GE 2020: Defending the Seat (PAP)

Well, having just given my opinion on PSP's manifesto, how does the defending party (PAP) manifesto measure up for the current election? Lets take a look.

Frankly speaking, they have lots of picture and nice looking pages, but I cannot tell what they are trying to advocate for the next 5 years. So reader unfriendly. PSP manifesto, on the other hand, is clear and easy to understand in pointed forms. Well, after spending sometime reading the pages, I gather they are based on the below 6 pillars:

Staying Safe and Healthy Together

Public health and safety:

• Strongly support and equip healthcare professionals and frontline agencies to provide excellent healthcare for all. We are providing free in-patient treatment for Covid-19 at public hospitals
• Ramp up Covid-19 testing and tracing capabilities
• Invest in R&D for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines, and ensure these are available to all Singaporeans who need them

Reduce risk of transmission and safeguard public health:

• Ensure everyone can obtain protective items such as face masks
• Establish new norms of safe interaction for daily living
• Improve public hygiene through a major national effort, including through the SG Clean campaign
• Complete health clearance of migrant workers and enable them to return safely to work
• Build additional migrant worker housing with new operating models and improved standards

To me, these are processes already in progress. Its just to emphasize that government will keep on doing what they have already done. Not so much fresh new ideas or initiatives for the future. Nothing much to comment about, but 50% discount for no new ideas or improvements generated.

In summary, my total score given is 1.0/2.0

Public health and safety - 0.5

Reduce risk of transmission and safeguard public health - 0.5

Creating Jobs and Acquiring Skills Together

Protect workers from the immediate impact of Covid-19:

• Wage subsidies under the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) to help you keep your jobs
• Income relief to self-employed persons and freelancers under the Self-Employed Person Scheme (SIRS)
• Financial assistance to retrenched workers or those suffering significant income loss under the Temporary Relief Scheme (TRS) and the Covid-19 Support Grant (CSG)

Protect and create jobs to keep Singaporeans employed. Equip Singaporean to take advantage of new opportunities and growing sectors:

• Create 100,000 new job opportunities, comprising jobs, traineeships, mid-career pathways and courses under the SG United Jobs and Skills Programme
• All workers: Set up satellite career centres in all HDB towns
• All workers: Scale up programmes for career conversion and for skills upgrading and mastery with the Next Bound of SkillsFuture
• All workers: Strengthen safeguards for jobseekers under the Fair Consideration Framework
• All workers: Provide financial incentives for employers to hire or redeploy their local workers
• Workers aged 40 - 60: Extra SkillsFuture credits and heavily subsidised reskilling programmes
• Workers aged 40 - 60: Mid-career pathway programmes to help you start new careers
• Workers aged 40 - 60: Special incentives for employers to hire you
• Senior Workers: Senior Employment Credit
• Senior Workers: Grants for re-employment
• Senior Workers: Support for firms and industries to redesign jobs
• Young Job Seekers: Strengthen career support for new graduates
• Young Job Seekers: Create structured traineeships with firms
• Young Job Seekers: Offer free continuing education and training to pick up additional skills and knowledge while the job market recovers
• Young Job Seekers: Prepare for regional opportunities through the Global Ready Talent programme and overseas internships when it is safe to travel again
• Lower Wage Worker: Enhanced Workfare support
• Lower Wage Worker: Extending the Progressive Wage Model to even more industries
• Workers with Disabilities: Work with employers to hire persons with disabilities, including through the Enabling Employment Credit

Again, these are processes already in progress. No fresh new ideas or initiatives for the future. Nothing much to comment about, but 50% discount for saying things that are already in progress. Too bad.

In summary, my total score given is 1.0/2.0

Protect workers from the immediate impact of Covid-19 - 0.5

Protect and create jobs to keep Singaporeans employed - 0.5

Transforming and Growing Our Economy Together

Stabilise businesses against the immediate effects of Covid-19:

• Helping with cash flow, costs and credit
• Passing laws for rental relief
• Providing extra help to the hardest hit sectors like aviation, hotels, tourism and retail

Preparing for a post Covid-19 economy:

• Accelerate digital transformation of all industry sectors
• Help firms to innovate and adapt with Transformation and Growth Packages
• Give SMEs extra support through the SMEs Go Digital, SkillsFuture Enterprise Credits and other grants
• Promote new growth sectors – such as innovation and technology, biomedical, ICT, professional and digital services, cybersecurity, food manufacturing, medical care and education
• Establish green lane arrangements for safe travel with other countries
• Pursue international co-operation, expand our trade networks and seek out new markets
• Participate actively in the global digital economy
• Diversify our sources of food and essential supplies and build resilient supply chains

Gosh, how many times must they remind us of processes already in progress. No fresh new ideas or initiatives for the future. Nothing much to comment about, but 50% discount for saying things that are already in progress.

