Singaporeans will head to the polls on May 3 for the country’s 14th General Election, after President Tharman Shanmugaratnam dissolved parliament yesterday. This will be the first election under Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Singapore's fourth-generation (4G) leadership team. Join Professor Shandre Mugan Thangavelu as he discusses what to expect in this crucial election.
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00:00Welcome back to Unia Gawani. Singaporeans will head to polls on 3rd May for the country's 14th general election after President Taman Shanmugaratnam dissolved parliament yesterday.
00:12Nomination day will be on 23rd April. The upcoming contest will be the first under Prime Minister Lawrence Wong who was sworn in last May and Singapore's 4th generation 4G leadership team.
00:25To discuss further on the upcoming election and what to expect with me right now is Professor Shandre Mugen-Tangavellu, head of the Jeffrey Chia Institute on Southeast Asia at Sunway University.
00:38First of all, Prof, thank you so much for being with us.
00:40Professor, how credible is Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's call for a renewed mandate when public sentiment, according to recent polls, suggests widespread dissatisfaction with the government's measures on cost of living?
00:55Thank you for having me here. Well, there are several different dimensions into this. One dimension is, of course, the costs are living. But the new dimension that's added to this equation is the uncertainty that has developed from the Trump reciprocal tariff itself.
01:19So in terms of rising costs, Sinfa has been experiencing the rising costs for the last decade or so, even after the global financial crisis.
01:29So fairly, the government has put in measures to actually measure and manage the rising costs in terms of supporting the vulnerable group and the vulnerable population, the older workers, the unskilled workers, they have the future skills.
01:51So these are dimensions they already put in, fairly, to give the stability that Singapore requires to maintain its developed status.
02:00So fairly developed status will converge to 1 to 1, 3 percent growth.
02:06And if they get anything more, it's a bonus. But fairly, they know that they can maintain that with the policies they put in, the policies for harmonizing the rising costs itself.
02:17But a new dimension of the Trump tariff has raised the issue of global uncertainty and the way we're going to grow the next phase.
02:29So that's the reason why they thought that calling it earlier is one good strategy that allows them to maintain the mandate and improve the mandate.
02:50Hopefully, they can improve the mandate themselves.
02:52Yeah. Professor, in what ways can the PAP justify its $124 billion spending plans as effective economic relief and rather than election time populism,
03:07especially when critics argue that such handouts may be fueling inflation instead of curbing it?
03:13That's a good question. The question is how to mitigate the rising costs itself.
03:21But any social protection policies or any social policies are not meant to drive up inflation,
03:30but actually to give the social inclusion and the social protection that the vulnerable group needs.
03:36So the benefits and the social protection or the social inclusion policies they put in includes the training of workers,
03:48including the future skills training framework itself,
03:53and including to cover other important living costs and other elements itself.
04:00So having said that, how it will drive up price or how it will manage the rising costs itself becomes an important question because it's a trade-off.
04:12The trade-off is I need to protect my people from the rising costs,
04:17so I need to provide these subsidies and social protection,
04:22not just purely from the demand side, but also from the supply side.
04:26The future skills is about the supply side subsidies to increase the competitiveness of workers themselves.
04:32And of course, on the demand side, how they're going to manage that will be important to see how the demand side might stroke some inflationary effects.
04:40So they have to balance both in terms of how they want to provide the social protection itself.
04:47So it's an election budget anyway.
04:49So as an election budget, you expect a little bit more than a normal budget itself.
04:53Professor, given Singapore's vulnerability to external shocks,
04:59how equipped is Lawrence Wong's fourth-generation leadership team to recalibrate the nation's economic model amid a weakening global trade regime
05:09and also rising of protectionism?
05:11Your thoughts on this, Prof?
05:15That's again a very good question.
05:17As I mentioned, the first phase of social protection that come after the global financial crisis was fairly destabilized
05:25and create a more balanced dimension in the economy itself.
05:29But if the Trump reciprocal tariff, it has changed the way we're going to grow next,
05:35especially how a small economy like Singapore is going to grow.
05:38Because if they dismantle the rule-based trading area and Singapore thrive on a rule-based from manufacturing with services
05:46and even in terms of human capital and multinationals, the rule-based is very important for them.
05:52So how Singapore is going to gravitate and restructure itself in the rule-based trading framework is going to be very critical for us.
06:00So fairly, that's why ASEAN is important.
06:02ASEAN centrality is important.
06:05And currently, Singapore has a free trade in the U.S.
06:07So it still can use the U.S. free trade.
06:09But fairly, that is going to take a long time to resolve.
06:13And then we have the ASEAN, the largest global trading bloc within us.
06:17And Singapore can play an important role in that framework in terms of digital, green economy, and even skills.
06:24And even more 21st century issues can be addressed.
06:27And of course, we also have the ASEAN plus one FTAs as a region itself.
06:33So fairly, they are key landing points they can use to create a new architecture.
06:39So the new team have to think about the new architecture they have to develop
06:44and to frame in terms of as a developed country, what are the avenues they have
06:50and how to use the fundamentals to actually increase the competitiveness itself.
06:55So the new team that Prime Minister Laurence Wong is putting out is quite interesting.
07:03More young people, more civil servants, civil servants, the party.
07:12And it's also interesting to see how the opposition will put up a strong front
07:18because it has opened up a different dimension of how we're going to manage the growth itself.
07:25Yeah.
07:26Professor, with the balance around two minutes of our discussion,
07:30amid recent corruption scandals and political controversies affecting both ruling and opposition parties,
07:36how much trust do voters still place in Singapore's political institution?
07:41And will this erosion of trust impact PAP's historic dominance in this election, Prof?
07:49That's a good question.
07:51The good question is the issue of corruption has emerged in the Singapore political scenario.
08:01But the interesting part about this is the government wants to handle this in a very transparent way
08:07and in terms of a rule-based and legal way to handle the corruption issue itself,
08:15which actually shows that any developed country, the strong institution, is still going to see corruption itself.
08:20But having said that, there are issues that are more fundamental than corruption
08:27that is going to be very critical for Singapore.
08:30The living costs, as rightly pointed out, and public housing is reaching very high prices.
08:37That would be another convention.
08:40And aging population and how we can go to maintain, retain our wealth
08:45will also be very important discussion other than corruption itself.
08:49So this will be the key election points that will be played out in the election itself.
08:58Thank you so much, Professor Shandri Mugen Tangevelu,
09:02head of the Jeffrey Chia Institute on Southeast Asia at Sunway University,
09:06for your thoughts and ideas.
09:08And of course, Niaga Awani and Ashrawani will bring you more updates
09:12on Singapore's 14th general election.
09:15Okay.