Surveys by NTUC need to be open and transparent

According to its website, The National Trades Union Congress's (NTUC) mission is "to help Singapore stay competitive and working people remain employable for life; to enhance the social status and well-being of our members and working people; and to build a strong, responsible and caring labour movement. NTUC's vision is to be an inclusive labour movement for all collars, ages and nationalities.

NTUC is at the heart of the Labour Movement, which comprises 57 affiliated unions, two affiliated associations, 10 social enterprises, six related organisations as well as a growing ecosystem of U Associates and enterprise partners."

In March this year, in the midst of the GST furore which led to People's Action Party ministers seemingly ganging up on Workers Party's Silvia Lim to issue an apology over her comments on whether did the government run "test balloons" to gauge the public sentiment on the increase of GST after promising that there will be no hikes after the General Election.

However, The Online Citizen reported that NTUC ran a survey in November 2017 prior to Minister Heng Swee Keat's announcement of the GST hike in February 2018. While NTUC did not respond to TOC's query, NTUC subsequently confirmed that it did conduct a survey on this very issue. For the purposes of this article, let's call this saga: "Balloongate".

NTUC justified its Balloongate survey (without addressing the timing of the surveys) by stating that the institute had been conducting an average of 10 feedback exercises each year since he started heading it in 2015. "As the voice for working people, the labour movement needs to be on top of their concerns. As such, we regularly gather feedback, both formally and informally... Naturally, this would include the national Budget."

That NTUC conducts so many surveys was news to me.

Who gets the results of the surveys? Are these surveys objectively commissioned by NTUC to get a gauge of what people need? Who funds these surveys? The answers to these questions are important especially in light of the information age where data is king. Through data, perceptions and thinking can be manipulated without people even realising. The Cambridge Analytica saga is a recent example of the dangers of this.

The way the ministers reacted over Balloongate made me think that Sylvia Lim's statements were perhaps not far off the mark.

But I digress. For now, I am more concerned about another survey conducted by NTUC in relation to Parliamentary sessions. In this survey, participants are asked to pick which speeches in Parliament were memorable and why.

While the questions are innocuous enough, it is the "why" that is curious. What are the purposes of these questions? Who has commissioned this survey and why? What has this got to do with labour and employment that makes it within NTUC's purview?

Some of the Parliamentary speeches being polled were related to the SAF deaths and future PM candidates. Ostensibly, I cannot see the link with labour or employment.

NTUC is a trade union, not an arm of the ruling party. If it is commissioning surveys on behalf of the PAP majority government, they need to explain why this is necessary and how this correlates with their official function. This transparency will reassure Singaporeans that there is no misuse of state functions and no blurring of the lines.

While I am not alleging any misuse or any sinister purposes behind these surveys, I do think that procedures on how and why these things are organised need to be open and transparent. This is especially the case given how data can be misused. A more open policy will also strengthen both the PAP and NTUC's reputation of honesty which can only be a good thing.

This entry was posted in Opinion.

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