Political Popularity and Power: My take on the S377A issue.

Lol. As if I have not already said enough on the matter.

Well, I haven't, actually. I just thought of something today.

Simply put, it is not politically profitable to repeal 377A...

-- 'kwayteowman', "On Section 377A"

Agree? Yes, wholeheartedly.

I think Janadas Devan observed the trend when he said:

Of the 82 PAP MPs, only 3.5 expressed views that resembled mine - Mr Charles Chong, Mr Hri Kumar and Mr Baey Yam Keng. The half was Ms Indranee Rajah, who suggested 377A might be scrapped at some point, only not in this century. Her citation of how long it took to end slavery suggested we might have to wait roughly 2,500 years.

Of the nine NMPs, only one, Mr Siew Kum Hong, who presented the citizens’ petition calling for the repeal of 377A, stood up for homosexuals. And among the three opposition MPs, none did. (qtd. in Darren Sim, "377a and rewriting pluralism")

NMPs aside, I think there may be another reason why the people who wield more political clout have not spoken out for repealing the law, and I hypothesise that it all boils down to: votes and popularity.

I think the inherent fear in most of the MPs is that if the majority of the electorate really does not condone homosexuality, but their MPs are seen to hold a position contrary to theirs, it might affect which way the votes of said electorate swing in the future.

But it does not even have to be a majority within the electorate - so long as this majority itself wields enough power and influence to swing opinions against the incumbent MPs who represent them, it is good enough.

Hence, the complicit silence of the alternative party MPs, and the token representation from the 3.5 PAP MPs, whose opinions, even if unsavoury to certain quarters of the electorate, may not really be worth much weight at all - check out which GRCs they hail from:

MP	Represents	Fellow GRC Members	Remarks
Charles Chong	Punggol-Pasir Ris GRC	DR AHMAD MOHD MAGAD MISS PENNY LOW MR TEO CHEE HEAN MR MICHAEL PALMER MR TEO SER LUCK	The PAP's showing at the SGE2006 = people have quite a bit of support for them + the influence of the other MPs should be enough to counter Charles's views, which may just be viewed as an anomaly.
Hri Kumar	Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC	DR NG ENG HEN MR WONG KAN SENG MR ZAINUDIN NORDIN MRS JOSEPHINE TEO	Walkover; There was no contest in this GRC during the last elections.
Baey Yam Keng	Tanjong Pagar GRC	MISS INDRANEE RAJAH ASSOC PROF KOO TSAI KEE MR LEE KUAN YEW MR BAEY YAM KENG RADM (NS) LUI TUCK YEW MR TAN CHIN SIONG	老李。。。 Need I say more?
Indranee Rajah

Here, my theory is that they may have been assigned to speak up in order to project some semblance of the inclusive views the incumbent government propounds to possess.

Again, it is just a theory and I have no concrete evidence for this, so please take my views with a pinch of salt, albeit a pinch that adds a flavour to the argument.

This argument... It haz a flavr?

So really, it's not about human rights; it's just like a popularity contest at school - but this time, on a larger scale.

Because s/he who holds the popularity, holds the reins of power in the politics of Singapore.