Minister for Health and People's Action Party (PAP) candidate for Sembawang GRC Ong Ye Kung spoke at the PAP's Sembawang Rally on Apr. 28, where he criticised the Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP) manifesto and speeches.
Ong's Sembawang GRC team, along with Poh Li San, the PAP's candidate for Sembawang West SMC, are contesting against the SDP in both constituencies.
Ong took particular issue with the SDP's stances on healthcare and housing.
Ong said that none of the SDP's proposals had "a snowball's chance of contributing to a thriving Singapore" and showed they lacked policy knowledge or of other country's experiences and that their pledges were mere "populist calls".
No thrive
Ong criticised the SDP's call for a "single-payer system" for healthcare.
In Singapore, Ong said, eight in 10 hospital bills were paid in three ways: through government subsidies, MediShield Life, and MediSave, what Ong called the S+2M system.
"So my question to the SDP is, which two are you getting rid of?" Ong asked.
Ong explained that getting rid of either MediShield Life, Singapore's universal national health insurance, or government subsidies would cause either taxes or MediShield Life premiums to "shoot through the roof."
Ong asked if the SDP could "explain honestly to residents what are you really proposing?"
He questioned the SDP's cost-cutting proposals, suggesting that it would result in the retrenchment of staff, particularly admin staff.
Ong rejected this, saying that as health minister, he valued the service of human resources and finance staff, porters, chefs and cleaners, for whom he had recently approved a pay rise.
Home rental scheme
Ong then turned to their proposals on housing, saying that the SDP had "taken a leaf" from the proposal of the Progress Singapore Party.
Both had suggested that the cost of land should be removed from the price of BTO and Sale of Balance Flats, a move that sounded good because it would make BTO flats cost less.
But this would mean that residents would have no hope of benefiting from the appreciation of their flats, turning their flats from assets into long-term rental housing, Ong said.
"May I ask the SDP, are you proposing that Singapore change our home ownership scheme into a home rental scheme, and Singaporeans can never fulfil their dream of owning their own homes under this rental scheme?"
No blank cheque, no free pass
Ong said that after the election that the opposition was "here to stay", it was not possible for the PAP to have a "blank cheque".
"But if the PAP has no blank cheque, opposition, you have no free pass."
Ong said opposition proposals should be prepared for scrutiny by the PAP and the people, and questioned the seriousness of the SDP's policy claims.
"For SDP's proposals, they don't have a snowball's chance of contributing to a thriving Singapore.
Its proposals show actually the SDP doesn't know how public policies work; they don't seem to understand the experiences of other countries and learn from [them]."
The SDP, Ong said, was engaging in "populist calls to get them a ride to Parliament".
We do, they talk
Ong listed the PAP government's achievements and implemented policies over the past five years, including the Covid pandemic response, increasing hospital beds, spending S$4.1 billion to cushion the impact of rising hospital bills, and the nutrigrade system for food, the National Mental Health service, and more.
Ong said that he could go on, but stopped "halfway through".
This, he said, illustrated the difference between the PAP government and the opposition.
The PAP had worked on and implemented policies over the last five years, whereas the opposition had only talked about policies for the last five days, Ong added.
After the PAP implemented more policies in the next five years, the opposition would then claim "that these were their ideas".
"We do, they talk.
We implement, they claim credit.
We work hard, they say you work hard because I made you work hard.
In terms of policy contributions, in terms of affecting the lives of Singaporeans, the opposition is a pale shadow of the PAP government."
Top image via Mothership
