SDP launches campaign for upcoming general election, with foreign labour & immigration among key issues

Although a general election has not yet been called, the government will have to call a new election before November 2025.

Speaking at the event were the party’s chairman Paul Tambyah and Secretary General Chee Soon Juan.

Timing of the launch

Tambyah opened the event addressing the question of timing, and why the SDP was launching its campaign now.

He said time was needed to mount a "credible campaign", including mobilising volunteers, updating their policies, preparing social media strategies, and getting to know residents.

But Tambyah also called attention to the fact that the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) has not yet been formed, and questioned how the EBRC decided on matters like the size and boundaries of constituencies.

"And that's partly why we need such a long lead time," he said, adding:

"And there is no way of knowing which constituencies will disappear and which will remain, which will merge, or which will be divided."

Tambyah reiterated the party's position that Singapore's population growth was due to immigration and not births, saying this has put "tremendous strain" on infrastructure here.

Tambyah said that the SDP's policy suggestions to address these issues had been "adapted and adopted by the PAP but in a watered down form".

He also took the time to thank activists for the SDP, telling the assembled crowd not to be afraid of legal measures such as POFMA, saying that the party had been one of the first victims of POFMA, and describing it as a bad law.

Four issues

Sec-Gen Chee then took the podium to speak about the four policy positions that the party would focus on during its election campaign: productivity, cost of living, inequality, and national identity.

The SDP would highlight how the PAP government had failed to improve productivity adequately over the past decade, despite it drawing attention to it as a major policy concern, Chee said.

Chee cited several studies done over the past decade suggesting that productivity growth was lacking, and that Singapore's productivity growth was underperforming below what was needed to supply improved living standards.

Chee said a continued reliance on foreign labour and foreign workers was a reason for the lower productivity, saying that businesses in Singapore utilised cheap labour rather than looking for real productivity improvements.

He then turned to the topic of reliance on foreign labour and immigration, a theme that anchored all four of his points.

When it came to cost of living, he cited the increasing cost of HDB resale flats and private properties.

Chee also cited the example of rich foreigners buying freehold land which they could pass on to their children without an inheritance tax, while Singaporeans, who generally bought HDB flats on 99-year leases, could not effectively pass on property to their successors.

He said property ownership could therefore lead to "growing disparity in wealth", and thus inequality.

Chee went on to call on the PAP government to say in no uncertain terms that it will significantly reduce the inflow of foreign workers.

"The PAP must tell Singaporeans specifically, how much it will reduce the inflow of foreign workers and by when. Give us figures," Chee said.

Should this not happen, Chee said SDP would "work towards proposing specific cuts". He said:

"We will form a working committee, work with economists, work with organisational specialists, to come up with credible proposals so that we can tell Singaporeans what exactly should be done."

Panel discussion

After the speeches, there was a panel discussion responding to the findings of the Forward Singapore consultation exercise, by a panel comprising of SDP CEC member and political scientist James Gomez, fellow CEC member and party veteran Surayah Akbar, and party vice chairman Brian Lim.

Gomez began by saying that the exercise had not been open enough in sharing who had participated, not offering enough information about their work and economic profile, ethnicity, or age.

He expressed his disappointment in the process, calling it a "motherhood national transition statement", saying that the results of the Forward Singapore exercise would not be effective in providing meaningful change in Singapore.

Akbar shared how the party was planning to campaign in the upcoming contest, and how the SDP considered the internet to be an important platform for the campaign.

The party's Young Democrats and its communications and branding department was "working tirelessly to work out ways to communicate with the youth", especially given the rise of platforms such as TikTok, Twitch, and Instagram.

But she said the party would not discount the importance of groundwork and community outreach, and it was important for the party to meet and hold conversations with residents.

"In fact, we already began visiting residents a couple of months after the last general election in 2020," she said.

The final speaker, Brian Lim, who had previously contested in Marsiling-Yew Tee, categorically stated that the SDP was "not a xenophobic party", citing its affiliation with "many friends from around the region".

However, Lim said, if immigration policy does not "bring good effect to the people", SDP would "make this our main election issue".

Lim also said that the party would continue to push the "out of bounds" markers in Singapore, pushing for more civil and political space.

Lim said that this was the party's role and legacy in its nearly 44 years of existence, a legacy it intended to uphold.

Would controversies influence electoral prospects?

Chee was asked whether the SDP's electoral prospects might be impacted by recent political controversies involving then-Members of Parliament from PAP and the Workers' Party.

He said he felt that people see these incidents as "water under the bridge" and that they were "looking forward to the issues" raised by the SDP and their own future.