Describing the labour movement as the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) “most important partner,” Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat pledged that “the labour movement can be assured that the PAP will never abandon the working man and woman.”
DPM Heng talked about this “close symbiotic relationship” between the ruling PAP and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) during Wednesday’s (May 1) May Day Rally.
Speaking to about 1,600 guests composed of union leaders and tripartite partners, Heng reminded everyone that this relationship stretches back to the post-war years.
“The 4G leadership grew up witnessing how this close working relationship between the PAP and the unions has benefitted Singaporeans. All of us in the 4G team have been personally involved in the labour movement in one way or another,” he said.
Heng, who is also Minister for Finance, added: “Today is the first time I’m speaking to you as leader of the next generation of PAP leaders. I renew today the pledge that Mr Lee (Kuan Yew) made at your Modernisation Seminar 50 years ago, and that every prime minister has since renewed.”
The landmark Modernisation Seminar in 1969 marked the labour movement’s decision to fundamentally shift from confrontation to collaboration.
Lee Kuan Yew’s wisdom
To recall, founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew once said, while in office, that Singapore’s objective is not just industrialisation. While a country’s development is important, the development of the nature of society is equally important, Lee insisted.
Further in Heng’s speech, he stressed the need for workers not to become overly compliant and subservient to superiors as he said that “We do not want our workers submissive, docile, toadying up to the foreman, the foreman to the supervisor and the supervisor to the boss for increments and promotions,” and hammered down his point by quoting Lee who had said that “To survive as a nation and distinct community we have to be a proud and rugged people, or we will fail.””
“The movement has guaranteed a man’s right to his own dignity, his dignity as a human being, as a citizen,” continued Heng, who added that the NTUC backs the PAP because the PAP is pro-people, and has “kept faith” with the unions. Simultaneously, the PAP treasures its relationship with the NTUC because the NTUC is pro-worker.
“It remains committed to the self-respect of every working man and woman, and believes that the purpose of economic development is to improve the lives of all in the workforce,” he said.
“Every worker matters … Whether you are rich or poor, whether you are a worker or a manager, whether you are an employer or a unionist – each of us owes a duty to care for, support and sustain each other,” he added.
/TISG