing myself having a ‘man-date’ with Jamus Oppa, sharing a plate of cockles of course. But sadly no, mandates have nothing to do with my fantasy of having a warm heart-to-heart with now Sengkang Heartthrob Jamus Lim.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines Mandate as “the authority given to an elected group of people, such as a government, to perform an action or govern a country”. So in other words, Mandate simply means the authority to govern. There was a concept in ancient China, where the Emperor is said to be possessing the “Mandate of Heaven” (天命, or literally “Heaven’s Will”) to justify his rule. Emperors will ‘lose’ the Mandate of Heaven when they become unjust and unpopular, hence deemed no longer fit to rule.
In a democracy, the mandate to rule or govern comes from the citizenry, who demonstrates this sacred power by casting his or her vote. A call for a “strong mandate” is usually invoked by the PAP during elections to beseech Singaporeans to vote for them. But this time this strategy seemed to have backfired because we begin to ask just how does the PAP define “strong mandate”? Is it ALL 93 seats in Parliament? Is it two-thirds of the seats? Or just a simple majority?
A simple majority, i.e. more than 50% of the seats (47 seats for GE2020) is the mandate needed to form government — something which the PAP had since 1959. But why did PAP kept insisting on this “strong mandate”? Supposedly, a strong mandate signals a strong approval rating for the PAP. But when the results came and their percentage of votes dropped to 61%, PM Lee said they have received a “clear mandate” instead. A “strong” or “clear” mandate really does not actually mean anything in particular. Both scenarios meant PAP will form the government, which we knew they would.
Many will argue that the percentage of votes is not a strong indicator of approval because Singapore elections are unfair in the first place with unequal playing field that gives advantage to the incumbent, evidenced by the GRC system and gerrymandering of electoral boundaries. The PAP however always insist in using this Mandate generated from unequal competition to justify their rule. One must also argue that precisely because PAP holds all the cards, a near 10% drop in votes is a big freaking deal. It reflects a strong sentiment against PAP and they should acknowledge this instead of using meaningless phrase like “clear mandate”.
All this talk of mandates keep bringing me back to my imagined man-date with Jamus Oppa. He said we don’t want to give PAP a blank cheque. A blank cheque is also another way of saying “100% mandate to do whatever they want”. We have denied them this by showing such strong percentage of votes for the Opposition in this GE2020. So now at the end of my man-date with Jamus Lim, I’d say, “it’s ok Oppa, I will get the cheque this time. You deserve it. Hwaiting!” *fingerheart*
