Workers’ Party: We oppose when it’s the right thing to do

SINGAPORE: In a social media post, the Workers’ Party (WP) explained why it had voted against the Statutes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill on May 7, writing, “We do not oppose for the sake of opposing. We oppose when it is the right thing to do.”

It was the first time in this term of Parliament that the WP opposed new laws.

The WP Members of Parliament (MPs) had raised questions about the fees charged by four agencies under the Ministry of National Development: the Building and Construction Authority, the Housing and Development Board, the National Parks Board, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

These include charges involving the expedited inspection of buildings and processing of temporary occupation permits, as well as fees for towing and detention of illegally parked cars.

The party had asked questions concerning whether the fees had been unlawfully collected in the past, whether they should be legalised now, how many people had been affected, and the total quantum of fees collected, although National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat had answered that comprehensive figures were not easily at hand.

In its post, the WP wrote that its MP had voted “no” on the bill because “tucked inside Part 4 of this Bill was a significant provision about past fee collections.”

The party asked if anyone had ever paid to release a clamped vehicle, to register as a renovation contractor, or to expedite the import of a pet. While these had been routine transactions for many, for others who’ve faced financial hardship, they involve charges paid to the HDB even as their flats had been acquired compulsorily.

“However, according to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, these fee collections should have been prescribed in the law—but were not,” the WP wrote, going on to ask whether this is a matter of righting a past wrong, or if it is just wrong.

Furthermore, the Bill had asked to validate the collected fees by backdating the law.

“In other words, these fee collections of the past will not only be declared ‘validly collected,’ they would ‘have always been validly collected.’”

“On top of this, the Bill removes the right of anyone affected to challenge past collections,” wrote the WP, adding that anyone who did not start legal proceedings by April 7, 2026, the date of First Reading of the Bill, had lost their right to do so.

“This is where The Workers’ Party draws the line,” the party wrote, adding that in voting against the Bill, it called for transparency, by which it meant the “full disclosure by the Government of the scale of the issue,” fairness for those affected to retain their legal rights, and high standards, for administrative lapses to be addressed with clarity.

The WP added that it could not support a provision that validates the collection of fees retroactively that are not provided for by legislation, as well as removes legal rights from Singaporeans, “without providing Parliament with the full facts.”

It clarified that it is not against other parts of the Bill that are beneficial, but that administrative errors need to be corrected, and underlined that it is committed to doing right by Singaporeans. /TISG

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