On today’s (7 July) Facebook Live broadcast hosted by Peoples Voice’s (PV) Lim Tean, he talked about the situation of a migrant workers’ dormitory at Seletar Link.
Noting how a large crowd of migrant workers were gathering at the dormitory without wearing face masks, he questioned what Manpower Minister Josephine Teo has been doing. He stressed that the COVID-19 disaster that hit migrant workers’ dormitories has been going on for four months, and yet nothing has been done to control the situation at the dormitories.
He also expressed alarm that community cases have shot up from one to 23 in the past two weeks, suggesting that the COVID-19 situation is in fact, not under control, unlike what the Government had claimed.
He then linked the way the ruling party handled the pandemic to how the ministers were paid extremely well, but incapable of putting people’s interests as top priority.
Apart from that, Mr Lim demanded “total transparency” on how Singaporeans’ CPF is being managed, remuneration of all top executives in the sovereign wealth funds, top civil servants, as well as the ministerial salaries and bonuses.
On behalf of PV, the chief pledged that they are going to slash the ministers’ pay by 70 per cent when they are in Government. They will also readjust the salaries of top civil servants accordingly.
He does not believe that the people who earn S$500,000 and above are entitled to be Singapore’s leaders.
Moving away from the neo-liberalism ideology
Mr Lim mentioned that the People’s Action Party (PAP) has been “stuck in the neo-liberalism model” for the past 40 years. He expressed that the PAP is “more willing to help the rich”, in reference to the trickle-down economy.
Noting that the world is moving away from this model, he believed that neo-liberalism will no longer work for future generations.
The party chief added that in order for current issues in Singapore to be changed, it is not just a matter of practice, but a matter of ideology as well. He slammed how the ruling party advocated that having a minimum wage “will cause the citizens to be more unemployed”.
Mr Lim pointed out that people nowadays want a government that cares, instead of just existing to “make a profit from its citizens”. He stressed that the hallmark of a first-world nation is to honour its pioneers, noting how elderly citizens are still working for a living.
He claimed that the Government has not been honest with Singaporeans with regards to CPF when people were promised they will withdraw their funds at 55 years old, but policy changes have resulted in the last payment at 90 years old.
“I think it is fundamentally unfair to Singaporeans when you are paying them a fixed rate of 2.5 per cent for the last 21 years. What are we doing pay our people 2.5 per cent?”
He urged the Singaporean government to move away from this ideology.
Arrogance of PAP
Mr Lim brought up the declining standard of living for the past 20 years because the cost of living had “shot up the roof”, implying the incompetency of the Government.
“Wages cannot possibly improve if productivity has not improved. If wages have stagnated, that is a sign that the productivity in this country has stagnated. The Government admitted a few years that the productivity was close to zero, and in some years, it was even in the negative.”
With this happening in Singapore, he was baffled at PAP’s Vivian Balakrishnan’s response at the GE2020 Debate claiming that productivity was increasing.
Pointing out that the PAP wanted Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat to be the next Prime Minister, the PV chief slammed that Mr Heng was “the worst Finance Minister in Singapore’s history”.
“We have had the worst bump of unproductive growth because productivity had been minimal, negligible, and even negative. And this is a man with no imagination on how to bring Singapore to the next level.”
He further emphasised the importance of making the right political decisions.
“Every direction PAP had taken us in the last 10 years had been the wrong direction. It had been a direction against the interests of the Singapore people and citizens.”
Lastly, Mr Lim assured all Singapore citizens to not be afraid to vote for alternative parties in the upcoming GE.
