Us Together
Mr Speaker
Over four months have flown by since the General Elections, and it feels like we have since lived a lifetime. Our journey in Sengkang started in 2020, and the next five years went by like a rollercoaster. We were carried through ups and downs, in no small part due to those who stood by us, and who were our rocks as we were tossed around by turbulence. Through this, our team of volunteers showed up every day, week after week, all doing their part to make sure that we were able to carry on our work within the community, for our residents in Sengkang. And for that, we are deeply grateful.
These five years have crystallised how being an elected Member of Parliament is an incredible privilege and responsibility afforded to us here in this House. We saw joy and pride in the eyes of parents, sharing pictures of how much their children have grown, visiting our MPS to show us with excitement their children’s Edusave awards. We also sat with residents grieving loved ones and other losses. Thank you for sharing these moments with us. We look forward to working alongside you to deepen and continue the relationship to work together to make Sengkang and Singapore a better place for all.
The Power of Us
A theme that has played in my mind on results night – and ever since – is the power of Us. And not just the strength of Us, but also the full spectrum of who we are as a people: our resilience, our skills and our values, and our limitations, mistakes and flaws. And instead of viewing these as opposite sides of the coin, I have come to see these as part of the richness of the tapestry that comprises our towns, our society, and our people.
Compared with five years ago, the world has undergone many changes. Even as memories fade of the pains and coming together in the face of Covid, we see living pressures continue to mount. Global conflicts and the straining of the previously accepted world order add to concerns about climate change, and it is no wonder that there is so much talk about climate anxiety, a mental health crisis. We are also faced with ongoing challenges to our own food security in Singapore, and how to forge forward to balance where our country sits in a world where sustainability challenges seem insurmountable.
Additionally, when financial pressures grow, community often takes the back seat. Individuals, families and social relationships are put under strain, physical and mental health declines, civic engagement drops, and people withdraw from social activities to save money or because they feel ashamed. In communities, social capital may be weakened, diminishing community resilience, risking a downward spiral where vulnerable groups end up even more disproportionately affected by weak economic winds.
These are not just abstract concepts. Ask ourselves: compared with five years ago, are we a stronger, kinder, more inclusive society? In my maiden speech back in 2020, I talked about how I felt that the PERCEPTION of a lack of social mobility and the presence of elitism – regardless of ‘data’ – is a real and often overlooked danger.
More than five years on, where are we? This year, business https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/singapore/smes/less-half-small-and-mid-sized-regional-firms-upbeat-about-business-outlook-post-us-tariffs-uob-study and employment https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/singapore/hiring-sentiment-cools-singapore-only-37-plan-hire-q4-manpowergroup-survey sentiment surveys show dips, and many expect these to remain depressed. How are we faring in terms of the PERCEPTION that our people have of our much-cherished system of meritocracy?
How often too over the last five years have we had fellow Singaporeans give us a shrug and ask: what to do? Not because we have given up, but because we feel pressed up against forces that are just so strong. So what have we done to prevent this feeling of helplessness in the face of global uncertainty and challenge from taking root?
I believe that the answer to this is the power of community, of a people-centred community. Human beings are essentially social in nature, relying on one another for our well-being. In a world where scarcity starts to dominate, it is where we have to band together to make best use of whatever resources we have, to pool our strengths.
Thus, I have been deeply heartened that in the months since our election in May this year, we have been approached by numerous individuals and organisations seeking to partner us toward the betterment of our Sengkang residents. This deepening of the networks of our community in Sengkang and beyond is something we deeply appreciate.
From initiatives to create stronger connections within the community, to befrienders programmes to better support those in distress, to fostering deep and meaningful integration with those living with disabilities, and encouraging residents to explore and engage more with home-based businesses within their community. These are some examples of groups that have reached out to us. They hope that by working with the elected members of parliaments, the elected councillors of the town council, they could join us in ensuring our resources are maximised for the good of our residents.
These efforts may seem small, particularly when compared against huge movements or organisations such national-level agencies like the People’s Association. However, they have given my party colleagues and I invaluable insight and a chance to explore these additional facets of the community, and get to know our people better as their elected representatives. This would eventually translate and inform our work as legislators here in this House. They are also an important acknowledgement that the voice of our people matters: that their collective choice to send my colleagues and I into this House is legitimate and accepted.
I also hope that this trickle will eventually bring us to more collaborations, more acceptance that political diversity is important and here to stay. Community partners should eventually see us as nodes through which we help our communities overcome challenges, fix problems, and grow beyond their current limitations. Ultimately, my hope is that this leads to a shift towards working for a country that is ultimately better able to adapt to myriad challenges.
And as I mentioned earlier, while knowing our strengths is key, we also have to sit with our limitations, to truly see our flaws candidly. This can be discomforting, even raw and terrifying, but this honesty and ability to sit with our past and current shortcomings is how we enable our growth as a country to happen.
So I believe that it is not just about whether it is ‘me first or even ‘we first’, but ‘us together’.
We have spoken about the government’s planned evolution from “Me First” to “We First” here. The government has rightly – like any sensible government – spoken about national security, nimble economy, and increased assurance at every stage of life. But what I hope to add is a recognition of WHY “Me First” as an ideology emerged amidst the wider formation of our nation. We have moved from the first formal residents hundreds of years ago to informal immigration from the region, and our merger and de-merger with Malaysia.
I have noticed too that “Me First” is often said to be a natural response to our highly financialised and immigration-centric society and economy. Owning the fanciest cars, getting the top MNC jobs, owning freehold landed property as a means of overcoming the constraints of the country that we live in. Yet we are always told that everything around us will change, everything is insecure, we risk losing it all.
And under this cloud of scarcity, living out “Me First”, it is no wonder we often see this response as greed, selfishness, sharp elbows, no care for the weak in the society, no care for those without a vote, no care for the planet we share.
