Hi everyone,

We’ve been watching for weeks, and now we finally know who will take over grassroots work in Kembangan in the wake of former acting minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Faishal Ibrahim’s resignation.

Faishal, who resigned in July, was also MP for the ward which sits inside Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC.

His replacement is lawyer Ahmad Firdaus Daud. Unpacked has been keeping tabs on him since he was (sort of) unveiled as a reserve PAP candidate at the last election. More on this below.

Meanwhile, Faishal, who was a real estate academic before he entered politics, is in discussions with the National University of Singapore for a return to academia. He was an undergraduate and masters student there, and the university sponsored his PhD.

The rest of last week’s news was dominated by follow-ups to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s National Day Rally.

We got more details on a Chinese heritage gallery he announced, and the authorities moved to prepare the pre-school sector for an upcoming cut to childcare and infant care fees.

Senior Minister of State for Social and Family Development Goh Pei Ming announced plans to recruit 1,800 more infant care educators – and the Government again will foot part of the bill, expanding a grant for operators to hire them.

Meanwhile, another announcement from the Rally has become a topic of public discussion – the Government’s plans to merge several islands in the south by reclaiming land, and how this might affect Singapore’s already-limited areas of marine life and biodiversity. We Unpack this below.

Also, we’re both on a break this week, so Unpacked will return to your inbox on Sept 14 with a breakdown of the coming Parliament sitting scheduled for Sept 8 to 10.

Let’s get into this week’s issue:

Subscribed

Faishal to Firdaus

The news: Faishal Ibrahim’s replacement in Kembangan is GE2025 PAP reserve candidate and lawyer Ahmad Firdaus Daud.

Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng confirmed to Wei Kai last Friday that Firdaus will be appointed second grassroots adviser (2GA) in Kembangan from Sept 1.

Party volunteers were introduced to Firdaus at an outreach event last Sunday, and told of his coming appointment then.

Firdaus is currently a 2GA in Punggol, helping out in Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong’s ward.

Seah told us that Firdaus will double hat for a while, but will focus fully on Kembangan “sooner rather than later”.

The GRC’s four MPs – Seah, Goh Pei Ming, Tin Pei Ling and Diana Pang – will continue to support the work for residents in Kembangan, and are looking forward to Firdaus’ appointment, he added.

This comes about a month after Faishal resigned from political office, Parliament, and also as a grassroots adviser (for PAP MPs, the roles usually come together).

The take: This move wraps some loose ends from Faishal’s resignation – namely who will cover his grassroots work until Singapore next goes to the polls, as the PAP has decided not to call a by-election there (it is not legally required to).

The big question now is whether Firdaus stands at the next election, and if his move prompts further shifts in the grassroots.

PAP chairman Desmond Lee earlier promised to strengthen the team in the GRC. Seah also said to the media earlier in August that not having a Malay/Muslim grassroots adviser was “not desired” and he hoped to have the role filled.

Firdaus is a known entity to the party and has already done much work with the Malay/Muslim community, so the pick looks to check both boxes.

As a reserve candidate, he would have already passed the PAP’s internal checks and its bar to stand for election. He has also been heavily involved with the expansion of the M3 network (a collaboration between Singapore’s big three Malay/Muslim community organisations) and drives one of its offshoots in Punggol.

Seah was careful to emphasise that Firdaus will have a key role in matters concerning the Malay/Muslims in Kembangan (the area, along with Geylang Serai, has cultural and historical significance to the community).

All this suggests that the PAP wants to signal to voters it is serious about filling Faishal’s spot not just on grassroots work but also in representing and serving the minority community.

This is key for the party as it likely wants to shore up support among Malay/Muslims, which it argued were targeted by the WP at GE2025 in Tampines. The WP had contested Marine Parade GRC in the 2015 and 2020 elections, but decided against fielding a team in the constituency last year which led to a walkover.

The pressure is on for Firdaus, who has big shoes to fill on the ground in Kembangan.

Faishal was well-liked and we heard many accounts of his way with people after his resignation.

If Firdaus handles this appointment well, there is a good chance that we will see his name on a ballot come GE2030 to also represent Kembangan in the House (remember Hamid Razak and Choo Pei Ling, who were both second grassroots advisers filling in for MPs who resigned before standing for election).

It also stands to reason that following his departure, the party may look to shore up the grassroots leadership in Punggol – a GRC which saw a close contest from the WP last election. We’ll be watching.

Biodiversity takes the spotlight (again)

The news: Scientists and nature groups have raised concerns about the large-scale reclamation plans for a new western island, which PM Wong had announced at the NDR on Aug 23.

ST spoke to several who said they are worried that reclamation will cause irreversible loss to the mature habitats in the area, which include intertidal habitats and reefs. One scientist said that the reefs in Pulau Semakau and Pulau Hantu date back 8,000 years.

Some acknowledged the need behind the reclamation plans – PM had said the new island could meet industry, energy and defence needs – but asked for detailed environmental studies to be done to guide the development. They also asked for flexibility in the reclamation boundaries to protect as much of the marine-rich areas as possible, given their ecological value.

A few heritage groups representing the island’s former resident communities have also asked to be involved in discussions so that their culture and history can be taken into account (the islands’ inhabitants, which include the indigenous Orang Laut, were resettled for earlier stages of development).

The Ministry of National Development has since said that it will conduct technical studies as part of the planning process that will inform plans. These will seek to understand development possibilities and their “preliminary impact on areas like biodiversity and hydrodynamics”.

The take: The new island looks like it may trigger a second round of what happened with Maju Forest and Gillman Barracks – where the role of citizens in ecological conservation and public decision-making became a flash point for politics.

Some common themes have come up – citizens saying they want their voices to be heard ahead of the Government finalising plans and raising questions about maximising ecological preservation amid development.

It looks like the authorities are moving quickly, which could help them get ahead of any growing unhappiness.

Some advocates involved in conservation and heritage met the evening after the Rally with MOS Alvin Tan, who on Aug 29 went on an intertidal walk on Pulau Hantu with several nature advocates and PAP backbenchers Charlene Chen and Lee Hui Ying (who have spoken on green issues).

Tan later said these are early stages of engagement to find ways to mitigate the impact on marine biodiversity.

The issue has also been picked up by MPs who have filed parliamentary questions on the plans’ biodiversity impact and how civic engagement will be conducted as things move forward.

Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC MP David Hoe plans to ask the Government if various communities can be engaged earlier when difficult land-use choices are being considered – a question posed by various MPs during the parliamentary airing of the Maju Forest issue.

It remains to be seen if the WP will weigh in, as it did on Maju/Gillman – which contributed to the issue’s high political signature.

We’ll be keeping tabs on how the issue plays out in the next Parliament sitting.

