The Singapore Parliament reopened on Monday, Aug. 31.

With Pioneer Single Member Constituency (SMC) Member of Parliament (MP) Patrick Tay moving the Motion of Thanks to express Parliament's thanks for the President's Address, five days of debate on the motion have started.

Here are seven quotes from MPs who spoke on the first day that stood out to us:

1. On role of opposition in Singapore's politics

Pritam Singh, Leader of the Opposition and MP for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC)

"The Workers' Party has always taken the position that when it is in the opposition, it owes its loyalty to the President, the Republic of Singapore and the people.

We have proven that we do not oppose the government for the sake of opposing. We back the government when national interests are at stake."

He added that Singaporeans should consider Singapore's relevance to the world from a broad perspective, as after all, everyone wants the country to thrive and be successful despite differences in political preferences.

2. On PMETs

Ang Wei Neng, MP for the West Coast GRC

"Before the Covid-19 pandemic, I had a chance to visit the Changi Business Park. When I stepped into a lift, there were many well-dressed people, apparently foreigners, and were speaking in a language that was foreign to me.

For the first time, I felt like a foreigner in my own country."

He continued to say that according to Manpower Minister Josephine Teo's Addenda to the President's Address, six out of 10 locals are employed in Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMET) jobs, which sounds "impressive". 

He also attributed the high number of Employment Pass and S Pass holders — 193,700 and 200,000 respective as of December 2019 — to the low total fertility rate in Singapore.

To maintain the size of Singapore's labour force, foreign workers are needed to supplement the number of local employees, he said.

Ang further advocated for a national HR committee led by a Minister to help maintain the "fine balance" between getting good jobs for Singaporeans and attracting foreign talent to the country.

3. On the government's relationship with the people

Lim Biow Chuan, MP for Mountbatten SMC

"The frequent feedback which I have received during the election is that the Government is arrogant; it is not willing to listen; the leaders are out of touch; the leaders are not humble.

Rightly or wrongly, there is also the perception is that there is bullying and unfair treatment of people who do not agree with our policies."

Saying he was saddened by the amount and vitriol he read about during the election campaign, he applauded the government for recognising the Leader of the Opposition, and urged the government to be more open to constructive criticism.

He also said the government should not treat politicians from other parties as enemies, but instead, assume that they want the best for Singapore even if they do not agree with all of the government's policies.

4. On mature workforce

Tan See Leng, MP for Marine Parade GRC

"Mature workers possess a significant treasure trove of experiential knowledge and practice wisdom... cannot be replaced by or gleaned from academic pursuits or qualifications.

Like what they say in Chinese: 姜是越老越辣的 – “the older the ginger, the spicier it get." There is significant value for companies to leverage on the expertise, and the skills sets of our mature and experienced Singaporeans."

Elaborating further, the Second Minister for Manpower and Trade and Industry said while he will continue to welcome global talents who bring valuable skills, he will not allow companies to discriminate against local workers.

5. On unity in diversity and supporting local products

Seah Kian Peng, MP for Marine Parade GRC

"But while this commonality may be hard in politics, it can be easy and abundant in public life.

Mr Speaker sir, you, Mr Pritam Singh, and I - we all love football although we support different teams; Having played football with both of you, I can say that Pritam is the best player amongst the three of us, by far. But we all love football. And, of course we all served in the SAF. Mr Speaker, you were a Brigadier General and both Pritam and I were many ranks below that. But you're certainly a better soldier than three of us."

He continued to say that similar to how they all have different vocations, but love the country and want to improve the lives of people, he hopes for Singapore to be the same too, to be kind to one another even during difficult times.

The NTUC Enterprise Group CEO also called for Singaporeans to support local producers and products, pointing out that doing so will help create jobs and strengthen the country's local products resiliency plans.

"At NTUC Fairprice, we too try to do our part. As an example, whilst Singapore imports some 75 per cent of eggs from overseas [largely Malaysia], at Fairprice 55 per cent of all eggs sold are from local farms.

An egg is an egg but I feel proud each time I eat one from local farms. And I do love eggs."

6. On election campaign

Dennis Tan, MP for Hougang

"So my point at the end of that section of my speech is really that the PAP team at Hougang has planted flags all around the coffee shops. This is something that I think back in 2015, I would never envisage planting Workers' Party flags around the Fengshan 85 market or around the coffee shops in Fengshan. I mean that was unthinkable to me."

Tan was responding to MP for Bukit Batok SMC Murali Pillai's counter to his speech on the topic of "good politics".

He had recounted an incident of complaints made to the Elections Department Singapore during GE2020 about his election posters and stated that his resident had told him she witnessed the PAP team pulling down his posters to below the minimum height required.

He also cited another incident of flags being planted in front of, and blocking, some of his banners.

Murali then asked if Tan would accept that the ELD would really deal with all these complaints in an even-handed way and questioned the basis of him suggesting that the PAP would use the power of incumbency against their opponents in an unfair way.

Tan agreed with Murali but pointed out that the various incidents he had brought up were examples of "petty and bad politics" which should not be encouraged.

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Top image edited from Parliament of Singapore/FB.