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Yes to a maturing democracy, but Govt, Opposition expected to call out each other if populism seeps in: DPM Wong

SINGAPORE — The Opposition is expected to call out the Government if the latter were to “fall short of its standards” and start proposing populist policies, just as the Government would do the same for the Opposition’s proposals, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said.

Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong speaking in Parliament on April 21, 2023.

Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong speaking in Parliament on April 21, 2023.

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  • The ruling PAP Government, as well as the Opposition, are rightfully expected to call each other out if policymaking slides towards populism and political opportunism,
  • Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said this in response to a speech by Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh in Parliament
  • Both sides of the House stand for a democracy that is maturing, with a serious government and a serious opposition, Mr Wong added
  • Mr Singh agreed, adding that populism and opportunism work both ways and it cannot be a case of pointing fingers at the Opposition when ruling party politicians may not be any better

SINGAPORE — The Opposition is expected to call out the Government if the latter were to “fall short of its standards” and start proposing populist policies, just as the Government would do the same for the Opposition’s proposals, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said.

“We stand for a democracy that is maturing, a serious government and a serious opposition, we say yes to all that. But we say no to populism and political opportunism ever taking root in this House and in Singapore,” he added.

Mr Wong was responding in Parliament on Friday (April 21) to a speech by Leader of Opposition Pritam Singh, on the fifth day of a debate on the President's address, in which the Workers' Party (WP) chief defended his party's proposals over the years as having contributed to Singapore.

Mr Wong was one of three People’s Action Party ministers who sought to clarify the points raised by Mr Singh in his speech. The others were Manpower Minister Tan See Leng and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.

Dr Tan and Mr Ong stood up to address Mr Singh's claims over the challenges of obtaining government data in order to put forth proposals and rebut views that have xenophobia and racial undertones.

The term "intra-corporate transferees" was used repeatedly in Friday's parliamentary exchanges. This refers to foreign employees who have worked for at least a year in overseas offices of multinational corporations and are brought in to work in their branches or subsidiaries in Singapore.

The following are excerpts of these exchanges.

ON 'PUNCTURING' XENOPHOBIA WITH DATA

MR TAN SEE LENG: I would like to seek a point of clarification to Mr Pritam Singh's speech. Early on in his speech, he said that asking the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to release statistics is like “drawing blood from stone”.

I want to highlight the point that his question on the number of intra-corporate transferees, on July 6, 2021 in the ministerial statement, I've already provided the numbers that there were 4,200 intra-corporate transferees working in Singapore the year before — that's 2020 — a number that has remained consistently small. 

The point (I want) to highlight is that many of the questions that were asked both by the Workers’ Party as well as by the Progress Singapore Party were not just on the numbers pertaining to intra-corporate transferees. 

You've also put the questions together on the breakdown of whether the jobs went to Singapore citizens that were born in Singapore, or that were naturalised Singaporeans, among other types of confidential information that was not readily released.

I hope that we can have this social compact — and let's make no mistake about it — that the vitriol and the raw emotions at that particular point in time, I hope was really something that we should all try to avoid.

I hope that they were not due to factors outside of what the questions were intended to be. I hope that they were not due to deliberate efforts to frustrate our social compact.

To your point about (whether) confidential information could have been released earlier, I believe that it cannot be the reason for the ugly xenophobia, the racial undertones surrounding Ceca (India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement).

MR PRITAM SINGH: We don't want our compact to be disrupted and overturned because of these reasons. So, to that extent, I think we are on the same page.

But let me just share with the minister when I refer to the intra-corporate transferees, Mr Leon Perera, if my memory serves me correctly, asked a question on the number of intra-corporate transferees in 2016, and the answer in Parliament from the Minister of Manpower was that (the Government) doesn't reveal these numbers.

The point I made in my speech again today was if those numbers were released, because the numbers were low, they could have punctured all that xenophobia quite early.

I could not understand why it is difficult to provide the information in 2016, but then when things are descending into an abyss, the numbers start coming out.

Minister Ong Ye Kung said this about releasing information earlier: "I take to heart what the Leader of the Opposition has said that with information, we can quell such falsehoods much earlier. We work in a bureaucracy, some data is classified secret, confidential and so on, so we are not at liberty to always disclose them. But what you say is true, some information, it is better for it to come out early, and then we can move on, especially as you said, when it concerns issues like racism or xenophobia, it is much better to quell it early."