• The defamation case brought by ministers K. Shanmugam and Tan See Leng against finance publication Bloomberg has drawn to a close. Bloomberg did not lodge an appeal by the Aug 27 deadline after the verdict was delivered in July. In a Facebook post on Saturday, Shanmugam said Bloomberg’s decision not to appeal “reveals its true assessment of the legal merits”. It chose to leave the High Court’s findings of malice, falsehoods and wrongful conduct unchallenged, on the record, he added.

• A new 1,000-seat theatre set to open at the redeveloped Tanglin Shopping Centre by 2030 will provide another location for local and international shows. It will plug a need for mid-sized theatre spaces, in between the current 1,894-seat Esplanade Theatre and 614-seat Victoria Theatre. The new building will also host a contemporary art museum, an amphitheatre, retail outlets and office spaces.

• A government unit that tackles intractable neighbour disputes such as noise and hoarding will expand its remit nationwide after a trial in Tampines for more than a year. A framework requiring mediation for neighbour disputes will likewise be expanded. Officers in the Community Relations Unit have the power to investigate severe disputes and take enforcement action where needed. This includes mandating disputing parties to attend mediation as well as issuing abatement orders for people to stop the noise. Non-compliance with such orders is a criminal offence.

Share

Hi everyone,

Last night we watched Prime Minister Lawrence Wong deliver his third National Day Rally.

He said the Government’s priority in the wake of uncertainty and conflict this year has been to “steady the ship” (remember the nearly $2 billion in crisis support that has been announced so far).

But the country also has to look forward and prepare for deeper changes to come, he said.

As we expected, support for families was the main feature and the PM also covered other issues including the new US tariffs and concerns specific to the Chinese and Malay communities (dialect policy and leadership renewal).

On the most recent tariffs, announced by the US in July over allegations that several countries including Singapore had failed to impose and/or effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour, PM Wong said the city-state will not allow itself to be used as a conduit for illegal trade practices. But it must be realistic about what it can do on its own.

“We cannot possibly trace and verify the entire supply chain behind every product that passes through our shores. So we will continue engaging the US and explaining our position,” he said.

The PM also gave his stance on immigration and integration, and gave assurances that while Singapore remains open, the Government will ensure Singaporeans remain the majority.

But we did not expect plans for longer-term investment in Singapore’s outer islands, including a whole new island in the south.

Here we go:

Subscribed

Biggest sneak preview ever?

The news: If you have a child or want one, this NDR is for you. PM Wong announced changes to several policies across the board which affect parenthood. A short summary:

1. More childcare leave;

2. More financial support (up from between $27.5k to $56.5k per child to a total of nearly $70k per kid up to age 17);

3. Cheaper pre-school fees;

4. Higher income ceilings to qualify for subsidised housing; and

5. Extra ballots for families with children applying for their first flat.

These are the first set of moves from recommendations by a workgroup on “resetting” marriage and parenthood policies that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah has been leading.

The group was set up in April after data from 2025 showed Singapore’s fertility rate had hit a historic low of 0.87. The replacement rate is around 2.1.

PM Wong said this was a “sneak preview” with more changes to come, including at Budget 2027.

The take: Some of these measures will take time to kick in, but across the board, it looks like where the Government has levers to spend money to fix the problem, it has.

Beyond putting more cash in parents’ pockets, it has also committed to spending to make other areas of parenthood easier.

It will foot the bill with employers for the additional childcare leave, and also increase subsidies to halve pre-school fees by 2030.

We’ll have a clearer picture of how much expenditure it is adding through the Budget process as these changes set in, but at face value, it looks like a lot.

Assuming 29,000 babies born a year (we had about that number in 2025), and assuming the lowest possible increase in cash support from $56.5k to $69k, that’s about $363 million more in financial support per cohort across their childhoods.

That does not include how much the Government will spend on childcare leave and pre-school subsidies, which are harder to ballpark.

What could come next? Indranee has said she also intends for the workgroup to tackle work culture and other more intangible issues that are stopping people from having kids.

These issues have to do with social expectations and could be more resistant to tweaking financial incentives (or in other words, throwing money at the problem). They could force more novel approaches.

What could the new western island house?

The news: Singapore could look very different 50 years from now – with more land and new connections between its outer islands.

PM Wong plans to merge several smaller islands surrounding Singapore including Semakau and Bukom, to create a new “western island”. It will be near and linked to Jurong island – the country’s petrochemical hub.

He also announced plans for more connectivity offshore.

The Government is studying the feasibility of undersea tunnels to connect the mainland with Pulau Tekong, which is mostly used for military training. It will also reclaim land to better connect resort island Sentosa to Pulau Brani, a nearby island which will be redeveloped for tourism after existing container operations are moved out.

The take: Could the new western island house nuclear facilities, should Singapore decide to adopt nuclear energy?

PM Wong said the new island can accommodate new power generation infrastructure to meet the country’s future needs, without elaborating.

Singapore is studying civilian nuclear power which has promise as a solution for its decarbonisation and energy security goals.

The Government has stressed that it will study nuclear power extensively before making a decision. While it sees promise in small modular reactors (which are much smaller and safer than traditional reactors), it has been adamant it will not go first in adopting the technology.

The elephant in the room has been where any reactor would go on the 744.3 square kilometre mainland.

The new western island could offer a solution in the future.

Even if the option of nuclear energy doesn’t pan out, the new island seems like it will feature heavily in the future economy. PM Wong said it also can support a new generation of industries, including advanced manufacturing facilities, and defence, and will “shape the economy for the next 50 years, and beyond”.

• The PM announced stricter rules for social media platforms, including requiring more enforcement on the minimum age to use most of them (13). He also said there will be more restrictions on features like endless scrolling for teens, and that if safeguards are insufficient the Government will consider raising the minimum age.

• He also announced the Government will remove the cap on screenings of films in Chinese dialects, as long as there is a Mandarin-dubbed version available. This comes after the public discourse about the continued relevance of decades-old laws restricting the use of Chinese dialects in mass media after the release of the Teochew-language film Dear You in June.

• The PM said he will work to strengthen the Government’s Malay/Muslim leadership team, name-dropping Zaqy Mohamad, Rahayu Mahzam, Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim and Syed Harun Alhabsyi. He did not mention the resignation of Acting Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Faishal Ibrahim in July, but that was looming in the background.

• As we expected, the debate between the PAP and the WP on the opposition party’s economic proposals has continued online. Former senior minister of state Lee Yi Shyan weighed in on social media and questioned the WP’s arguments as well as whether their proposals constituted a real alternative vision and called their motion on the future of the economy “political opportunism”. His post was shared by sitting ministers including K. Shanmugam, Chee Hong Tat and Ng Chee Meng. It drew responses from WP’s Kenneth Tiong and Jamus Lim, who said Lee had mischaracterised their arguments and drawn false binaries to attack their proposals.

Share

Hi everyone,

This weekend we’ll hear the biggest political speech of the year – the National Day Rally.

Families and parenthood will be a key focus. More on this below.