In summary, my total score given is 1.0/2.0

Stabilise businesses against the immediate effects of Covid-19 - 0.5

Preparing for a post Covid-19 economy - 0.5

Providing Care and Support Together

Families:

• Care & Support Package – for daily costs
• Enhanced housing grants – for purchase of HDB flats
• Transport vouchers – for public transport
• Education subsidies – enhanced bursaries, scholarships, transport, meal and school fee subsidies. 100% subsidy for ITE fees and reduced fees for SIT and SUSS full time general degrees
• Healthcare subsidies – public healthcare subsidies up to 80% and CHAS

Special Education Needs (SEN):

• Raise awareness of SEN and promote greater inclusivity
• Make special education more affordable
• Open new Special Education Schools to cater to different special needs
• Increase work and care options for SEN students beyond age 18

Pre-Schoolers:

• Enhance subsidies to make preschool as affordable as primary school
• Increase the government share of supported pre-school places to 80%, and double the number of MOE kindergartens to 60
• Raise pre-school quality through the National Institute for Early Childhood Education

Students:

• Provide greater support and guidance to students from vulnerable backgrounds, who are most affected by the crisis
• Accelerate the National Digital Literacy Programme, including bridging the digital divide by equipping every secondary student with a computing device
• Make Home-Based Learning (HBL) an integral part of education
• Accelerate education reforms so students can acquire knowledge and skills for a fast-changing future
• Reform higher education to introduce more inter-disciplinary learning, complemented with lifelong learning in specialized areas
• Refresh our Character and Citizenship Education curriculum to prepare our young to be upright and compassionate individuals, imbued with mental resilience and sound values
• Deepen the professional expertise of our teachers with SkillsFuture for Educators

Seniors:

• Provide networks of support, including through the Community Network for Seniors
• Help seniors keep healthy and active, including free entry to public gyms and pools
• Provide greater financial security in retirement with the Matched Retirement Savings Scheme, enhanced Silver Support, and the Silver Housing Bonus and Lease Buyback schemes

Healthcare:

• Expand the polyclinic network from 20 today to 32 by 2030, including new polyclinics in Bishan and Bidadari
• Redevelop the Singapore General Hospital and rejuvenate the National University Hospital
• Complete the Novena Community Hospital by 2022 and build a new integrated acute and community hospital in the East by 2030

GST:

• Implement a $6 billion Assurance Package which will pay for the GST increase for 5 years for most households and 10 years for lower income households
• Enhance the GST permanent voucher scheme
• Continue to have government absorb GST on publicly subsidised healthcare and education
• Provide social assistance for those who need more help

Finally, PAP manifesto started to cover something about the future that they are planning to implement, mainly found in the healthcare and GST section. Nothing much to comment about with regards to Healthcare as we are indeed going to face a problem with aging population soon and much needed resource are needed to build the necessary infrastructure. Raising GST by 2% (to 9%) as a source for the funds needed might be part of the process and am glad they have propose freezing the GST at current level until end 2021 due to economic recession.

In summary, my total score given is 4.50/7.0

Families - 0.50

Special Education Needs (SEN) - 0.50
Pre-Schoolers - 0.50
Students - 0.50
Seniors - 0.50
Healthcare - 1.0
GST - 1.0

Building a Strong and Resilient Society Together

Social Resilience:

• Build a strong, caring united community where no one is left behind and all can progress together
• Build resilience, enhance social mobility and tackle inequality
• Help those who fall down to get up stronger
• Improve our social safety nets to provide sustainable support
• Partner citizens and organisations to help those in need
• Build communities of care in every town through the SG Cares network and connect needs to volunteers and resources
• Make mental wellness a key focus
• Foster digital inclusion and enable vulnerable groups to reach support and resources online
• Build a multi-cultural, multi-religious society where unity in diversity is our strength
• Support the aspirations of our people in arts, culture and sports

Financial Resilience:

• Use the money to catalyse growth and returns for Singaporeans and Singapore
• Continue to exercise financial prudence, and replenish our reserves when we are able to do so
• Safeguard the future for our children and generations to come, as the Pioneer and Merdeka generations did for us

Guess they are back to repeating the same old stuffs that are already in progress. I see no new ideas or initiatives for the future or the next five years. How do they want to enhance social mobility and tackle inequality? No details given. 50% discounts given for repeating the same stuffs.

In summary, my total score given is 1.0/2.0

Social Resilience - 0.50

Financial Resilience - 0.50

Living Sustainably Together

Make sustainability a way of life:

• Produce more clean energy by deploying more solar panels on building rooftops and reservoirs, and converting food waste to energy at Tuas Nexus
• Reduce greenhouse emissions
• Plant one million trees and new mangrove areas to preserve our carbon sinks
• Add 200 hectares of nature parks and 140 hectares of city parks and gardens over the next 5 years
• Enhance our green corridors and park connectors so that every household is within a 10 minute walk from a park
• Introduce new concepts of sustainable living with the HDB Green Towns programme
• Rejuvenate our heartlands with home improvement and neighbourhood upgrading initiatives, as well as the Remaking Heartlands programme
• Strengthen coastal and inland flood protection against climate change and rising seas
• Significantly increase local food production with our 30 x 30 Express strategy and develop long term local production capabilities for essential supplies

Finally, we come to something new again. While focusing on alternative energy and reducing greenhouse emission is good, there seems to be an over zealous initiative in adding parks. Overall, good proposal in starting to look at climate change effect mitigation that will impact Singapore and increasing our local food production.

In summary, my total score given is 0.75/1.0

Make sustainability a way of life - 0.75

Total Score: 9.25/16.0 (58% approval)

Well, much of PAP manifesto is focus on the theme of "togetherness" and reiterating of what the government has done so far. It is quite lacking on fresh new idea of what the government will be implementing going forward. There are some big projects written in the PAP manifesto such as Smart Nation, 5G Network, Tuas Megaport, Changi T5 etc, and I believe some of these, especially Changi T5 maybe worthwhile to have a re-look given this COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession going on currently. On both party's manifesto, they have similar approval rating given by me (PAP 58% Vs PSP 50%). I guess the deciding point will be what is the party's plan for the constituency for the next 5 years. A bit disappointing with PAP not coming up with what are the current policy they will like to tweak going forward to make them better. Next time, don't come out with such nice looking manifesto that goes on and on. I really got lost trying to find out your key points for the election. Be like the PSP, keep them short, clear and simple.