In a recent Facebook post, the retired ESM Goh Chok Tong called the official appointment of Pritam as Leader of the Opposition a “very significant move” by PM Lee. Mr Goh added: “Our opposition MPs and NCMPs will now have to go beyond merely serving as a check-and-balance. They can put forward their alternative policies and solutions so that Singaporeans would know the choices available, besides the Government’s.”
Mr Goh must have been in parliament when the WP proposed our alternative A Dynamic Population For A Sustainable Singapore, or when we proposed our alternative model for ministerial salaries. I was deeply involved in those. I had also presented various proposals in education and early childhood during my time in parliament, amongst others. Most of what I had proposed for reforms to the early childhood sector have now been adopted in one form or another. When I had proposed them early in my parliament term, the proposals were new at that time. Perhaps others had proposed similar policy transformation to the sector that I had called for, but not in parliament before I did, unless I am mistaken. I am not claiming credit for proposing these persistently. Just because the government does not acknowledge our contributions when changes were made does not mean that the opposition did not propose anything.
Similarly, I had persistently called for all primary schools to have Student Care inside the school, and the proposal was brushed aside. I went through extensive effort on my own to even call many existing SC centres within schools to better understand the situation of urgent shortage of places. Some time later, MOE announced that all primary schools would eventually have SC centres. I was the first to propose in parliament that we could implement laws to punish companies outside of Singapore for transboundary haze. That was eventually done. There were many other proposals I had made which are not yet implemented but I hope will eventually be. These include through-train primary to secondary schools and smaller class sizes.
The WP had also made various significant proposals, done with extensive consultation with industry experts. These include Redundancy Insurance and alternatives to the HDB decaying lease issue. There are other policy ideas, proposed within parliament and outside (for those like myself who are now not in parliament).
Sure, the move to have an official Leader of the Opposition with government-funded staffing and resources is a significant first step. I hope data and the intent behind impending policy changes can be shared more openly with those in the opposition. In my time in parliament, I often had to probe and dig, and use various creative ways to file parliamentary questions because we sometimes get evasive answers. I cite my probe into scholarships for foreign students as one example. You can google for more details on this topic and judge for yourself by looking at the answers that I had been given.
I hope the 14th parliament will be a better experience for the opposition MPs. I am writing this to dispute that WP is just check and balance, that we just nudge the government to do a bit better here and there.
I think if there is to be a more significant change, it should be that elected opposition MPs must be allowed to use grassroots facilities, particularly the PA resources and decide on use of Community Improvement Funds. There is absolutely no need for the PAP to appoint their grassroots advisor. There is no need for WP elected MPs to have to get permission from GRAs for use of community funds from taxpapers’ monies. Contrary to what some try to portray that GRAs are doing the ‘sai kang’ or dirty work on behalf of residents, the Town Council where the real ‘sai kang’ are, is run by the elected MPs. GRAs basically just give the PAP a foothold in the constituency to launch their attack at the next election. There is no need for GRAs to have to write letters on behalf of residents when those by elected opposition MPs will suffice.
The road to a first world parliament continues. Let’s us continue to do more. A big ‘thank you’ to Singaporeans whose determination to see a fairer political system is now bearing some fruits.
Note: This article was first written as a Facebook post and re-posted here (with minor edits) for easier future referencing.
