SINGAPORE: During the People’s Action Party’s biennial conference on Sunday (Oct 25), Prime Minister Lawrence Wong took aim at the opposition Workers’ Party for what he deemed as shifts in positions depending on “political winds.”
Mr Wong, the PAP’s Secretary-General, said: "The opposition has taken different positions at different times, depending on the concerns of the day, or what they believe will be popular.”
The two examples he gave concerned housing and foreign manpower.
He underlined that the ruling party should, in contrast, "take the wider and long-term view.”
What Jamus Lim said
Later that day, WP Member of Parliament Jamus Lim fired back.
In a social media post, he acknowledged that while the Prime Minister is entitled to his views, Assoc Prof Lim wrote that he personally found his claims “to be an incredible double standard,” adding that “After all, the PAP is known for massive U-turns in policy, some lasting barely one season.”
He went on to cite a few instances of this, such as redundancy insurance, minimum wages for Singaporeans, and Section 377A of the Penal Code, adding that even recently, there have been "notable reversals by the PAP, even after they shot down alternatives till the last second.”
Assoc Prof Lim also characterised this as lacking in nuance, either inadvertently or intentionally.
He addressed the issues PM Wong brought up.
First, as to the WP’s proposal that fewer flats be built in 2019, and then four years later, criticising the government for not building enough flats, Assoc Prof Lim wrote that when the WP had spoken on managing the HDB supply, it had been in the context of lease decay, a long-term problem rather than a momentary one.
As for the foreign workforce, he added that “moderating the speed of inflows, and the impact of related stresses on our existing infrastructure (both physical and institutional), is a legitimate contention.”
Assoc Prof Lim also made the case for why parties should actually welcome justifiable policy shifts, as this is the way it should be when an adjustment of position is needed. He said that rather than opportunism, it is a sign of wisdom and maturity and is how democracy, at its best, should work by being “open to feedback, so that collective knowledge is harnessed.”
And while the MP acknowledged that key principles should not be sacrificed, neither should “outdated and outmoded policy ideas” be clung to.
“I don’t know if PM Wong was playing to his base, which would not be surprising since the speech was delivered in a partisan setting. If so, taking potshots at the opposition would perhaps be par for the course. But it is disappointing, nonetheless, because it belies a lack of understanding of how Singaporeans would like to see their political leaders tackle constructive challenges to the policy choices of the ruling party,” he wrote.
Assoc Prof Lim added that the WP approaches issues “based on the facts and circumstances, not dogma.” /TISG
Read also: Jamus Lim: Even when we disagree with PAP policies, we’re still Singaporeans who love our country