Chan Chun Sing, the new Minister for Trade and Industry, extended his thanks to the Workers' Party stalwart and former Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang for his contributions towards "building a better Singapore."

Chan was speaking in Parliament on May 14 during the first day of debates on the President's Address by Halimah Yacob.

She gave the opening address of the second session of Parliament on May 7.

Appreciation for Workers' Party ex-chief

Speaking in Mandarin, Chan put on record the government’s appreciation of Low as leader of his party for the last 17 years.

“Although Mr Low is a member of the opposition, he is nevertheless a fellow Singaporean and very much a part of Team Singapore. While we may not always agree with his methods or perspectives, we nevertheless appreciate his efforts to work together to build a better Singapore as leader of the Workers’ Party,” said Chan.

“From his speeches, we can detect his pride in Singapore and his determination to defend our sovereignty.”

No need to agree with PAP

According to Chan, politics is not just about winning votes but about serving the country and its people.

Chan said: “Winning votes by stoking anger and unhappiness may be a common practice in politics elsewhere, but this is negative politics and it’s not constructive. To win the hearts and votes of our people, we must work hard to develop sound policies for our common future.”

“Agreeing with us is not the prerequisite. Agreeing to put Singapore first and foremost is the prerequisite. Our leadership model is to have overlapping generations of leadership teams to help the next generation do even better,” Chan also said.

A “never-ending” challenge for Singapore is to find “good people” to serve the country, he added.

Chan also said the PAP was looking forward to working with the WP's new Secretary-General, Pritam Singh, to "put Singapore and Singaporeans' interest first, always".

In response, Singh thanked Chan for his comments acknowledging Low’s contributions to the country and WP's role.

“The Workers’ Party will always bear in mind national interests in our deliberations and endeavours in the interests of Singapore and Singaporeans,” Singh said.

Looking outwards

Chan's speech focused on both global and domestic issues, touching upon Singapore's stance in the international arena.

Chan said that Singapore took a "principled stand" and remained neutral.

And those were some of the reasons why United States President Donald Trump and North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un chose to meet here for their historic summit.

He also commented that Singaporeans needed to have a deep understanding of global issues that shape world events.

He gave the example of China, a superpower which was not monolithic, but fast-evolving. China has now advanced beyond attracting foreign investors, and is looking to invest abroad.

Singaporeans therefore need to understand the different "personalities and provinces" so that we can continue to be a valued business partner for China, and offer unique solutions as we have learnt from both the East and West.

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Looking inwards

On the domestic front, Chan said that Singapore not only needed to develop good systems, but it also needed to constantly update them to meet our changing needs.

He said that this had been the government's approach to issues such as National Service, housing, CPF, and politically-related issues like the Group Representation Constituency system and the Elected Presidency.

Chan added that Singapore's leadership model was based on "overlapping generations" of leadership teams, so that the next generation can do better.

He said that it was important for Singapore's survival to have a strong and cohesive team at the helm, so that others would take Singapore seriously and work with us.

Top image via Parliament