Singapore Democrats
As elections loom, the Singapore Democrats will be reaching out to voters with a message that speaks to your concerns. The message is of a competent, constructive, and compassionate opposition party speaking up and fighting on your behalf. It is also a message of a clear alternative vision.
We know that Singaporeans work hard for our economic progress. But more and more we aren’t sharing in the prosperity we are creating. Our incomes are not able to keep up with the high cost of living.
And yet the PAP says the best way to future prosperity is to bring in more foreign workers. Already our population has hit 5.1 million. This rapid increase has caused our jobs to be threatened, our wages to be suppressed and the prices – especially of HDB flats – to skyrocket. Frighteningly, the PAP wants to increase our population to 6.5 million by bringing in even more foreigners.
All this must change. If elected the Singapore Democratic Party will work to:
1. Bring down the cost of living. Much of the inflation is caused by increases in the GST, ERP, HDB prices and so on. They must be reduced to ease the financial burden on the people. We will elaborate on this in a subsequent post.
2. Raise your income through policies such as minimum wage. Low wages not only make life a misery but also makes it very difficult for Singaporeans to save for old age.
3. Stop the PAP from raising our population to 6.5 million. We want to rely more on Singaporeans and less on cheap foreign labour. An influx of foreign workers will only lower wages further because if there are more workers in the country, then employers can pick and choose the ones who will work longer and longer for less and less.
4. Build an economy based on an education system that will facilitate development of intelligent and creative citizens.
5. Cap the ministers’ salaries at 20 times the median wage of Singaporeans (they are currently about 80 to 100 times).
Life is tough and the PAP is not listening to our concerns. We feel a sense of resentment, frustration and struggle. There isn’t a motivation to work hard, to think up new solutions to old problems, to be innovative.
The PAP has run out of solutions to boost our economy other than suppressing our wages. It has no fresh ideas to take Singapore forward. It doesn’t invest enough in the education of our children. If all we have to offer is cheap labour, then we don’t need intelligent, thinking and energetic young people; we just need cheap labour. In the long term, can we really be competitive?
A fresh and vigorous opposition in Parliament, working on your behalf, can hold the PAP to account, examine its policies and make sure the government serves you.
The Singapore Democrats pledge to continue to be constructive by proposing new solutions to our economic and social problems. We have published our alternative economic programme where we have laid out our proposals and ideas.
We will take all your concerns with us to Parliament. SDP will ask PAP the tough questions you want to ask and raise your concerns with the government.
Singaporeans are faced with grave problems. In times like these you need a competent, constructive and compassionate voice in parliament. The SDP is that voice.