Following the launch of his book, Journey in Blue, Workers’ Party (WP)’s Yee Jenn Jong presented a copy to Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam at his office on Monday (18 January).
Sharing a photo of the moment on his Facebook page, Mr Yee said he has sent segments of the manuscript of his book to various people, including those he had mentioned in the book about something they said to me.
“I thank SM Tharman for responding then with his comments on the following piece which I had written about a conversation we had in the parliament tea room when he was DPM and Minister for Finance,” he added.
Mr Yee also shared an excerpt from the book in which he described Mr Shanmugaratnam as a “gracious person”.
It was during a round of budget speeches in Parliament when Mr Yee had called for the consolidation of industries as a way to ramp up productivity and for the Ministry of Finance to improve incentives to encourage mergers and acquisitions.
“At the end of all the speeches of that Budget, in the tearoom, Tharman saw me, came over, and said that my speech was very interesting and stood out for having focused on the need for consolidation,” wrote Mr Yee in the excerpt. “It was good to note that he was listening.”
Mr Yee added that the MOF later proposed several new incentives to facilitate mergers and acquisitions.
In his Facebook post, Mr Yee noted that there will be another “marathon Parliament session” for Budget 2021 next month, stressing that job preservation remains an important priority as the world is still facing the challenges of COVID-19 and companies continue to struggle.
Journey in Blue: A Peek into the Workers’ Party of Singapore is available at all major bookstores. You can also get your hands on an autographed copy at shopee.com/faithyee.