Our response to this less than ideal state is not to be anti-immigrant or anti-capitalist. Particularly as our country has been built off an environment that is the opposite. But as a first response, I hope we can once more look at the dashboard of how to measure progress which I spoke about during the last few Budgets.
This measurement of outcomes apart from GDP would help us ensure that some things in the public sphere would NOT change, so that we may find alternative spheres of wealth. Rather than just be guided by economical thinking, heritage should be kept alive, including our schools, community spaces, natural spaces, that we and our parents went to. We should stem the erasure of community heritage, currently perceived to be under threat of forces such as rent and high operating costs. Our non-physical cultures – in the form of languages, arts, hobbies – need to be supported, as they are threatened by “Me First” ideology.
The first step to do so is to start ways in which to quantify these sources of wealth, as I have called for previously with the developmental dashboard. It is thus very exciting to learn more about initiatives such as the collaboration between NUS and the Tsao Pao Chee institute to explore – using Singapore and China as case studies – a new framework integrating EESG principles with inner development. The hope is that this work can help governments design systems rooted in sustainability, dignity and shared purpose, beyond just GDP as a measure of success.
The government also paints a tender picture of a community where the opposite of “Me First” comprises citizens who give up a seat on the train, taking the initiative. But there are also things which the government should not directly try to affect. Using the analogy of a garden, we should note the symbiotic interactions between those living in it, the harmony between macrofauna and microfauna down to tiny insects, and the essential interactions in the soil to help a garden thrive. As policymaker and enforcer of the law, the government plays the role of the gardener who occasionally pulls out infestations, provides bigger plots, and waters the plants during times of drought. Having good intentions to prune carefully and balance fertiliser and pest control is essential, but not enough. The government must also support the garden to allow it space to breathe. We must have reliable physical and intangible spaces within the garden – combined with accessible ways of moving – that allow people to meet one another, like the void decks of old. How can we have a target population for a garden when we haven’t made space for denizens to discover themselves and grow? We must allow space for some rewilding and stop worrying overly about the precise shape of our community. We must trust that by removing barriers, the inherent wisdom of a population with a mindset of abundance will eventually guide itself to an ever-evolving system that encourages us to flourish TOGETHER.
Mr Speaker, in Chinese.
非常感谢大家在近几年给我和工人党同事的支持。除了服务选民，我们在这届国会，会依然努力执行国人委托给我们的任务。在立法过程上，继续必要施政监督和权力制衡。一个健全的政治体制，需要有效即合理反映社会上不同的声音，包括少数利益，避免多数垄断政治。作为一党独大的议场中，少有的在野声音之一，责任更为重大。
今年建国60周年，作为新加坡人，我们应该为大家共同努力的成就感到骄傲，为我们的成功感到庆幸。新加坡无论独立后、殖民时期，还是更早的时间，就是一个容纳多种不同族群、宗教信仰、语言文化的社会。相互尊重、融合、對事情維持開放的態度，是新加坡成功背后的基础。面对动荡和不明确的外部局势，更需要珍惜国家和社会的不同样貌，让我们与不同立场的人沟通、对话，寻找合作空间。
希望摅诚交流，而从中学习，要的是彼此包容，虚心聆听、诚恳分享、求同存异，而不是刻意回避或无谓保留，更不应该是一言堂。毕竟，君子和而不同，小人同而不和，硬要对方接纳自己，未必更和谐，更包容。在难以预测的环境下，需要的是大胆思考和建立桥梁。
我们必须理解多元是力量，不是可怕的对立，或要恐惧的撕裂。新加坡需要自信、勇气和度量，正面面对多面向的现实。
对不同背景的新加坡人而言，关键不应该是国家意识是否挂在嘴上，而是寻求谅解，彼此给予支持和鼓励，协力向前行。
Finally, the health of our governance institutions, as a reminder of what we must do to set us on a path for an even brighter tomorrow.
Singapore is safe, stable, and in many ways successful. But as the saying goes – “past performance is not a guarantee of future success”. It is timely to ask if we have the right governance processes to safeguard these outcomes in the long term.
In a changing world, we keep emphasizing the need for institutional safeguards such as ombudsmans, select committees, entrenching the independence of the elections department – not to check a box or just because it is an abstract concept we deem important. We do so because these are real, important mechanisms for any nation to ensure that its future stability and gains are protected for many generations to come.
Institutional safeguards also come in the form of oversight in the way our public bodies and public service operate, a clearer perceived neutrality of institutions like the People’s Association to ensure public resources are not enmeshed with political goals. Even in the way we allow the media and independent voices to thrive without the shadow of POFMA overreach.
These are important, foundational pillars to ensure that the excesses of no individual person or party can undo the successes we are proud of, and that we will get policies right more often than we will get them wrong.
They are not perfect, but they are designed to hold back the worst excesses, even when politics gets heated. We need to ensure our guardrails are robust, while also working to hope our politics never gets to that point of needing it. Because no country, not even Singapore, is immune to shocks, to mistakes, or to excesses, and we must design processes that ensure continuity and resilience
To close, I also believe that the government has a clear mandate, with much political capital to spare in order to allow longer-term policies. But many Singaporeans would join my party colleagues and I in thinking that the sign of a truly healthy Singapore is one where the colours worn by the elected Member of Parliament should not matter when we work within the community. I wish the new government all the best and success in delivering for Singapore, because that is good for all of us. For while we may disagree on approaches, policies, implementation of economic strategies, the one thing that truly unites all of us here, is the staunch belief that we will see Singapore succeed. And for that, all of us here in this House should hold our heads high as we work for the betterment of Singapore, for the safety, and the future of all those whom we love more than love itself.
Thank you.