Separately, former Deputy Prime Minister and Law Minister S. Jayakumar launched a book last week detailing behind-the-scenes Cabinet discussions over three pieces of legislation that he had a hand in creating.

These laws created three political institutions: the elected presidency, the group representation constituency scheme and the Non-Constituency MP scheme – all which still exist today and are in many ways unique to Singapore’s model of democracy.

Jayakumar told ST in an interview that he wrote the book to give Singaporeans a glimpse into how robust and candid the discussions were in the making of these laws, so they would know the legislation was not rushed into “at railroad speed”.

He and Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong (who officiated the launch) said these political institutions – which were created in the 1980s and 90s and driven by the PAP’s second generation leaders – have served Singapore well and are still relevant today.

But they are not “sacrosanct”, said Jayakumar, 87. Future generations could have their own innovations if they feel that these laws are no longer the appropriate mechanisms for their intentions, he added.

Let’s get into this week:

Subscribed

NDR 2026

What are we watching for: The NDR is traditionally the most important political speech of the year and is the preferred stage for the Prime Minister to make his case on the biggest issues of the day and focus national priorities.

Contrast this to the annual Budget speech – which is headed by the Finance Minister (currently also the PM, Lawrence Wong) and generally covers more ground by outlining economic and business-centric measures, social policies as well as fiscal schemes.

The main course for this year’s speech looks like it will be Singapore’s future plans for parents and families.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah said on Saturday that her workgroup on the issue has submitted interim policy recommendations ahead of its report next year so as not to “lose time”.

The Government already has the ability to address some of the concerns now, so rather than wait, it might as well “deal with this early and upfront”, she said, adding that PM Wong will share more at the NDR.

The message so far has been that the record-low total fertility rate is an urgent problem that the Government wants to fix – and to do so it is willing to change things up and “reset”.

But policy will only be half the story. Usually, the NDR also tackles socio-political hot topics and makes the Government’s case for buy-in to its direction from various sectors of society.

Last year, we heard about a “we-first society” from PM Wong in his first NDR after the GE, where he outlined his ideas of a more inclusive Singapore that he wants to build.

At the root of the family and parenthood reset is Singapore’s tumbling birthrate. The possible impact of this on the economy also ties it to the twin issues of immigration and integration – which PM Wong spoke briefly of during his National Day message.

Various ministers including DPM Gan Kim Yong and Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow have argued more immigration and better work on integration are necessary for the economy to remain dynamic. The PM could also discuss this and make his case for Singapore’s continued openness.

What else will be raised at the rally?

Usually, the PM also gives his read on the current geopolitical situation and Singapore’s place in it – he will likely address the US government’s new 12.5 per cent tariffs on 60 countries including Singapore and its impacts here.

Also, given Faishal Ibrahim’s July resignation from the role of Acting Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs, the PM may address the Malay/Muslim community about leadership and renewal in his speech in Malay.

He could also speak on dialect and identity in his Chinese-language speech, in the wake of public and parliamentary discussion over the Government’s initial limits on screenings of the Teochew-language film Dear You.

Tune in to our coverage of the Rally on Sunday. We will also bring you a breakdown of the key announcements in next week’s issue.

• WP chief Pritam Singh was struck off the rolls last week at a hearing with the Court of Three Judges. Singh, a non-practising lawyer, did not contest the Law Society’s application for him to be struck off following his conviction for lying to a parliamentary committee. Both sides agreed that dishonesty was an integral element of his offences, and that the high threshold to avoid a striking-off was not met.

• More greenery in the Maju Forest and Gillman Barracks areas will be preserved amid redevelopment. Minister of State for National Development Alvin Tan said the authorities had heard the feedback from the public and would be adjusting their plans – which he reiterated were “never final”. But saving more greenery means fewer homes will be built on that land, he said to the media on Friday. He did not take any questions, or specify how much more greenery would be saved. The authorities will continue to engage Singaporeans and aim to finalise the plans over the coming month, Tan said.

• Law Minister Edwin Tong has called for the Law Society to share its audit reports with its members, following a closed-door meeting last week where lawyers asked to see the materials. Tong has previously said that the report showed there were significant failures in leadership.

Share

Hi everyone,

Happy 61st, Singapore. We hope you had a good long weekend.

Parliament was heavy last week, including a lengthy discussion over plans to develop Maju Forest and Gillman Barracks. The answer is, in short: development is going ahead.

Minister of State for National Development Alvin Tan responded for almost an hour to MPs’ questions, going through the considerations for development and listing other nearby sites and explaining why they are not suitable.

Formal public consultation ended on Aug 6, as scheduled, but Tan said the Government will continue to speak to people before finalising its plans for the two areas.

Despite this, online discourse about the plans has carried on, and one of the questions is whose responsibility the areas fall under.

The Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment released another statement after the sitting explaining why it does not have a mandate over development in these two plots. The minister, Grace Fu, had answered questions from WP’s Kenneth Tiong on this in Parliament as well.

We’ll see if questions about MSE’s role persist.

This week, we look back at the WP’s motion on the economy in Parliament last week, and forward to the National Day Rally:

Subscribed

Worker protection

The news: For nine hours on Aug 5, Parliament debated the future of Singapore’s economy (yes, we watched all of it).

More than 20 MPs spoke on the motion tabled by WP Aljunied GRC MP Kenneth Tiong, including nine from WP and 10 from the PAP.

The WP accepted three out of four amendments proposed by a PAP MP, but eventually dissented to the first amendment and the motion as a whole.

All 12 of its MPs voted against the amended version, which passed at the end of the debate.

Here’s the amended version:

The House agreed, in line with the Economic Strategy Review’s recommendations:

(a) in a more equal and inclusive economy, with opportunities for entrepreneurs to experiment, households and businesses to succeed, workers to thrive, and ideas and innovation to flourish; and

(b) in an economy powered by dynamic local companies, global enterprises, healthy domestic and external demand, and Singaporeans and Singaporean capital venturing abroad.

The discussion centred on a few main themes, including the place of multinational companies and small and medium-sized enterprises in the economy and how to protect workers in the face of disruption from artificial intelligence.

Both parties agreed that more must be done to protect workers, as well as on broad economic structure – although the WP said it sought to shift the emphasis away from MNCs and government-linked companies, towards smaller local firms as the “heart of the nation’s economic model”.

WP chief Pritam Singh and his Aljunied GRC colleague Fadli Fawzi argued for legislating mandatory or minimum retrenchment benefits. PAP labour MP Patrick Tay also noted that he has lobbied in the House for the past decade to further strengthen the retrenchment protection regime.

In response, Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash said the Government is studying legislating mandatory retrenchment benefits under the Tripartite Work Group reviewing the Employment Act.

The take: We’ve been hearing discussion on how to better protect workers for months (read our issue after the ESR report) and this debate gave us a hint of what else might be on the table.

