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Leon Perera, Member of Parliament of the Workers' Party, addressed remarks made by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on the role of the opposition in Singapore politics.

In response to Wong's call on the opposition to provide concrete alternative ideas, Perera said the Workers' Party has been doing so.

Addressing Lawrence Wong's remarks

Perera brought up Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's comments in Parliament on Apr. 17, calling for the opposition to offer concrete alternative policy ideas.

Wong said, "In this debate, and over the course of the remaining term of government, I look forward to hearing concrete alternatives from the opposition – not just opportunistic or populist ideas to chip away, bit by bit, at trust in government, but a serious alternative agenda for an alternative government."

However, Perera said, "We have been doing this."

He said the Workers' Party offers alternative policies that "differ substantially" from the PAP's ideas, such as slowing the growth of reserves to enhance liveability, social justice and social mobility, and reducing BTO prices based on tweaks to the land valuation formula.

Perera said he had "déjà vu", debating a similar issue about what the PAP said about the WP's housing paper "a few weeks ago." He added:

"Madam Deputy Speaker, let us be honest in our political debates. Honest. Not going for false, flashy soundbites that smear our opponents, that the media then "viralise", with huge headlines. I don’t want my children to grow up in a post-truth society."

How to foster an active citizenry?

Earlier in his speech, Perera referred to President Halimah Yacob's Address, which called for an active citizenry and a passionate civil society while avoiding political polarisation and gridlock.

Perera said such calls are "not new", but added that he felt "unease", which was reflected in a comment by former Straits Times editor Bertha Henson.

She said that Singapore does not have a two-party system nor a civil society that "will take to the streets", but we hear about divisive politics as though we are "teetering on the edge of an abyss."

Perera also asserted that disagreement or agreeing to disagree does not imply disrespect.

He said that during the housing debate, the opposition did not gloss over the trade-offs, but explained them.

Perera said we would not want a citizenry that is active in the democracy of deeds but blind, apathetic or timid in thinking. He added that "we should not strive for a political landscape where the public innately trusts the government but innately distrusts the opposition or vice-versa."

Building a politically-educated populace

Instead, Perera said, we should aim for a politically-educated populace that accords trust based on facts and evidence from independent institutions that function as intended.

He gave a few suggestions on how to strengthen the public's confidence in an open society, including creating an ombudsman with an investigative capacity and allowing opposition MPs to engage school students alongside MPs from the ruling party.

"We need to mould the mental habits of our citizens from a young age. Nurture independent, critical thinking. Exposing them only to PAP politicians in schools, and barring non-PAP ones in most student engagement contexts does not achieve this.

Our future citizens need to be able to see both sides of a question in a way that will inoculate them from the demagogues and foreign interference attempts of the future."

Sylvia Lim on reducing ageism

In her own speech, Workers' Party Chair Sylvia Lim spoke about fighting ageism in society.

Aside from laws and policies, she said education and increasing contact between generations would help.

She mentioned that public discourse, such as Parliamentary debates, could refrain from making comments like "silver tsunami" which could inadvertently perpetuate ageist stereotypes. Lim added:

"As for increasing intergenerational contacts, I fully support HDB’s move to evolve from building blocks with only senior apartments, to having mixed blocks of flats for seniors and flats owned by younger families.

This provides opportunities for cross-generation neighbourly activities such as gardening, games and mutual care. Another Singapore initiative was cited positively by the WHO – that of pairing seniors from activity centres with young people to play video games together."

She said that research showed that aside from reducing ageist attitudes, such initiatives strengthen inter-generational solidarity and had psychological benefits for older folks.