Lim Tean says Singaporeans get the short end of the stick, referring to Singaporean workers being on the losing end

Singapore — Lawyer and opposition leader Lim Tean once again call for CECA to be abolished and says that Singaporean workers get the short end of the stick in a recent Facebook post.

At the start of his post, Mr Lim says that Singaporean workers are on the losing end and include the hashtag #abolishCECA.

He shares two comments that netizens had put up as well.

The first comment he shared stated that many foreigners who come to India use Singapore to advance their careers and scale the corporate ladder. This benefits both the foreigners themselves and the Singaporean government.

As such, many foreigners visit Singapore to work and reap the benefits, such as having a higher salary. While both the foreigners and the Singaporean government benefit from this, Singaporeans find that they lose out.

Meanwhile, the second comment that Mr Lim shared was posted by another netizen. This netizen says that when establishing Free Trade Agreements (FTA), the countries involved in the process are essentially bargaining. Each country needs to have something to offer to another country and also want something that the other party has.

To make sure that it can benefit from an FTA, countries should strive to receive as many benefits as they can from another nation while making sure that it does not give away too much. Both parties should come away from the FTA with a net gain.

While countries such as India want more of its citizens to find jobs overseas and earn a living, Singapore is more focused on economic expansion, according to the netizen. As such, both stand to gain from striking up an FTA.

However, citizens in Singapore have none or little say in the matter and can only pray that they can continue to secure their job or find a job.

Mr Lim also recently emphasized the importance of the opposition stepping up its game and encouraged those in the opposition to hold the government accountable and their decisions and actions.

You Zi Xuan is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISG