SINGAPORE-POLITICS — A general view shows Parliament House in front of commercial buildings in the financial district in Singapore on March 1, 2022. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)

‘Good at growing the country, bad at taking care of the common folks’ — S’poreans evaluate govt performance since 2020 GE

SINGAPORE: A discussion thread specifically for Singaporeans’ opinions of government performance since the 2020 General Elections was recently added to a public Singapore news forum. Many shared their answers in the comments section of the post. While a handful gave positive points regarding aspects like foreign policy, many others expressed dissatisfaction over how things have been going domestically.

A netizen took to an online news forum on Tuesday (April 11) to ask Singaporeans for their feedback on the Singaporean government’s performance. “Your honest opinion on the Government’s performance,” the post title read. “How well / not well do you think our Government has done since the last GE in 2020?”

As requested, many people took to the comments section to give their personal and honest ratings of the government’s performance. While some summarised things, others gave a rating for a range of aspects.

“They’re doing okay, but are losing their way,” wrote one. “Too many white horses and silver spoons, not enough grassroots. Gotta shake them up at the elections, assuming there’s a good candidate in the GRC being contested.”

“Depends what’s your metric. Compared to what?” asked another. “If you compare to their amazing past, not good. If you compare to our neighbours, very good. If you take into account global macro issues and circumstances, fairly okay.”

A third shared, “Good at growing the country, bad at taking care of the common folks… but yea, agree on general sentiments that this new generation doesn’t give me as much confidence as the previous ones.”

A few others acknowledged positive aspects such as foreign policy but called the government’s approach “out of touch.”

“Good job with defense and foreign policy. Getting worse domestically,” said another.

For other netizens, the need to elect more opposition Members of Parliament has grown evident. “Think they’ve done alright but definitely many had lost touch with the ground,” one wrote. “We need more opposition MPs to wake them up.”