GE2025: WP policy proposals can help ease cost of living concerns, say candidates at second rally (2025)

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SINGAPORE – The rising cost of living is a key concern for Singaporeans both young and old, said Workers’ Party candidates at its second election rally, as they blamed government policies for exacerbating the problem.

Speaking at Temasek Junior College on April 26, they urged voters to send more of them into Parliament, adding that it would make the WP a more effective check on the Government.

“As we have highlighted in our manifesto, our presence in Parliament has undoubtedly made an impact on our public policy, and all this with just 10 elected MPs,” said WP East Coast GRC candidate Sufyan Mikhail Putra, 33.

“Imagine what more can be done if me and my fellow candidates are given the chance to be your voice in Parliament.”

He was among 14 speakers at the rally comprising the party’s candidates in Tampines GRC, Tampines Changkat SMC, Punggol GRC and East Coast GRC, as well as WP chief Pritam Singh and party chairwoman Sylvia Lim, both seeking re-election in Aljunied GRC for a fourth term.

One after another, the candidates took aim at government policies that they said had led to escalating costs, with most of them citing the hike in goods and services tax (GST) during a time of high inflation.

Several candidates suggested exempting GST for essential items, such as cooking oil and rice, while others suggested that the Government could tap more of the investment returns from Singapore’s past reserves instead of raising taxes.

The candidates also spoke about how rising costs had affected the elderly and younger Singaporeans, especially those with children.

Former diplomat Eileen Chong, who is on the party’s Tampines GRC slate, and Ms Lim said more could be done to help older Singaporeans live with financial security and dignity.

Ms Chong, speaking mostly in Mandarin and Hokkien, said that as a former civil servant, she knows and believes that the civil service has good intentions when formulating policies, but intentions are not enough.

“Differences between formulation and implementation usually mean that there are a lot of communities being overlooked,” she said, giving the example of seniors living alone without a support structure.

To that end, she said that MediSave limits should be done away with, because, “our elders should not have to choose between their medicine and their daily meals”.

Ms Lim, meanwhile, called for the retirement age to be abolished. That would mean Singaporeans can decide when they want to stop working, she said.

“So long as you wish to work, and you are able to perform, you should decide when to stop.

“Is it really the case that we suddenly become less able to do our jobs once we reach our 63rd birthday?

“If you look at the Government, are there not PAP ministers who are already past the statutory retirement age?”

On the concerns of younger Singaporeans, Punggol GRC candidate Alia Mattar said they are increasingly apprehensive of having children due to the multitude of costs associated with parenting.

She was among six WP candidates at the rally who said they had joined politics as they were worried about their children’s future and wanted to build a better Singapore.

Referencing the young couples she met during house visits, Ms Alia said a number have held back from starting families while waiting for their Build-To-Order (BTO) flats to be completed.

She said, to cheers from the crowd, rather than regarding HDB flats as a tool to accumulate wealth, they should be “affordable homes for Singaporeans to live in”.

She said BTO flats should be priced according to the median income level of new home owners rather than the national household median income, adding that this will help ensure prices do not increase indefinitely.

Many of the proposals cited are in the WP’s manifesto, the candidates said.

Hammering home the need for voters to choose WP at the polls, Mr Michael Thng, a Tampines GRC candidate, said that since WP members were elected into Parliament, they have “dragged issues that used to sit on the margins and brought them into the political mainstream”.

The PAP has begun to acknowledge this, he added, citing how Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last week that neither the Government nor the opposition has a monopoly on good ideas.

“If so, why should they have a monopoly in Parliament,” he asked in his maiden rally speech, before calling for the crowd to vote WP in to build a “better... more inclusive Singapore, where your voices are given equal weight in the policymaking process”.

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