SINGAPORE: The People’s Action Party (PAP) has responded to recent claims made by the Workers’ Party (WP) that 15 policies it had advocated for were later adopted “in some form” by the government.
In a post on Saturday (Apr 19) on the PAP’s blog, Petir, the ruling party said that many of these ideas were proposed earlier by its own Members of Parliament (MPs) and others.
“Unlike opposition parties elsewhere who habitually highlight government failures, the WP touts its alignment with PAP’s successes instead,” the party said.
“They agree so much with the PAP, they claim our policies came from them. Imitation, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.”
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“NO MONOPOLY ON IDEAS”
In its post, the PAP added that “no one has a monopoly on ideas”, and cited several examples where it said its MPs had raised similar ones years before the WP.
For instance, on parental leave, the PAP said its MPs began pushing for more flexible and generous parental leave as early as 2008 – 12 years before the WP included it in its 2020 manifesto.
On housing support, the PAP added that MP Carrie Tan proposed an interim rental subsidy in 2022 for families facing hardship, ahead of a similar proposal by WP’s Louis Chua in 2023.
“When suggestions are raised, the government needs time to weigh the trade-offs. Careful consideration is necessary, including assessing the implementation details, before suggestions can be converted into policies and then put into action,” the party added.
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Highlighting the WP’s proposed Redundancy Insurance scheme made in previous manifestos, the government realised WP’s scheme would impose additional costs on businesses and employees, the PAP said.
Instead, the government worked with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) to roll out the SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme.
This provides temporary help to unemployed workers without reducing their incentive to find meaningful work or burdening businesses and employees with extra costs, the party said.
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