TEMASEK REVIEW
PAP ministers who have a penchant for indulging in shameless
self-praise have taken their “art” to new heights this time by
trumpeting their “accomplishments” to the international
community.
NTUC Secretary-General and PAP minister without portfolio Lim
Swee Say will be sharing his unique “upturn the downturn”
experience at the International Labour Organization’s annual
meeting in Geneva next month.
Mr Lim coined the term in the midst of Singapore’s recession as
an “encouragement” to Singapore workers to accept pay cuts in order
to help the economy tide through the difficult period of time.
PAP leaders even sang an “upturn the downturn” song during a
NTUC conference last year to spur Singapore workers on:
While Mr Lim did not reveal that if he would be singing the
song at the ILO meeting, he has expressed his
intention to share Singapore’s experience in coping with the
downturn:
”This year, three countries have been invited to hold
a special session for the International Labour Congress and these
countries will represent Asia, Europe and Africa. From Asia,
Singapore will be invited to share its experience in coping with
the downturn. In other words, what we have done in Singapore not
only benefited workers, at the same time it has attracted attention
from all over the world,” he was quoted as saying in Channel
News Asia.
PAP MP and NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Halimah Yacob is
equally proud of Singapore’s experience:
“We wanted to make sure that the experiences such as these
could be shared as there would always be new people coming on
stream – human resource practitioners, union leaders, and also new
staff. It will also be useful material for overseas institutions.
For the union leaders and others in the IR community, it is an
important reference material of how they could look at other ways
of resolving disputes.”
It is unlikely that the Singapore experience will be applicable
elsewhere as no other government in the world has the “fortune” of
the PAP in having the trade unions completely under its
control.
There are no independent trade unions in Singapore to fight for
the interests and rights of Singapore workers. The only trade
union, NTUC is a pseudo-PAP organization which is always led by a
PAP minister.
As such, there is really no need for the PAP to step in to
“resolve” any disputes between the employees and workers since the
trade union movement is no more its own “labor” wing.
Furthermore, repressive laws are put in place to outlaw strikes,
protests and rallies thereby curtailing the civil liberties of
Singapore workers.
With the PAP calling all the shots, it is hardly surprising that
Mr Lim is able to “upturn the downturn” at the expense of Singapore
workers without sparking off massive strikes commonly
seen in other developed countries.
