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The following is an excerpt from Yawning Bread
Has the People’s Action Party (PAP) no sense of shame? Right after the Workers’ Party released its manifesto,
Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng called on voters yesterday to look beyond attractive proposals in the Workers’ Party’s (WP) manifesto and ask the opposition party for a detailed explanation of how it plans to implement the ideas.
‘Like in all brochures that companies put out, you have to drill down to the details,’ he said on the sidelines of a community event in Bishan. ‘What do they mean by the specific recommendations?’
– Straits Times, 11 April 2011, ‘Dig deeper, ask WP for details’
Wong must have known what would be in his own party’s manifesto. It must have been ready even as he took potshots at the Workers’ Party’s, for the PAP themselves released theirs only a week later on 17 April 2011. As far as specific proposals go, the Workers’ Party’s 17,440-word tome (excluding the table of contents) was chockful of them. The PAP’s — a mere 1,688 words (including Lee Hsien Loong’s foreword) — had none.
Instead we find line after line of feel-good statements, such as:
- Deepen R&D and innovation in every industry, so that companies can come up with new products and services to grow their businesses
- Reward work and the spirit of self-reliance, by enhancing incomes through Workfare
- Offer more support for children with learning difficulties and special needs
- Enhance our green spaces and blue waters, and expand opportunities for recreation around the island, including building the new Sports Hub
- Encourage our youth to pursue causes they believe in and take the initiative to build a green and sustainable society
Surely, citizens should scrutinise the PAP’s manifesto too? Perhaps we can compare the two? Let’s just take one example, say, the third bullet point above. What does the Workers’ Party have to say on the same subject?
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