SINGAPORE: Several Workers’ Party MPs attended the inauguration ceremony of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong yesterday (15 May), including Sengkang GRC’s Jamus Lim.
Commenting on Mr Wong’s speech in a Facebook post the following morning, Assoc Prof Lim wrote that while the speech covered numerous issues, some of its themes resonated with him.
“The first is the call on Singaporeans to help form the government it wishes to see. I take this appeal in its broadest sense: if we wish to have a say in the sort of policies that will shape the society we want to live it, it falls on us to step up to be the change we wish to see,” he wrote, adding that this is what he and the WP team in his ward do daily.
“Even when we disagree with the policies of the ruling party, we are still Singaporeans who love our country, and our qualified objections are always still in service of what we believe is for the greater good of our Little Red Dot,” the opposition MP underlined, adding that this is the reason why calls to unity, something the new Prime Minister had also stressed, “are also deeply meaningful to us.”
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Assoc Prof Lim added that the WP helps foster unity among Singaporeans when they highlight issues that could otherwise be ignored and amplify voices that are at times pushed to the side.
“A society is only as successful as the least well-off among us, and that’s why the plight of the poor and discriminated matter so much, even if they may be a minority in the population,” he added.
The Sengkang MP also noted that in his speech that Mr Wong “imagined a Singapore where we can all succeed by being the best possible versions of ourselves,” and added that the WP “buys this vision too.”
“One of the reasons why we have agitated along the lines we have—about minimum wages, smaller class sizes, helping unemployed workers with redundancy insurance, and recognizing an official poverty line, among others—is because, too often, we see those who are above-average in traditional academic and professional fields thrive in the current system, but those who are different face a much greater uphill struggle.
“Our hope, in speaking up on behalf of these voices, is to bring a better balance to what can otherwise be a stressful and unforgiving system.”
Aside from Assoc Prof Lim, WP chief and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh, Hougang SMC MP Dennis Tan, and the other two Sengkang GRC MPs He Ting Ru and Louis Chua also attended the swearing in ceremony at the Istana.
Earlier on May 15, the WP issued a statement congratulating Mr Wong on the premiership and thanking Mr Lee Hsien Loong for his years of service./TISG