Singapore — Overwhelming support flooded the comments section for Workers’ Party Jamus Lim during the first live General Election 2020 political debate (1 July). Jamus Jerome Lim Chee Wui is contesting in his first General Election, having returned to Singapore after two decades abroad. He will be contesting for the new Sengkang GRC alongside Raaesah Khan, Chua Kheng Wee and He Ting Ru.

On tackling the question of improving the lives of Singaporeans despite the economic outlook regionally and internationally, Lim pointed out that Singapore should not “hamper the economy” by “raising taxes” and that the idea of “raising taxes at this time is counterproductive and cyclical”.

“It’s not just efficient to have jobs but we want good jobs. We want jobs that enable workers to work with dignity,” Lim said.

Similarly, the topic of having a national minimum wage was also raised a couple of times and Lim pointed out that having a minimum wage of S$1,300 will be useful for heartlanders.

Answering the question of social issues on how the parties are intending to improve social mobility and to come out of the crisis stronger, Lim noted that it is “a crime” to have the elderly work “in order to make ends meet”, and proceeded to bring in the notion of the minimum wage to increase social mobility. On education, he said that class sizes should be decreased and students should not be forced to take lessons outside in the form of extra tuition.

When questioned by Vivian Balakrishnan on how WP intends to pay for the trade-off costs from the policies that WP manifesto cites, Lim notes that WP has “done the math” and that “everything within [their] budget is budget neutral” and hopes to “re-balance” the income of Singaporeans.

In wrapping up the debate, Lim noted that he “enjoyed the debate” and that it should occur more frequently. Lim also stated that what WP wants is to “deny [PAP] a blank cheque” and that this is what he thinks is what “the election is really about”.

“We can have this debate not just constrained from our table but in the forum which it was designed for, which is the Parliament”.

Netizens Reaction to WP Jamus Lim

Many netizens took to the comments section across platforms to praise Jamus Lim. One netizen said that Lim “wraps up very nicely” and that “this guy is super”. Another mentioned that “he will be a strong member in the workers party in years to come”.

Another also said that “WP has been on point and on par with PAP in terms of engaging the questions and Singaporeans.”