Dinesh’s remarks came in stark contrast from just half a year ago in February when then-SMS Koh Poh Koon shot down the WP’s same call. Koh said then that tripartite partners had “deliberated extensively” but decided legislating such benefits would be difficult for already struggling companies and could lead to more negative outcomes for workers than positive.

What has changed? Dinesh said circumstances have shifted in light of the ESR report, which the Government released in June.

While he did not point to a specific factor, one marker everyone has been watching is Singapore’s retrenchment numbers – which have been on the rise.

Dinesh also said the changes are being discussed under a tripartite workgroup currently reviewing the Employment Act – Singapore’s main labour law. So that’s where they will take place, if any.

We expect push back from employers if any discussion becomes more concrete. During the debate, we heard NMP Mark Lee, who now chairs the Singapore Business Federation, press Dinesh on whether the Government had considered the impact on employers (read, higher costs).

The SBF and other employment groups are on that workgroup – that’s where disagreements will likely be aired.

The role of the Opposition

The news: After all that debate, the WP eventually dissented to the motion.

After clarifying with Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow that the opposition party was not anti-MNC, as the PAP had characterised it, WP agreed to the PAP’s amendments to the main limbs of the motion.

But it took issue with the first of the four amendments, which replaced the word “notwithstanding” with the phrase “in line with” in the motion’s first line.

Tiong argued that the change turned the whole sentence around and said his party did not want the ESR to be treated as the whole of the House’s thinking on the economy.

The word “notwithstanding” in the motion meant that Parliament’s commitments were neither exhausted by the ESR nor derived from it, he said.

In short, Tiong was saying that the House should be able to commit to economic principles without them flowing from a plan by the Government’s executive branch.

PAP Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MP Edward Chia had, in tabling his amendments, said the ESR was not just a government document but the result of wide consultation with businesses, unions and workers – framing it as a national consensus.

The take: In moving the motion and during the debate, the WP advanced an ongoing discussion on the role of the Opposition.

Its MPs sought to collectively build an alternative vision for Singapore’s economy and made the party’s first big policy statement of the term.

The motion was a response, albeit not directly, to a challenge laid down by the PAP late in 2025 for the WP to provide alternative visions instead of tweaking at the edges of policy. Coordinating Minister for Social Policies Ong Ye Kung had framed doing so as necessary for Singapore’s political development. WP leaders said then that the party would focus on its long-held goal of being a check on the Government.

The WP has not framed the motion as an explicit response to Ong, and at a press briefing before the sitting, Tiong said the party was tabling it as part of its MPs’ responsibilities as elected representatives.

But after the debate, Tiong posted on social media a list of the policy ideas the party had raised during the debate, in a counter to Siow’s statement that he had not heard a “great big idea” to replace the ESR.

To the PAP, however, the WP’s differences on policy may not be enough to constitute a different vision for the country. Siow made this point in Parliament, saying that he saw the WP’s proposals as building on the ESR.

How the public receives these arguments and decides to measure the opposition party’s performance will count at the next general election, and going by Siow’s response, the PAP will likely continue this line of argument against the WP.

An NDR preview

The news: More support to help parents and families with the costs of raising children and to lighten their overall load is on the way.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in his National Day message that he would outline his Government’s plans on Aug 23 at the National Day Rally – traditionally the biggest political speech of the year.

The PM said the Government has heard concerns from parents and families who feel stretched as they juggle competing demands.

That is why it is conducting a major review on how families are supported in Singapore across various life stages – not only at the point of marriage and parenthood, but throughout life’s journey.

This review is driven by an inter-ministry Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup that was tasked in April to look at some of these issues amid a record-low total fertility rate.

The take: MPs on both sides of the House have made persistent calls for more support for families, and a speech during last week’s sitting could give us some hint of what is to come.

PAP Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Elysa Chen moved an adjournment motion on families last week, where she asked for more government-paid childcare leave, extending childcare subsidies to stay-at-home mothers and increasing maternity leave to six months.

She also called for employees to be allowed to use their own medical leave to care for sick children or elderly parents and structured postpartum home visits, as well as improved access to pre-school places, particularly in areas with higher demand.

Responding, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah said the Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup which she chairs will consider some of Chen’s suggestions.

While the workgroup is due to submit its report only in early 2027, it looks like the PM wants to drop some details early to give a preview of the workgroup’s weighty promise of a “reset”.

Some of Chen’s suggestions look easier for the Government to deliver than others.

Cash payouts and subsidies are easier to move on earlier as the Government controls the national purse strings, but anything leave-related may take longer as the issue has typically been a sticking point with employers.

The rally should, beyond immediate policy announcements, flesh out the goals and language which will give us a sense of how extensive this “reset” will be, and how far beyond cash the Government is willing to go to make it happen.

• The Workers’ Party also released a National Day message, starting with Singapore’s mythical founding by Srivijayan prince Sang Nila Utama who cast off his crown in a storm off the island’s coast. It said the party will “continue to play its role as a loyal and constructive opposition – offering ideas, asking difficult questions, and advancing policies that improve the lives of all Singaporeans”.

• People aged 40 to 49 were the largest age group affected among the 93 workers laid off by GovTech in July – accounting for 42 per cent. Another 30 per cent were aged above 50, which means close to three in four of the retrenched were above 40.

• A new co-living scheme for young people introduced by the Government last month has been five times oversubscribed within 11 days of its launch. More than 500 Singaporeans have signed up for the discounted rooms, even as concerns were raised online about the high prices.

• Lawyer and opposition politician Lim Tean was arrested on Aug 6 in Johor Bahru by Malaysian police. The Singapore authorities had issued a warrant of arrest against him on Aug 3 after he failed to turn up to surrender to court that day to begin his jail term. Two Singaporean men who allegedly helped him to leave Singapore were charged in court on Aug 8.

• Last week Parliament switched MPs’ seats following PM Wong’s reshuffle of his Cabinet. Labour chief Ng Chee Meng moved across the aisle to the frontbench in Parliament following his appointment as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. He takes the seat vacated by Faishal Ibrahim. Read about the other changes here.

Share

Hi everyone,

Last Monday, the central bank allowed the Singdollar to appreciate at a faster rate, increasing “very slightly” the slope of the S$NEER – the currency’s floating value compared to those of Singapore’s biggest trading partners.

This should slow the rate of price increases for imports – a move usually carried out when MAS expects more inflation down the line.

Two days later, Second Minister for Finance Jeffrey Siow announced more help (read, CDC vouchers) for households and businesses to cushion the impact of high energy prices.

This second round of measures will add another $900m of support to the $1b package from April.

Also, retrenchments went up again in the second quarter of this year to 4,500 – the highest since the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the unemployment rate remaining stable at around 2 per cent.

This week, we’ve got a preview of Parliament, which sits tomorrow.

