Singapore has benefited from globalisation and free trade, but there is also now more insecurity at the individual level, said Workers' Party (WP) chair Sylvia Lim yesterday.
"There is no iron rice bowl today. For instance, we have over 210,000 gig economy freelance workers now," said Ms Lim in pre-recorded remarks for the WP's second Hammer Show.
"The Workers' Party supports economic growth that is broad-based and inclusive. Our candidates have ideas and relevant experience to add to this discussion."
The panel of candidates in the online rally, which focused on the party's economic proposals, included lawyer He Tingru, technology entrepreneur Gerald Giam, economist Jamus Lim and entrepreneur Yee Jenn Jong. Mr Leon Perera, who is chief executive of a consulting firm, moderated.
Associate Professor Jamus Lim of the Essec Business School said the Covid-19 crisis has not only caused disruptions to the economy, it has also accelerated existing trends like the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, as well as de-globalisation, rising inequality, and rising populism and nationalist sentiment.
He added that the model of bringing in low-wage foreign workers and high-skilled foreign talent is one that no longer works in terms of raising productivity.
Ms He agreed, noting that Singapore cannot always assume there will be lower-wage workers that it can import from other countries to make up for labour shortfalls arising from demographic changes.
She also talked about the need to invest more in green technologies and tackle climate change, as well as reduce Singapore's reliance on traditional energy sources like oil and gas in favour of renewables.
Mr Yee said that successive generations of PAP leaders have adopted a "grow at all cost" mentality to capture gross domestic product in a "quick but lazy way".
"Such methods lead to unsustainable growth and depressed wages for bottom income earners, and social problems," he said.
Instead of the "Swiss standard of living" Singaporeans were promised, they are instead getting a "Swiss cost of living", he added.
Mr Giam said there is a need to look at low-productivity sectors like construction. He noted that many firms found automating expensive, and the Government should consider loans to allow the purchase of equipment. He also suggested bringing more locals into the construction sector.
Mr Yee agreed, adding that the effort to make the construction sector more appealing needs to be done at the national level, similar to previous efforts made in the nursing and childcare sectors.
In other pre-recorded clips, equity research analyst Louis Chua said in Mandarin that Covid-19 has shown the limitations and weaknesses of the Singapore economy. Beyond the short-term measures taken now, Singapore cannot escape structural reform to meet future challenges, he said.
Speaking in Malay, former researcher Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim outlined the party's proposed redundancy insurance scheme for retrenched workers and those whose jobs are made redundant, noting that similar schemes have been implemented in other countries like Japan and China.
He said short-term measures like the Government's Covid-19 Support Grant and the Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme are "redundancy insurance schemes in disguise" and added that such schemes will still be needed after the pandemic passes.
