PE: The impact on our foreign partners

Just came in my email....'suffered a heavy loss Saturday in a by-election billed as a test of its record in tackling rising socio-economic tensions, adding pressure on the government to do more to help citizens'

Fortunately we aren't an outlier. All governments in the world today face similar pressure. On the other hand it could be a setback for us in our relations with China. We become less valuable to them because now they notice that the methods this government employ do not yield good results as hoped.

Ok, let's not be so superficial. The Chinese never really wanted to learn from us as we thought they would. We were too arrogant and thought too highly of ourselves. We are useful for their politics and propaganda. Still the result is the same: the PAP model is less useful to them now.

As for the Americans I think they are happy to see we are marching toward more realistic democracy. Meanwhile ruling parties in our neighborhood would dearly trade to have the same power and dominance the PAP still enjoy.

What is key is that our leaders' gravitas with Chinese leaders have diminished. That's why and more George Yeo earlier today asked on his Facebook page: whither Singapore?

Update: Jan 30, 11:15pm