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GE2025: Singapore voters can’t afford to ignore harsh new global realities
National issues will dominate GE2025, but voters must heed global winds of change – and choose MPs who grasp how a small state can thrive.
Bhavan Jaipragas
At its heart, Singapore’s imperatives haven’t changed since 1965, though the paths to securing them must evolve with the times.PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
PUBLISHED APR 05, 2025, 05:00 AM
From now until the general election – which, by most accounts, seems just weeks away – conversations around dinner tables, over hurried lunches in CBD hawker centres, and at kopitiams on weekend mornings will likely revolve around the hot-button issues people can see and feel.
It’s not hard to guess what will be on the menu: Public housing – will HDB flats remain affordable? Cost of living – is the broad middle as well as those less well off getting enough help even as inflation tapers? And immigration – that perennial question of balancing the need to attract a diverse, high-quality foreign workforce while preserving and nurturing a strong Singaporean core.
That focus on tangible, day-to-day concerns is hardly surprising. It’s almost conventional wisdom, whether in our relatively subdued electoral climate or in places with fiercer politics, that local and national issues dominate.
GE2025: Singapore voters can’t afford to ignore harsh new global realities
National issues will dominate GE2025, but voters must heed global winds of change – and choose MPs who grasp how a small state can thrive.
Bhavan Jaipragas
At its heart, Singapore’s imperatives haven’t changed since 1965, though the paths to securing them must evolve with the times.PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
PUBLISHED APR 05, 2025, 05:00 AM
From now until the general election – which, by most accounts, seems just weeks away – conversations around dinner tables, over hurried lunches in CBD hawker centres, and at kopitiams on weekend mornings will likely revolve around the hot-button issues people can see and feel.
It’s not hard to guess what will be on the menu: Public housing – will HDB flats remain affordable? Cost of living – is the broad middle as well as those less well off getting enough help even as inflation tapers? And immigration – that perennial question of balancing the need to attract a diverse, high-quality foreign workforce while preserving and nurturing a strong Singaporean core.
That focus on tangible, day-to-day concerns is hardly surprising. It’s almost conventional wisdom, whether in our relatively subdued electoral climate or in places with fiercer politics, that local and national issues dominate.