We expect debate over the fate of Maju Forest and Gillman Barracks, as well as a lengthy discussion on a motion that the WP will table to set out its vision for the future of Singapore’s economy.

MPs are also set to debate a set of proposed laws to deal with worsening road safety, including new punishments for those caught holding their phones while driving.

More below:

Subscribed

Flats or forest

What’s happened so far: Flats or forest will be the focus of question time as MPs have filed questions on plans to clear about two-thirds of a green area in Clementi, and forested areas in Gillman Barracks.

On July 10, the Housing Board announced plans to clear about 15 of 23 hectares of the area known as Maju Forest for public housing in the coming years. It also said the upcoming Gillman Barracks estate would preserve 20 per cent of the area as green spaces with existing and new greenery.

Since the announcement, MPs from both sides have raised concerns and said they will raise the issue in Parliament.

Much of the discourse so far has centred on Maju Forest.

MP Christopher de Souza, who represents residents who live in the area, has also said he has filed an adjournment motion on the forest’s preservation.

The community around the forest, which sits mostly in the Sunset Way housing estate, as well as nature groups have also raised concerns.

There is a newly formed group, known as Save Maju Forest, campaigning for its retention, and a public petition which at the time of writing has around 33,000 signatures.

MPs, including Holland-Bukit Timah GRC’s Sim Ann, Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC’s David Hoe and Tanjong Pagar GRC’s Rachel Ong have also organised public engagement sessions. Ong and WP MPs He Ting Ru and Dennis Tan also attended one initiated by the community.

The HDB has said these plans are not set in stone, and opened the period for public consultation till Aug 6.

What’s next: Could the Government change its plans? It did so in 2021 with Dover Forest, after members of the public raised concerns over plans to redevelop the area for housing.

There was a parliamentary discussion (de Souza also delivered an adjournment motion), and the Government subsequently decided to hold off developing the western half of Dover Forest for about a decade.

That portion scored better in terms of biodiversity on a survey commissioned by the authorities.

For Maju Forest, the HDB appears to have already preemptively applied this option.

Its plans retain sections of the forest which scored better in terms of biodiversity, and it has said the new flats will be integrated with remaining nature.

For Gillman, HDB has said it would retain most of the habitats where the majority of the area’s flora and fauna are concentrated in, while safeguarding corridors for species to travel through.

It is also unclear what the community movement wants as it has not coalesced into a single focal demand, although a few could emerge.

These are: rezoning the area to stop all development, and saving more green space but allowing some development or more civic involvement before such plans are announced.

MPs’ questions are likely to centre on these issues, and we should get the Government’s position on each.

On WP’s motion

What’s happened so far: WP’s Aljunied GRC MP Kenneth Tiong has filed a motion on “an economy of the future that works for all”, where the party intends to set out its vision for the future of Singapore’s economy.

The party held a press briefing on Aug 1 (Wei Kai went), where Tiong said the majority of his party’s 12 MPs will speak.

They will cover several themes, including: innovation, the cost of doing business, labour and helping Singapore’s businesses to regionalise.

Sengkang GRC MP Jamus Lim, who is seconding the motion, said the party wants to complement rather than substitute the Government’s own plans.

Lim said the Government’s plans, which were set out in a June report, have positives.

But the WP believes that there are gaps which it hopes to fill, said Lim, who is WP policy research head.

Tiong said worries about how Singapore’s economic model will continue to provide inclusive prosperity and more equal growth have been top of mind for many Singaporeans he has spoken to.

“It’s our duty to come up with our answers,” he said.

What’s next: The debate should produce a clearer picture of where Singapore’s two main political parties stand on key issues in the economy.

We’ll be watching for a few areas which have seen recent debate: labour disruption, support for Singapore businesses and the domestic stock market.

This is the opposition party’s first big response to the Economic Strategy Review report, which we covered here, and its recommendations – although WP MPs have spoken on related issues in other platforms like adjournment motions (shorter motions at the end of sittings which do not trigger a fuller debate).

Tiong and Lim specifically have spoken about business regionalisation and revitalising Singapore’s stock market.

We expect a lengthy back and forth with a substantial Government response to WP criticism of its plans and rebuttals of WP positions.

Going by precedent, the PAP will likely propose amendments to the motion’s wording or add clauses, and then vote to pass the amended motion. This happened the last time the WP tabled a motion on how to help Singaporeans cope with the cost of living in 2023, where the PAP objected to the WP’s use of the word “crisis” to describe the situation.

The motion passed, but the WP opposed its final version.

This motion could also have larger political significance.

Coordinating Minister for Social Policies Ong Ye Kung, when Parliament opened in September 2025, said the WP should provide an alternative vision for Singapore rather than continuing to ask for changes at the edges of policy and scrutinising the government.

This could be the WP’s answer to that call.

$900m in support measures

The news: More CDC vouchers are on the way – the authorities have announced a new January tranche of $300 for every Singaporean household in the face of continued high energy prices.

Households will also get more utility rebates while those in the lower-income bracket can get a larger sum of public assistance (under ComCare).

Second Minister for Finance Jeffrey Siow announced these measures as part of a $900 million support package to cushion the impact of inflation driven by the conflict in the Middle East.

The rest of the package is targeted at businesses, including a cash grant of at least $500 for SMEs here with local employees and up to $1,200 in rental support for stallholders in hawker centres and markets.

Taken together with the $1 billion package announced in April, the Government will have rolled out nearly $2 billion in total in response to the economic fallout from the war.

So far, it doesn’t seem to need any additional budget, though Siow said the Government would go through the parliamentary process to obtain the funds if necessary.

The take: This second tranche of government support is more calibrated than the first with new target groups.

When the first package in April was rolled out, the extent of the impact and who would be more affected was less clear. The authorities’ choice of broader measures like corporate tax rebates and cash payouts then favoured speed over precision.

Since then it has become clearer how the war has hit the wallets of households and smaller businesses. Prices for non-cooked food (raw materials for hawkers) have risen faster than overall prices according to June numbers while electricity tariffs for households reached a record high for the July to September quarter.

The measures announced last week appear to be crafted specifically in response to these numbers – hawkers get more cash than market vendors while the utility rebates are meant to cover the increases for most households up till March next year.

Barring significant developments to how the war plays out, any further support down the road is likely to also be calibrated in this manner.

• A fitness instructor said she had been wrongly identified as the woman involved in former Acting Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Faishal Ibrahim’s resignation. She filed a complaint with the newly set up Online Safety Commission, which ordered the removal of a TikTok post that alleged the links. The new acting minister Zaqy Mohamad said no innocent person should have to endure such harassment because of unfounded speculation.

• The authorities have detained three Singaporean teenagers aged 14, 15 and 19 under the Internal Security Act. They said the three, who are unrelated, were self-radicalised by violent extremist ideologies. The 14-year-old had planned to carry out a mass school stabbing, while the 19-year-old plotted knife attacks against military personnel at Sembawang Air Base and LGBTQ students in his tertiary institution. Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam told reporters that it takes less time now for someone to be radicalised, and stressed the importance of people around them reporting early.

