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Red Dot United's Forum Explores Tharman's 'Moving Escalator' and Social Mobility in Singapore"

Red Dot United (RDU) latest forum, ‘Inequality and social mobility – Is Tharman’s “moving escalator” just a myth?’ will feature speakers from various political parties, including RDU’s secretary-general Ravi Philemon, Dr Paul Tambyah from Singapore Democratic Party, Lim Tean of Peoples Voice, and Kumaran Pillai, the Publisher of The Independent Singapore who also contested the 2020 General Election as a candidate of Progress Singapore Party.

The event scheduled for 22 Oct will be moderated by Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss who last contested in the 2015 Singapore General Election with Singapore People’s Party. She has been an advocate and solicitor in Singapore since 1989 and is also an accredited mediator at the Singapore Mediation Centre. Jeannette has been involved in the socio-political scene in Singapore since 2009.

On their Facebook events page, RDU posted that the United National Human Rights Council has flagged inequality as a major factor for social unrest all over the world. Although the Singapore government has continued to find ways to use education and meritocracy as an engine to power social mobility, inequality remains high relative to other advanced Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

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Deep unhappiness is developing among many in society over our economic system, which is perceived to favour the elite. As we remain vulnerable to emerging issues that may impede social mobility and further entrench inequality in Singapore, senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has suggested that inequality and social mobility can be addressed by a “moving escalator”.

The party also quoted the minister, who previously said that “Keep that escalator moving for everyone. It makes it much easier to have social mobility with a moving escalator.”

RDU has been organising regular series of dialogues since the 2020 Singapore general election, with the previous one being held in September, where the focus was on the policies that affected the Malays in the country.

The party is also continuing its engagement with residents on the ground with their house visit at Jurong GRC, a constituency that they contested in the previous election.

“From the 83 year old ex-civil servant who was so proud of his long service in the Government (35 years in the Ministry of Environment), to the boy who was helping his 72 year old grandma to water the plants (his grandpa is seriously ill and is hospitalised), to a gentleman who encouraged us to press on, we met so many people at our door-to-door outreach in Block 371 Clementi Ave 4,” posted RDU on their Facebook page recently.

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