[SEA History] MG was effective at maintaining political control. HFDYA?

hello there. if you have read through the older posts, you would have noticed i've posted some topic sentences for the political structure questions. do note that not all of them have been vetted - they are mostly picked out from notes and sources and advice from my history teacher. i'll be posting practice paragraphs that are mostly written by me, so no guarantees!

AF1
- Maximum governments were effective at maintaining political control through it's ability to monopolize control of state apparatus as a means to ensure the political opposition's inability to revive itself, evident by the maintenance of power within the hands of the ruling elite.

- In the post-colonial period, Southeast Asia was politically diverse and had many political parties jostling for power. Thus, through the leaders' utility of legislative power, it helped to weed out political opponents so as to remove threats to their power.

- In Singapore, Barisan Sosialis was a strong political opponent of the ruling party PAP in the early 1960s. This is evident in how they managed to 25% of the voters during the 1962 Merger Referendum to cast blank votes, showing their immense popularity as an opposition party.

- Under the Internal Security Act, which allowed for detention without trial of suspected dissidents, several BS members were arrested for boycotting the parliament in 1966. Also, Operation Coldstore in 1963 saw the arrests of suspected communists, including BS secretary-general Lim Chin Siong and half of BS's central executive committee. By detaining opposition leaders, who were responsible for advocating an alternative political vision, it eliminated the figures who helped garner mass support for BS. Via the monopoly of power, the incumbent government managed to remove the strong opposition, thus ensuring that leftist support was curbed and directed towards PAP instead. The use of legal power also instilled fear about the harsh treatment one would face if they rose as a strong political opposition of PAP.

- The use of MG structures acted as a deterrent for the rise of any political opposition, thus ensuring that there was no viable political threat to PAP's leadership. This is seen in PAP's dominance in Singapore's political scene for over four decades.

Limitations: PAP's political dominance can be attributed to the fact that BS was weak and not because the MG structures were effective. BS boycotted the 1966 elections, effectively allowing PAP to be the de facto dominant political voice in the government. Their poor strategies eventually resulted in BS's declining popularity, showing that PAP's political dominance can be attributed to the weaknesses of their political opposition, rather than the MG structures they undertook to undermine their opponents.