When you clear away all the smoke and the mirrors, there are a couple of very fundamental problems of principle that have got lost in the debate so far.

The PAP, for one, has yet to integrate their various policies into a coherent principled framework. It is striking how on the one hand the PAP is violently liberal in its treatment of taxes, education, immigration, housing, and healthcare, but on the other hand overbearingly paternalistic in its approach to CPF, drugs and National Service. Pragmatism as a justification works only to a limited extent.

The PAP's candidates for Holland Bukit-Timah GRC discuss on a rally stage (Liyana Yeo, Channel NewsAsia)

The opposition’s challenge will be to elucidate sophisticated moral reasons for redistributing societal gains, which in essence is what their policies will do. The “Robin Hood” analogy so beloved of some actually falls completely flat, because a “Robin Hood” situation really constitutes a paradigm case of institutional failure – stealing from the rich to give to the poor is still stealing, and a good government should never have to be in that position in the first place.

It is a shame that neither side has made an effort to clarify and explore the very principles that will shape and underpin our society in the future.