The People’s Action Party government’s approach has always been to bring Singaporeans together, particularly on difficult issues, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Wednesday (April 30).
Referring to the repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code, the wearing of tudung by Muslim female workers in healthcare settings, as well as the recent Israel-Hamas conflict, PM Wong said that building consensus was in the PAP’s DNA.
“We try to forge as wide a national consensus as possible on these issues and to make sure we continue to expand our common ground and bring Singaporeans together so as not to accentuate our differences nor to seek to exploit these differences.”
“That’s the PAP way. That’s the PAP’s DNA,” PM Wong, who is also the party’s secretary-general, said after a visit to a public housing estate at Tampines North with the Tampines GRC team and Desmond Choo, the PAP candidate for Tampines Changkat SMC.
“That’s how, over the decades, we have been able to bring Singaporeans together, unite our people and forge a much stronger Singaporean identity today, and we will continue to take that approach.”
PM Wong said what he considered negative politics were the personal negative attacks on Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong and the rest of the PAP’s Punggol GRC team during a WP rally.
“That kind of negative politics, in my view, is unwarranted.”
PM Wong: ‘Policies will always be fine-tuned with the input of Singaporeans.’
PM Wong acknowledged that the PAP’s policies are not perfect and emphasised that they continue to be improved and finetuned, “we do keep on doing better, as our policies have been over the decades.”
“That’s what the PAP does. We listen to every voice. We believe that every voice matters, and we will continue this listening engagement to make sure that we always do better for Singaporeans.”
However, PM Wong noted that having more voices does not necessarily lead to better outcomes because it depends on the “quality of the inputs in parliament.”
He noted that overall Singapore has a good system, whether in healthcare, addressing people with disabilities, housing, or education. “You look at where we stand in international league tables, we do quite well.”
However, he acknowledged that it gives little comfort to any individual who comes up against a system, finds that their needs, their applications, that there are obstacles, and they feel frustrated.
“I always take the view that there is room to improve. There’s room to do better. We are not perfect, and it’s that spirit of continued learning and improvement.”
The right candidates, the right ideals
As the election campaign enters the last stretch, PM Wong highlighted three areas for Singaporeans to consider.
First, this election is about the future of Singaporeans, their families and their children, in a very changed world where they are facing “serious and growing challenges, challenges which will impact on issues that matter deeply to Singaporeans”.
Second, PM Wong said this election is about choosing the right candidates – “people who are honest, trustworthy, of good character”, who can serve residents in their constituencies well and represent them in Parliament.
He added that some of the candidates will form the leadership team to govern Singapore and help steer Singapore through the storms that they are facing and “take us to even greater heights and secure a brighter future for everyone”.
Third, this election is about “our ideals, what we want Singapore to be, the society that we envisage for ourselves, especially a harmonious, multiracial, and multi-religious society,” he said.
“I would ask Singaporeans to consider carefully what the implications are, and I also ask you to give me and my PAP team a chance to do our best for you.”
Tampines will be a model town: Masagos Zulkifli
Mr Masagos Zulkifli, who is leading the PAP team in Tampines GRC, said that he wanted to make Tampines a “model town”, adding that this could be done only by working together with the residents.
He highlighted that Our Tampines Hub was a testament to how the PAP team works with the community, and how his team had “listened to residents” and even “tried to incorporate what residents wanted, even after the design was completed”.
He added that if the PAP team is elected, Senior Parliamentary Secretary Baey Yam Keng would be tasked to lead the town council, replacing Desmond Choo.
