2) “PAP’s hegemony is mainly due to its ability to control and regulate the grassroots organisations in the Republic”. Discuss.
PAP’s hegemony is due to the political climate in Singapore. The PAP’s continuous dominance in Singapore government system since 1960s and various reasons in the present have helped to ensue in PAP’s hegemony. This period of dominance since then has built an image over a few generations so far that PAP is the government. The various reasons include the establishment of the Grassroots Organisations(GROs), the presence of the weak Opposition Parties, and also the policies of PAP that have been successful and done good to the people.
Let me talk about GROs, they are voluntary bodies comprising of residents and citizens to implement government policies, to “feel the ground”, to organize activities and to “mobilize” the residents in times of need and emergency. However, the GROs are closely linked to Singapore government and many created by government initiatives and used to promote and spread the government’s policies and values. Hence, this explains the reason why PAP is able to control and regulate the GROs effectively.
GROs consists of People’s Association(PA), Community Centres(CCs), Citizens’ Consultative Committees (CCCs), Residents’ Committees(RCs), Community Development Councils(CDCs), Neighbourhood Committees(NCs), Women’s Executive Committees(WECs), Youth Executive Committees(YECs), Malay Activities Executive Committees, Senior Citizens’ Executive Committees, Indian Activities’ Executive Committees et cetera that are spread throughout the whole of Singapore. The various committees representing different races, genders, age groups allows the government to be sensitive to the feelings of different groups, and more importantly, to allow them to believe that their views are being heard. Besides that, there are around 1800 GROs[1] all over Singapore which will make up to a significant number of Grassroots...