A New Economic Vision for Singapore
Singapore’s economy has registered dramatic growth in the last half-a-century. This expansion has, however, come at a cost. Because of the PAP's obsession with GDP-growth-at-all cost, serious problems have emerged.
Income inequality is troublingly wide, our workforce is dispirited, we are not innovative, our productivity level is languishing, we are overly reliant on foreign labour, our retirees don't have enough to retire on, our middle-class also live from paycheck to to paycheck, our household debt is the highest in Asia...
All these have raised questions about the sustainability of our present economic direction.
Singapore needs a new economic strategy that will take us into a new era of sustainable growth, one that will allow us to compete on the international stage, not consign our workers to a cycle of working harder and longer for less and less; that uplifts the people, not dumb them down; and whose priority is the well-being of all the people, not just the rich.
Material gain must have a collective social good. Gain for its own sake can be destructive to social processes and to a community. And social good can only come about when the people are not alienated from the decision-making process and when community bonds are strengthened instead of weakened.
In other words, we must work towards an enlightened economic system.
The SDP has drawn up an alternative economic programme titled A New Economic Vision: Towards Innovation, Equal Opportunity and Compassion that will allow us to achieve our goals. It will address the everyday concerns of Singaporeans as well as plan for the long-term needs of the country.
The policy paper, which will be launched this Saturday, is one that is people-centric and has as its prime objective the well-being and happiness of the Singaporean people.
In it, we spell out details on key areas on how Singapore can:
Implement Minimum Wage for all low-income workers
Introduce retrenchment benefits for an increasing number of Singaporeans who are laid-off
Fix our abused and misused CPF scheme
Make our sovereign wealth funds transparent and accountable
Foster innovation and boost productivity
These measures are aimed at increasing economic opportunity for Singaporeans by leveling the playing as well as freeing society so that we can become a centre of innovation.
The SDP’s vision is to create an economic system that benefits all Singaporeans, one that makes our society fair and compassionate by bringing out the best in our people.
To do this, we need a government that works for the people – not vice versa.