• Two former PAP MPs who resigned in the previous term were spotted last week. Former transport minister S. Iswaran was among the guests invited to a meal hosted by diplomat Kishore Mahbubani (former Foreign Minister George Yeo posted a group photo online). At the Singapore MICE Forum on Thursday, former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin delivered the keynote where he spoke on the importance of leaders inspiring their teams.

• A TikTok video by former Nee Soon GRC MP Carrie Tan on how she kept herself awake and attentive during Parliament sittings made its rounds last week. The one-term MP from 2020 to 2025 said she folded paper cranes and cross-stitched to stay focused. She responded to some of the online comments in a Facebook post, saying: “One can leave politics but the trolls seem to love following… My personal sharing to raise awareness about #neurodivergence has invited so many comments.” Tan has previously said she has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Share

Hi everyone,

What a week. Faishal Ibrahim, Acting Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs, resigned last Monday for “inappropriate and questionable” messages with a woman.

While Zaqy Mohamad immediately took over, Faishal’s departure contributed to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announcing a Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday.

On top of that, the U.S. Government on Friday announced new tariffs on 60 countries, including Singapore.

The 12.5% levy comes on the back of allegations that Singapore has failed to adopt and effectively enforce prohibitions on trading goods produced with forced labour.

Let’s get into it:

Subscribed

New cards in the deck

The news: Jasmin Lau is acting Manpower Minister and labour chief Ng Chee Meng is back in Cabinet.

The PM also promoted Sim Ann to second minister for foreign and home affairs, and Jeffrey Siow and David Neo to full ministers (they were acting ministers for transport and culture, community and youth, respectively).

He also moved Goh Pei Ming up a rank to senior minister of state, and put backbenchers Foo Cexiang and Shawn Loh into Government as ministers of state (although they will start later, as they leave their current jobs).

And K. Shanmugam is now senior minister while keeping his national security and home affairs portfolios – the first to become SM without having been PM or deputy PM, and to be SM while helming a ministry.

A few others had portfolio switches, such as ministers of state Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim dropping MSF and taking on MHA, and Alvin Tan picking up foreign affairs ahead of Singapore’s ASEAN chairmanship in 2027.

PM Wong also renamed the Ministry of Trade and Industry as the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry effective from Oct 1, saying this reflects the increasing importance of energy.

Tan See Leng, who passed the manpower job to Lau, is now Minister for Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry). He was already Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science and Technology.

The take: The changes plug gaps and retool the Cabinet for the goals the PM has set for the Government, and stamp his mark on its composition.

We’ve been expecting a reshuffle since Koh Poh Koon stepped down as senior minister of state on June 1, and Faishal’s departure meant there were two places to fill.

The reshuffle did not backfill Koh’s exact portfolios, but added one more political office-holder overall to bring the total to 41.

So far in this term, the work of Government and discussion in Parliament has been dominated by the PM’s national AI push, and dealing with changes to jobs and work it will create.

Putting Lau, who is also in charge of GovTech, into the Manpower Ministry and returning the labour chief to Cabinet puts more attention on the connection between tech, labour disruption and regulation.

Renaming MTI and carving out energy as a specific portfolio for Tan also reflects its growing importance, amid energy-related disruption over the past few months. Tan has also spearheaded much of the work on nuclear power as Singapore assesses the tech.

The reshuffle also pushes leadership renewal at the highest level, bringing in the final two senior civil servants who debuted at GE2025 (Foo and Loh).

Three ministries are now headed by politicians PM Wong brought in at GE2025 – his first election as PAP chief – and nine of the current 41 office-holders are from this batch.

We are likely to see more backbenchers from the 2025 intake come in down the line, and the PM has shown a willingness to move people up fast if they perform well. Lau is just 43, and has been in politics for 14 months.

But open questions remain over succession for the Malay/Muslim portfolio, which we will look at below.

Faishal bombshell

The news: The Cabinet changes were due in part to Faishal’s resignation last Monday over inappropriate messages between him and a woman, which resulted in mutual allegations of harassment.

In his resignation letter to the PM, Faishal said there was no physical relationship between them, but he did not draw clearer boundaries and had fallen short of the standards expected of him.

PM Wong said that the matter came to his attention a month ago via an e-mail to his office, and that he asked for the issue to be looked into.

Both sides then alleged harassment, which resulted in a police investigation – but no one was charged.

After Faishal stepped down, PM Wong appointed senior minister of state Zaqy Mohamad as his replacement.

Two days later, Shanmugam gave more details on the case. He said Faishal’s responses to the woman were “objectively inappropriate and questionable”.

The take: Much of the public discourse so far has focused on whether more information should be revealed about Faishal’s interactions with the woman.

The Government has held the line – saying it wants to respect Faishal’s wish for privacy – while commentators have said the public needs to know what he said to understand if his resignation was a proportionate response.

Unless Faishal or the woman break their silence, it seems unlikely we will know more.

Looking ahead, his resignation thins the bench for the PAP’s Malay/Muslim leadership, and leaves an important electoral hole.

Faishal’s appointment came at a post-election reshuffle on the back of concerns from the PAP that the WP was asking the Malay/Muslim community to vote along racial lines in Tampines GRC during GE2025.

He was active on the ground during the election and helped campaign in Tampines, which the party nearly lost to the WP.

Faishal was very well-liked by the public – we saw an outpouring of support from all quarters, including some opposition figures, after his resignation. He was also popular within the ruling party. Long-time party cadres we spoke to expressed shock and sadness at the news.

The only Malay/Muslim minister right now is Masagos Zulkifli, Faishal’s predecessor, who is 63.

Zaqy is 51 and a senior minister of state who is firmly a part of PM Wong’s generation, but he has no peers.

The two next most senior political office-holders are Rahayu Mahzam, a 46-year-old minister of state, and 45-year-old former lawyer Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim – who is also a minister of state and just entered political office in January this year.

After them, there is senior parliamentary secretary Syed Harun Alhabsyi, who is 41.

The PM could draw from the backbenches to bolster their ranks, and the race to bring in talent for the next election has taken a new urgency.

• Young people in Singapore will have more access to subsidised rental housing and credits to try out their interests under a new five year national plan announced by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam. It aims to combat youth concerns about employment, and to, as the President said, “make the most of their constructive discontent with the present”.

• Sovereign wealth fund GIC posted a fall in returns. It reported an annualised rolling 20-year real rate of return of 3.4% (adjusted for inflation) – a 0.4 percentage point decline from the 3.8% last year and the lowest in six years.

• HSBC has agreed to sell its Singapore life and health insurance business to Germany’s Allianz for $2.7 billion. Allianz was previously involved in a failed buy of NTUC Income, which the Government blocked.

