SINGAPORE: Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said on Friday (Apr 25) that the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) should “keep up closely” with what the People’s Action Party (PAP) is doing in terms of its policies, rather than accusing the government of having changed.
Dr Tan said this in response to the opposition’s party rally speeches on Thursday night, where PSP leaders said that the PAP fourth-generation leadership has “lost its way”.
During PSP’s first physical rally, its chief Leong Mun Wai said of the PAP: “On the governance front, we can see a general decline in the standards, in accountability, competence and ethics in recent years.”
“I don’t think the PAP government has ever lost its way. I think if anything at all, the PSP people who said those should have a look and have a think about all the policies that the PAP government has set up the framework and continue to tweak and refine to improve the lives of all of our fellow Singaporeans,” Dr Tan said.
“Remember what we are doing. We are doing to make sure that people like yourself, your generation, will continue to find Singapore a place that is prosperous, brimming with hope, full of opportunity.”
Dr Tan was speaking to CNA on Friday morning on the sidelines of his walkabout at a market in Teck Whye in Chua Chu Kang GRC, where he is leading the PAP slate of candidates.
Dr Tan also directly addressed something else PSP raised at the rally.
PSP’s candidate for Marymount SMC Jeffrey Khoo had called for stronger job protection and a minimum living wage.
In reply, Dr Tan said that instead of that, the Progressive Wage Model already put in place by the PAP government is “more targeted, more differentiated, more precise”.
“Today, the security officers, the lift maintenance, the landscape cleaners, all the occupations, the different sectors, all have their own base wages,” he said, adding that these workers also have a wage ladder that they can climb as they continue to upgrade themselves.
Dr Tan said that this policy was implemented thanks to the collaborative effort among the tripartite parties: the government, the labour movement and the employers.
“Everything that the PSP candidates talked at the rally last night, they talked about claiming credit for this, claiming credit for that. Don’t forget, it is this government, the PAP government, has put it on and we made it happen,” he said.
He added that there is no straightforward solution to such an issue.
“If anything at all, maybe it is because of the PSP who refuses to accept the fact that life is no longer binary.”
On PSP’s accusation of how PAP has changed, Dr Tan said that his party may have new members and a new resolve – a nod to the party’s general election campaigning slogan.
“But we are always the same, stoic party for you, for all Singaporeans,” he said
