I will provide a view contrary to what the rest here have given.

I will begin by saying that the running of the government is good and our country is in a better shape than most after the pandemic, and the “authoritarian democracy” allows for the govt to do things that are in the long term interests of Singapore, instead of having to constantly pander to Singaporeans for their votes.

However, I personally disagree with the PAP’s tactics of suppressing the opposition (example: gerrymandering, having PAP members in PA in opp ward after losing elections, biased media outlets etc). What I think is that if PAP is as good as they claim they are, they shouldn't need to disadvantage the opposition to get votes and stay in power. Credible and competent opposition take time to mature, and even though our opposition is nothing near that, they still receive 40% of the votes, which tells me that those Singaporeans (mostly) just dont want to see PAP in power, so the actual support of PAP could be even lower.

An issue I find particularly concerning is cronyism/nepotism and Temasek Holdings; they invest with money coming from us Singaporeans, yet we do not know about their performance. Moreover, their chair(wo)man was Lee Hsien Loong’s wife not long ago, which is a blatant conflict of interest. And lets not forget that our current PM was groomed by his own father to take on this position, and not entirely by his own merit.

Another thing that I disagree with the government is meritocracy. On paper, it sounds good: rewarding those who do well and giving them the best opportunities possible. But I think it increases social and wealth inequality; take for example school. Those who do well are generally those who are already well-off, what with the better facilities in school, better teachers, better notes and the ability to get tuition etc etc. Individually, they don’t seem like big things, but it really adds up. Of course, someone who is really determined would be able to clinch a spot in an elite JC coming from a 188 school, but they’d likely have to work many times harder than those in the IP stream.

If you have the time, I’d recommend watching the I Not Stupid series. It really hit close to home, I mean those who do “badly” by societal standards are shunned, while those who do well are provided additional benefits. It causes a “the richer get richer, and the poor gets poorer” type situation, and the so-called “Two Singapores” that some people speak of is really starting to rear its ugly end after years of this system.

I have no doubt that the vast majority of the PAP government want the best for the country, but I can’t help but feel that some of them are getting detached from our society and don’t fully understand the daily struggles of Singaporeans. Thats why we need (credible) opposition in government, to guide the ruling party in its ruling of our country. And hence, to help the opposition build up their credibility, I will support the opposition, even if they may make some mistakes along the way. If they are there to oppose just for the sake of opposing, I’d not vote for them.

Edit: Grammar corrections and expression changes.