The defining theme of People's Action Party (PAP) Secretary General Lee Hsien Loong's party rally speech on Dec. 7, 2014 was to urge his party to fight.

Lee reminded them that the next general election is going to be a "deadly serious fight".

"Every seat – every GRC, every SMC will be contested. Every seat, every contest will be a national contest, not a local one. Every seat is a general election, not a by-election", he said during the PAP60 Party Rally speech.

Sounds familiar? It reminded one of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's war cry in World War II: "We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans... we shall never surrender"

But is his team ready to dig in and fight?

Some PAP members must have remembered the zinger that ex-PAP MP Tan Cheng Bock threw at them during the 2011 Presidential Election campaign.

"The party will need to take a critical look at their own way of doing things. They have to learn how to fight again. They have lost their fighting skills. They must learn from me", Tan told the media after he lost by a razor-thin margin of 0.34 per cent against establishment candidate Dr Tony Tan.

Changing the constitution is symbolic, so too is the symbolism of how PAP deploys its star candidates

At the rally, much was made about how the PAP had amended its Constitution for the first time in 32 years. This was only the second time since the PAP's formation that its objectives were changed.

Below are the new party objectives (Article II of its Constitution):

(a) To preserve, protect and defend the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Singapore (no changes);

(b) To safeguard the freedom, and advance the well-being, of Singaporeans through representative and democratic government (no changes);

(c) To uphold a multi-racial and multi-religious society, where people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs live harmoniously together as fellow citizens, and deepen our national identity and commitment to Singapore (slight changes);

(d) To sustain a vibrant economy which creates good jobs and better lives for all, and enables every Singaporean to achieve their full potential;

(e) To build a fair and just society, which encourages individual effort and family responsibility, while ensuring community and government support for the vulnerable and less fortunate;

(f) To strengthen an open and compassionate meritocracy, with opportunities for Singaporeans to develop skills in diverse fields, active support for those who start off with less, and ladders to success at every stage of life;

(g) To develop a democracy of deeds, where citizenship embodies both rights and duties, and nurtures a sense of collective responsibility and community action;

(h) To represent and serve all Singaporeans responsively and responsibly, attentive to immediate concerns, focussed on long-term challenges and opportunities, and governing with integrity and honesty.

The change in constitution indeed reflects the "left-of-centre" shift by the PAP in how it views the Singapore society, something that DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam alluded to in a Straits Times interview last year.

Some in the party leadership probably view Lee's changing of the constitution as akin to British PM Tony Blair "Clause IV moment", when Blair showed that he could stand up to the special interests in his own party and transform his Labour party into "New Labour".

But PAP folks, like many pragmatic Singaporeans, are not ideologues. And that's probably why Lee Kuan Yew only updated the PAP constitution once during his nearly 38 years as Secretary-General.

Changes have to start from the people, not the constitution

Lee Kuan Yew signaled changes in the party through his personnel changes. Lee displayed that the party is ready for the next lap of governance by retiring 11 PAP MPs and dropping three cabinet ministers in the 1984 GE.

[quip float="pqright"]a key symbolic move to show whether the PAP really has the stomach to fight is not the change in the constitution, but the deployment of its most prominent PAP candidates.[/quip]

He continued the leadership renewal process by retiring all first-generation leaders with ministerial experience (except himself) in the 1988 GE, declaring earlier in a speech that "by 1985, power will have effectively passed to a younger generation".

In other words, a key symbolic move to show whether the PAP really has the stomach to fight is not the change in the constitution, but the deployment of its most prominent PAP candidates.

So where are PAP's star candidates deployed? Unfortunately, the PAP leadership is sending the wrong signal to its rank-and-file.

On Sep, 18., the People's Association announced new grassroots advisers to replace Aljunied GRC (2011 GE) candidate Ong Ye Kung and Hougang candidate (2011 GE and 2012 BE) Desmond Choo.

Both are now helping out at the presumably safer seats of Sembawang GRC and Tampines GRC. How about Punggol East 2013 by-election candidate Koh Poh Koon?

"The son of Punggol" is now seen volunteering at the Ang Mo Kio GRC.

Are the PAP MPs leading from the front?

In the rally speech, PM Lee said that "for every one more 'checker' we have in the Parliament, there will be one fewer 'doer, thinker and leader' in the Government, to serve the nation, to serve the people".