MR ONG YE KUNG: My answer in July 2021, I think it is the same answer today. We take to heart the feedback that you gave, if we have released (the data), perhaps it would have quelled all the xenophobia and all the raw emotions.

But as Minister Tan See Leng said, that data was graded, confidential or maybe even secret, but it was not ready for release. Because if you release data on intra-corporate transferees of a particular country, others may compare it and it can have other ramifications.

But situation became like that, Ceca became a big issue with a lot of raw emotions, it got debated here. In the end, ministers had a serious discussion and (decided to) release it. And so we take your point, but it's not that straightforward a matter.

What Minister Tan See Leng is also trying to say is that after all this, let's not blame this whole debate and raw emotions around Ceca on MOM because it never released intra-corporate transferee data. It is not because of that.

ON HOW POPULISM AFFECTS DEMOCRACIES

MR LAWRENCE WONG: On the larger point that the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Singh, had highlighted, I'm glad he agrees with me that we do need both serious government and serious opposition in our maturing democracy. 

I made the point in my speech, he has a different view on the way I've characterised some of the proposals made by the Opposition. And that's his view. I accept that I think that we may well have to agree to disagree. 

But I made this broader point about how our democracy will evolve. Because I do worry, when I look at how democracies elsewhere have evolved, look at the great democracies of the world — democracies far bigger, far more developed than us and look at where they are now. How their societies have become divided and polarised, how their systems have become stuck in gridlock.

How is it that these countries have become so dysfunctional where politics are concerned? And what makes us so sure that Singapore is immune, and we somehow can avoid such a fate happening in Singapore down the road? 

So, I think there are lessons for us. If you look at many of these countries, populism has taken root, and populism has damaged greatly their societies, divided and polarised their people.

What is populism? Populism is politics that suppresses the truth, distorts the facts for political advantage. Populism is politics that pretends there are simple answers to complex issues, because there aren't.

And if such populism is ever to take root in Singapore, in the short term, parties that push up such populist policies may gain some advantage, but in the longer term, it will cause great damage to Singapore and Singaporeans. 

So from the Government's point of view, our stand is very clear. We reject all forms of populism, we make sure and we uphold honesty and integrity in policy-making.

If the Government were ever to fall short of these standards, we expect the Opposition to call us out and say so. We expect you to do it.

Conversely, if the Opposition were to propose ideas and policies that we feel are populist, we likewise will highlight them and highlight our concerns, rightfully so.

So I hope that's our common understanding of how we can take Singapore's politics and democracy forward.

Mr Pritam Singh said that Singaporeans believe in the cause of the Opposition and don't want the cause of the Opposition to falter and fade away. I believe there is a role for the Opposition to play in our politics in our democracy, and it's a very important role to campaign for your ideas and your proposals to hold the elected government to account and to offer serious alternatives to the Government.

I'm glad Mr Singh is mindful... And I think he and the WP can indeed (start thinking about) what sort of agenda you will offer Singaporeans and what you would do if you were to form the Government.

So, if there's one thing that I hope all of us can take away from this debate, it is this: That we, together in this House, both sides of the House, we stand for a democracy that is maturing, a serious government and a serious opposition. We say yes to all that. But we say no to populism and political opportunism ever taking root in this House and in Singapore.

MR SINGH: I don't think there's any difficulty for me or my colleagues to agree to that.

We know the future is not exactly smooth. There are a lot of unpredictable factors that we have to contend with. And in the course of debate in this House, we will be going back and forth at each other's proposals and ideas.

But insofar as populism and opportunism are concerned, I am quite certain that DPM Wong means that (this) ought to work both ways. It cannot be a case of pointing fingers at the Opposition and accusing it of that, when certain actions of ruling party politicians on the ground are no better.

But having said that, I accept DPM's concerns of our democracy, and certainly the Workers' Party (accepts, too). And I hope the Opposition in general will be mindful going forward and work towards the betterment of Singapore and Singaporeans.

Related topics

Pritam Singh Lawrence Wong Ong Ye Kung Tan See Leng

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