Share

Hi everyone,

Singapore’s economy continued its strong growth, and outperformed the Government’s initial forecasts in the second quarter of this year.

Growth came in at 5.7% off the back of sustained AI-related demand – well above the 2 to 4 per cent forecast that the Ministry of Trade and Industry set for 2026.

Last week was a relatively heavy one for regional relations. President Tharman Shanmugaratnam was in Malaysia for his first state visit there, while Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong was in Brunei for its Sultan’s 80th birthday celebrations.

This comes after Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s yearly retreat with Indonesia’s leadership the week before. At all three visits, leaders emphasised continued collaboration.

The biggest headline last week was the shock retrenchment of 93 staff from GovTech, an agency that provides the tech for the rest of the public service. Let’s get into it:

Subscribed

Losing an ‘iron rice bowl’

The news: The Government’s technology agency has laid off 93 staff in the first part of a three-phase restructuring over the next two years.

Announcing the move last week, it said that it expects the restructuring to affect 7 to 9 per cent of roles in its current workforce of about 3,900. Some will be retained, others reskilled and the remainder retrenched.

GovTech chairman Chng Kai Fong in a note to employees on July 15 said the restructuring is meant to take the agency from managing projects delivered by vendors to running products itself.

This is so the agency can respond and adjust quickly to national needs, Chng said, adding that it is “not an AI-driven downsizing exercise”.

Chng, who is also permanent secretary at the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, said GovTech expects to employ more people at the end of the transition than it does today.

The pivot has affected staff working in project delivery and management roles, many of whom are part of the agency’s “forward-deployed teams” – units embedded in other government agencies.

The take: Much has been said about the necessity of the restructuring (read our colleague Irene’s piece here). How the retrenchments were done and what they signal is also significant.

In this retrenchment, the Government and the labour movement appear to be trying to model the standard for how these exercises should be done, amid constant tech and finance layoffs as well as growing worries about job disruption due to AI.

In their public statements, both GovTech and NTUC outlined a retrenchment that followed steps they have long advocated and that labour MPs have pushed for in Parliament.

These are: notify unions early so they can start to place workers who are losing jobs, only retrench when retraining and redeployment are not possible, and ensure those let go are given help to find new jobs.

These efforts are aimed at reducing the size and disruptiveness of retrenchments, but experts said they also reflect an acceptance that restructuring is unavoidable given the gathering pace of technological change.

Yet despite these efforts, the sight of the Government – traditionally an ‘iron rice bowl’ employer – cutting jobs has added to workers’ sense of insecurity.

Whether the standard set in this exercise succeeds in allaying these worries will depend on whether the rest of the GovTech restructuring continues in this model (Chng has promised that it will). It will also depend on whether other agencies independently decide they need to restructure – though there is no hint of that as of now.

While MPs have been quiet on social media so far, we expect the GovTech retrenchments to be discussed in Parliament when it sits in August.

The exercise also set up a bigger question: whether retrenchments can be carried out in this manner if the employer is a private company, rather than the Government.

Defamation vs public interest

The news: The defamation suit brought by ministers K. Shanmugam and Tan See Leng against finance publication Bloomberg and its reporter Dexter Low is over, with the High Court on July 14 awarding each minister $230,000 in damages.

Judge Audrey Lim ruled that the story written by Low was defamatory, and that Bloomberg had acted maliciously by lifting the paywall on the piece – which had also earlier on attracted a fake news direction.

The story, titled ‘Singapore mansion deals are increasingly shrouded in secrecy’ was published in 2024. It said wealthy buyers in Singapore were obscuring their purchases of good class bungalows using methods like shell companies and trusts.

It mentioned Shanmugam’s sale of a bungalow for $88m to an unnamed buyer using a trust and Tan’s purchase of a good class bungalow for around $27m.

Lim also ruled that Bloomberg’s defence with a 1999 legal precedent from the UK where defamation can be published in the public interest does not hold in Singapore. She also ruled that even if it had, their defence would not have held.

The case has attracted significant attention from Western media, some of which reported that it could have a chilling effect on speech.

Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait responded to the verdict, saying the organisation argued at trial “that our reporting was accurate and served an important public interest”.

“We continue to believe that the ministers have imposed an extremely strained meaning on what was a solid story.”

After the judgment and some of its coverage, Shanmugam and Tan released another statement saying: “This case is not about freedom of the press. It is about whether a news organisation can maliciously target individuals, publish grave allegations founded on falsehoods, and deny those accused a fair opportunity to respond.”

The take: The judgment lays out what it will take for defamation laws to shift here, and puts the ball in the court of public mores.

Lim explained why the UK’s public interest defence to defamation, known as the Reynolds defence, does not hold in Singapore. To adopt it, she said, the court has to make a “value judgment” about Singapore’s contemporary political, social and cultural values.

She said acceptance of the Reynolds defence rests on the defendant showing evidence that Singaporeans now believe that those publishing on matters of public interest need greater protection than the existing law of defamation gives them.

Shanmugam has since sought to shape these values, laying out the cost of shifting towards such a model.

He said: “If irresponsible outlets like Bloomberg get away with publishing lies and falsehoods about public officers, it will set a new norm. It will mean that anyone wanting to serve the public will have to face an additional obstacle – that well-funded organisations like Bloomberg will use lies to attack them, put them down and seek to destroy their reputations.”

He then tied this to the greater public interest, saying that this has happened in many countries and as a result many good people do not come forward to serve. “Public interest as a whole suffers in these countries.”

He has not yet received much domestic opposition for this view, and while the criticism from foreign media may continue, it is the public’s views that will count.

This is doubly so since Lim noted that constitutional free speech extends only to Singapore citizens, not foreign outlets.

• Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, 64, will retire in about half a year’s time on Feb 26, 2027 after 14 years as the head of the judiciary. His replacement is Court of Appeal judge Sushil Nair, 62, who has had a speedy rise since he left a 35-year private sector career to join the bench in April 2025.

• The annual public service audit report uncovered several lapses across Government – eg. the Housing Board had given out housing grants to people ineligible for them while the Health Ministry did not declare its savings from developing the National Cancer Centre. It then used some of the monies to fund projects previously rejected by the Finance Ministry. Both agencies said they had introduced measures to prevent recurrence. MOH also emphasised that its team had carried out the work in good faith and there was no indication of deliberate wrongdoing.

• Eric Cheong, a pioneer union leader and former PAP MP for Toa Payoh, died last week aged 96. The 20-year MP also sat on NTUC’s top leadership body and led the Singapore Manual and Mercantile Workers’ Union, which is today the largest union affiliated with NTUC. The PM, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong and former NTUC secretary-general and cabinet minister Lim Boon Heng were at his wake.

• Long-time opposition politician Kenneth Jeyaretnam died at 67 yesterday. The son of former Workers’ Party chief J. B. Jeyaretnam, he last contested GE2020 and led a Reform Party team in Ang Mo Kio GRC. He has been ill in recent years, and did not run in GE2025. He also drew a string of POFMA directions over his political career.