He added that there will be no more PAP to check eventually, since "there will be no able team of ministers working and solving problems for Singaporeans, no progress for Singapore, no future for Singapore".

"That will be the last check, because it will be checkmate for Singapore!"

Detractors criticised PM Lee for seeking a "blank cheque" in terms of political competition. As a greedy Singaporean who wants it all, I expect a blank cheque for my MP's abilities -- can my MP be both a doer/ thinker/ leader and a checker?

In this aspect, PM Lee is perhaps too nice to his PAP teammates.

Compared to Workers' Party MPs, a majority of the PAP MPs are part-time MPs. If the PAP MPs are full-time MPs, will they be able to fulfill their functions as both a "doer" and a "checker" better? A good example is full-time MP Baey Yam Keng, who is both an effective parliamentarian and a grassroots MP.

PM Lee probably believes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In his parliamentary speech on ministerial salaries in 2012, PM Lee said

"Finally, it is a judgment I have to make after consulting my senior colleagues and decide who has made the greater contributions, who has been the more effective Minister. Not every minister is equal...But they are all part of one team, and each one has a contribution to make so that the team as a whole functions well."

While PM Lee believes in the collective talents of his team, shouldn't the PAP try their best to identify more all-rounders instead? By focusing on the team effort is he allowing the shortcomings of certain MPs to be compensated by the abilities or talents of a few high-performers?

For instance, is he too reliant on his office-holders to carry the torch for PAP? Among the ministers, is he overly dependent on a few ministers to lead the country?

There are moments in parliament sittings and budget debates where PAP MPs are not pulling their weight, especially in terms of attendances.

There are a few examples where the legislation cannot be passed because there were not enough MPs in attendance.

Since the opposition treat parliament work as sacrosanct (check out how WP religiously update its website with their parliamentary speeches and questions), the PAP MPs should at least engage and compete with the opposition in parliament on ideas and suggestions. In this aspect, we see more Ministers engaging the WP MPs in the contest of ideas.

Can the forty-four PAP back-benchers (80 PAP MPs minus 33 political office-holders minus 3 Speaker and Deputy Speakers) do more?

Two elections away from the watershed election

As analysts have observed, this is the first time PAP has raised spectre of not forming the government.

Former NMP Calvin Cheng highlighted that "Singapore is so uniformly run that we cannot say that the residents of East Coast GRC have overwhelmingly distinct and different issues from the residents of West Coast GRC".

In other words, some argue that national issues may create a national landslide against the PAP.

But not everyone is convinced that PAP will lose power in the next election.

In fact, analysts interviewed by TODAY said that PAP is unlikely to lose its parliamentary majority in the next contest. This is similar to public intellectual and businessman Ho Kwon Ping's analysis who said in his public lecture that PAP's dominance was the likely scenario over the next 15 years.

So while every election is indeed a "deadly serious matter", how does one convince his party to adopt a sense of urgency to ensure its electoral survival, when the general consensus is that PAP are at least two elections away before the s*** hits the fan?

[quip float="pqright"]How does one convince his party to adopt a sense of urgency to ensure its electoral survival, when the general consensus is that PAP are at least two elections away before the s*** really hits the fan?[/quip]

The opposition needs one more heave to even contemplate about forming the government. In the last GE, the opposition almost won East Coast GRC (5 MPs), Marine Parade GRC (6 MPs), and Joo Chiat SMC (1 MP). If this is the worst case scenario that will befall on the PAP and assuming that WP kept all their seats they won in the last GE, WP will only have 19 MPs (7 + 12) in an 87-seat parliament.

This is the curse of the incumbent and these observations will affect the fighting spirit of the PAP members in the next GE.

Because fighting for the all-whites is not just the traditional way of putting out posters in the quickest time or queuing up early to get a rally site. It is the ability to articulate your party's core positions confidently, both offline and online, even when your "grassroots advisers" (MPs) are not looking.

It is not the ability to wear your all-whites once a year and slam detractors anonymously online, but the ability to embody your party's values daily in how you treat fellow Singaporeans.

PM Lee called on members to be clear about what the PAP is: A national movement, and a responsible party with courage and conviction.

Will the members heed his call?

Top photo from People's Action Party Facebook.

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