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The debate between the governing People's Action Party (PAP) and main opposition Workers' Party (WP) on responsible and constructive politics continues as PAP's Chee Hong Tat took aim at what he perceived as WP's inconsistency in policy positions.

On GST

On Apr. 25, the PAP's newsletter Petir published an essay by Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport Chee Hong Tat.

Chee said that he was building on the theme of Singapore needing responsible and constructive politics that had been dominant during the debate on the President's Speech at the opening of the second session of Parliament.

While saying that Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh did not disagree with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's call for "a serious government and serious opposition", and to reject populism and political opportunism, Chee wondered if the opposition interpreted the call in the same way as the PAP.

Workers' Party accepts "reality" of GST at 7 per cent

Citing the debate that occurred between Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, Murali Pillai, and WP MP Leon Perera on the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Chee said that the WP has opposed the GST since its inception in 1993, as well as its three subsequent increases in 2003, 2004, and 2007.

"Before last Thursday, the WP had never said they accepted the GST," Chee said.

Chee disputed what Perera had said on Apr. 21, quoting Perera as saying that the WP “accept[ed] the reality of GST at seven per cent” since 2018", and now only rejected the two per cent increase. 

What Perera had said at the time was that:

"The position that we (the WP) have adopted, at least from that time, which I believe was 2018, is that we accept the reality of a GST at seven per cent.

Because the amount of revenue that is generated by seven per cent GST is so substantial, and it's become such a structural part of the government revenue mix, that to want to bring that down to zero would involve too many other trade offs."

Chee was surprised

Chee said that the WP had actually first stated their acceptance of the seven per cent GST at Apr. 21, and that he was surprised to hear Perera say that the WP accepted the reality of GST at seven per cent.

While he welcomed the change, and mooted the possibility of the WP one day accepting GST at 9 per cent as well, he questioned why this position shift had not been announced earlier and more openly.

Why, he wondered, did the WP keep "silent and vague" on the issues, through several exchanges and a general election campaign?

"A responsible opposition has to be honest and forthright about its views and positions," Chee said.

Chee on housing

He similarly criticised WP MP Louis Chua for co-authoring a Credit Suisse report in January 2023 that stated that public housing in Singapore was "affordable", and then a month later criticising the government for not providing affordable public housing, and calling for a further reduction in flat prices.

PAP MP Saktiandi Supaat pointed this out in Parliament on Apr. 19. You can watch a video of his speech here.

In his essay, Chee said that Chua was entitled to change his views, but that Chua has denied doing so. Chua said there was no contradiction between the report and his parliamentary statement.

In Chee's mind, this was "not credible" and that the "responsible and honest" thing for Chua would be to either "stick to his original professional views" or explain his position shift.

Chee ended by saying that:

"We must always keep Singapore politics upfront, responsible, and honest. We must never succumb to mistruths, half-truths, or untruths.

There is no point for politicians to wring their hands about our becoming a “post-truth” society, and then go on to say whatever they want to make a convenient political argument, or surreptitiously shift their positions without telling the public.

That will only land us with the kind of populist and irresponsible politics that has weakened so many established democracies." 

WP replies

In a response issued on Apr. 26, the WP responded to Chee's claims. WP was "surprised" that Chee "did not rise to debate in Parliament if he was unsatisfied with the replies from Mr Perera and Mr Chua."

The statement repeated Pritam Singh's claim in his Parliamentary speech that the government raised GST to "distract the attention of Singaporeans", and the government could have sought to clarify the issue in 2018 or any debate since then, and questioned "why bring it up now?"

It accused the government of itself engaging in "political opportunism", which, "ironically", Wong had warned against during the recent debate.

The statement addressed Chee's remark that the WP might "one day" accept a 9 per cent GST, and said that by the same token, the PAP could in the future adopt policy positions advocated by the WP today.

WP did not call for scrapping the GST entirely

The statement added that since 2018, the WP had not called for a GST reduction from seven to zero per cent. It mentioned that Perera had challenged Murali Pillai to name examples of such in 2018 or since, and no PAP MP had responded.

Any such call to effectively eliminate GST would have been made explicitly, the statement said.

The statement also said that if the PAP was to examine 15 to 20 year-old WP positions, turnabout was fair play, and questioned whether the government had "explicitly reversed it stand on extending HDB upgrading funded by taxpayers to opposition constituencies last, a policy introduced in the 1990s?"

"If the WP were to bring that up for debate in 2023, would that be constructive?" the statement added.

Considerations for commercial decisions

As for Louis Chua:

"(Chua) responded to the comments made in Parliament on the research paper he wrote in January 2023 in his capacity as a commercial research analyst. Neither Mr Chee nor any other PAP MP rose in Parliament to express dissatisfaction with Mr Chua’s reply and ask him for clarifications."

Chua said that the housing affordability report was a commercial research paper, intended to advise investors on how to make profits in the housing market.

According to the WP statement, the report stated that prices were affordable in that they did not curb sales transactions, or result in mass mortgage defaults, relevant to investors making investment decisions.

You can watch a video of his reply here.

He also said, "What may be favourable from an investment perspective may not exactly be favourable from a national interest perspective."

The WP statement ended by saying that the WP hoped Chee was prepared to debate in Parliament when he disagreed with WP positions.

"This would not be an unreasonable expectation of any serious government, anywhere in the world," it added.

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Top image via MCI/YouTube