Daniel PS Goh
This is the speech I was looking for in the NDR! I am going to chew on this, bit by bit, and give my own take for the two cents it is worth.
"Government’s role: how we intervene matters, not just how much
5 These are not sudden shifts [referring to the NDR speech, see point 3] in our approach. We began tilting social policies actively in favour of the lower income group in 2007 through Workfare, and in recent years through stronger support programmes in education, housing and healthcare. We have also expanded support for the middle-income group in the last few years."
This is an interesting claim by Tharman, that the PAP G already began shifting in 2007. I was trying to think where was I and what I thought then in 2007 and realized there is a public record of what I thought -- here, in the defunct blog collective called Singapore Angle, when I responded to PM Lee's 2007 NDR:
http://www.singaporeangle.com/2007/08/pms_rally_speech_and_endangere_1.html. I quote the first para of my blog post:
"Let me say this first so as to get it out of the way. I am happy with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally speech, and I think it almost pulls the rug under the Workers' Party's feet, almost, except for the question of healthcare costs, which is strangely, perhaps not strangely, a hot potato untouched. Nevertheless, the speech heralds the Singapore welfare state, based, of course, on the Anglo-American model of neoliberal workfare rather than the Scandinavian socialist model or the European corporatist model. With this barrage of policy measures addressing the increasing solidification of the stratified class system here, to moderate the widening income gap and improve decelerating social mobility, it will be interesting to see how the Workers' Party responds to the speech."
Haha! Some reflections:
1. I was happy with 2007 NDR because it was really a strategic shift then, but I am not happy with the 2013 NDR today because it is the same story. After 6 years, we are still not moving daringly since the shift.
2. Why did PM make the daring shift in 2007? Politically, the signal likely came from the GE2006, when WP did well in Aljunied and surprised everyone by doing well with the young "suicide squad" in Ang Mo Kio. Perhaps the PAP G continues to walk the shift because the GE2011 and 2 BEs provided further political signals. Given the PAP G's general distrust of electoral politics, it conducted the OSC to test the signals for themselves.
3. I remember being disappointed by WP's response in 2007, but was buoyed when I read its GE2011 manifesto because I believed it would push the PAP G on to do more than a stroll along the path of the shift. This was one reason why I started helping with WP during GE2011.
4. The PAP G is indeed walking a tad more briskly, but I don't think the pace is fast enough. More on that later, if life and work don't overtake my thoughts. But I must say, am happy that I got something meaty from the our leaders to think with!
Ministry of Finance - Speech By Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister For...
app.mof.gov.sg
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