How to stay healthy at 70? Here's the PAP's recipe

Keeping to core values, while adapting to a changing electorate, has kept the PAP dominant. But the disconnect between the elite and the masses can be a challenge.

- Chua Mui Hoong

This month marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Action Party on Nov 21, 1954. It has been in power since 1959, when Singapore was a self-governing British colony. The party led the country to independence in 1965, and then embarked on a remarkable journey of bringing the Republic from Third World to First - turning mudflats into a metropolis, in the words of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, a phrase that has become part of the national narrative.

The PAP has won every general election since 1959. In the last election in 2020, it won 61 per cent of the votes and 83 out of 93 seats.

Critics of Singapore-style democracy sometimes attribute the PAP's longevity to its authoritarian control of society and key institutions like the trade unions and the media. While its grip on Singapore played a role in perpetuating its power (for example by discouraging able professionals from entering opposition politics), force alone cannot explain the party's success at the polls. Instead, it is the ability to adapt where it must, while holding fast to its core, that has made the PAP one of the longest-ruling parties in the world. Here is what it has been doing.

INCORRUPTIBILITY, 4TH GENERATION First, keeping faith with its core values.

Since its inception, the PAP has stood for two key traits: meritocracy in having the best team; and integrity, emphasising the need to be incorruptible.