• The Criminal Investigation Department has a new director starting today – Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Julius Lim. He had spent time away from the police force in recent years to be special assistant to then-Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and later became his principal private secretary when he was elected President.

Share

Hi everyone,

Last Monday, Singapore and Indonesia’s bigwigs met in Jakarta for the annual leaders’ retreat.

There, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto pledged to keep the Strait of Malacca open, safe and accessible. The two countries signed 26 agreements on areas like cross-border electricity trade.

Parliament met the day after – the first single-day sitting in some time.

Here’s what went down:

Subscribed

Future of transport

The news: $800 million will go into Singapore’s transport sector over the next five years.

About two-thirds of this big chunk of change ($530 million) will go to autonomous systems and digital twins (real-time online clones of actual transport systems).

The remaining money will go to research for autonomous public transport and other innovations like using AI to optimise flight movements.

Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow laid out these plans during a debate in Parliament on a motion moved by the PAP’s Tin Pei Ling – who chairs the backbench group looking at the transport sector.

The motion asked Parliament to affirm the importance of frontier tech and infrastructure to Singapore’s hub status and to anchor good jobs here.

The WP did not oppose.

The take: Most concerns about tech disruption this year have centred around white-collar work. But last Tuesday, blue-collar transport workers took the floor (literally – Senior Minister of State for Transport Sun Xueling brought former private-hire driver Raymond Tong into the House’s public gallery for the debate).

The PAP and WP again took different stances on how the Government should help workers as it funds technology that will displace them – with PAP’s NTUC-linked MPs making the case for more investment into reskilling through tripartism and the WP arguing for more statutory rights.

These arguments looked strikingly familiar to ones made during the NTUC motion for an AI transition with no jobless growth back in May.

NTUC assistant secretary-general and Punggol GRC MP Yeo Wan Ling said Singapore must “redesign the jobs of tomorrow” while keeping workers’ livelihoods at the centre of the transition.

She cited SBS Transit’s Company Training Committee – an NTUC scheme where the union and employer design training together at the firm level, which PM Wong has said the Government will scale up amid AI disruption.

Meanwhile, WP’s Gerald Giam argued for protections that would not depend on employer buy-in: “algorithmic transparency and explainability requirements” under the Employment Act, which is currently under review.

He said any automated tracking platform used to grade performance, allocate split shifts, or determine contract renewals must provide employees with a clear, plain language breakdown of its underlying metrics.

So far, the Government looks like it will continue to focus on training rather than overhaul employment legislation.

Sun during the debate announced plans to help taxi and private hire drivers reskill, including a new incentive scheme to defray vehicle rental fees and lost income while drivers go for training.

The end of a saga?

The news: If you’re tired of hearing about Raeesah Khan in Parliament, we have good news for you.

Leader of the House Indranee Rajah said she would not take any further action against Workers’ Party leaders Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap for lying to a parliamentary committee.

She said the time limit for Parliament to impose penalties under the law had lapsed. But had the timelines been different, she would have proposed “a different course of action”.

Lim and Faisal were found by the Committee of Privileges to have played a “subsidiary” role in former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan’s lies to Parliament in 2021, noted Indranee.

Parliament opted to wait for WP chief Pritam Singh’s criminal proceedings relating to this case to be completed before dealing with Lim and Faisal, she said. Singh was convicted in February 2025 and his conviction upheld by the High Court in December 2025.

Indranee said the law – the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act – states that the House can only deal with offences committed in the current session of Parliament (starting September 2025) or the one before it (April 2023 to May 2025).

Lim and Faisal’s conduct in question happened two sessions ago (August 2020 to March 2023).

Lim did not object to Indranee’s statement. She said she had already given her response to the issues raised during the January motion when Parliament deemed Singh unsuitable to continue as Leader of the Opposition.

The take: Indranee’s latest statement effectively puts an end to the Raeesah Khan saga in Parliament, just shy of five years from when it first began.

It also closes the loop from the January motion, where Indranee had moved that the House note the implications that Singh’s court convictions had for Lim and Faisal. She did not give any hint then that the window for any punishment had closed.

Indranee put her decision not to take any punitive action under the PPIPA down to a legal technicality and did not state what “different course” of action she would have taken.

She also had other options but chose not to take them – the House could have passed another motion to express regret at Lim and Faisal’s conduct but Indranee said last Tuesday that there was no need to.

Taken together, these decisions suggest a preference to let the pair off with a rebuke (from the January motion), and to also not prolong the matter.

Lim’s short response with no follow-up questions may also indicate that the opposition party is happy to let the matter rest.

Political observers said this outcome will be a welcome reprieve to those who feel the saga has dragged. They also said going back over events could have had political cost to the ruling PAP.

Lim and Faisal are now in the clear.

But for Singh, the saga is not over. The non-practising lawyer will face a disciplinary hearing before a Court of Three Judges including chief justice Sundaresh Menon in a case brought by the Law Society on Aug 13. We’ll be keeping tabs for you.

• The authorities are reviewing guidelines on the use of local Chinese dialects in films, following calls from MPs. Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Tan Kiat How acknowledged in Parliament last week that there is scope to consider how the Government can expand the space for dialects while continuing to uphold the importance of Mandarin. Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo said the authorities increasingly see dialect in art not competing with Mandarin use, but as part of heritage and culture.

• The WP announced who will take which roles in its top decision-making body and co-opted two of its MPs – Aljunied GRC MP Fadli Fawzi and Non-Constituency MP Andre Low – who were not voted into the CEC at the party’s internal elections two weeks ago. There were several changes – newcomer MP Kenneth Tiong moves up to become treasurer, while Sengkang GRC MP He Ting Ru who used to hold the post is now one of two organising secretaries. Her GRC colleague Jamus Lim has switched posts with Gerald Giam and now heads the policy research team, with Giam moving to become his deputy. Punggol GRC candidate Harpreet Singh, the only new face on the committee, has no assigned role.

• Two opposition parties that contested GE2025 have had recent leadership changes. Progress Singapore Party central executive committee members Stephanie Tan – a political newcomer who contested Pioneer SMC – and Samuel Lim left the opposition party. Tan said she was leaving because of differences in opinion on PSP’s direction. Separately, the People’s Power Party said its secretary-general Goh Meng Seng and chairman Derrick Sim stepped down from their posts. The party elected its GE2025 Ang Mo Kio GRC candidate William Lim as its new chief.

• Temasek said it will put more money into artificial intelligence in the next five years. AI investments currently make up around 6 per cent of its portfolio and it plans to grow this to up to 15 per cent by March 31, 2031. The US will be a key destination for these investments.

Share

Hi everyone,

Parliament sits again tomorrow after a month-long break. We can’t wait.

MPs have filed questions on hot topics from the past two months, including rising retrenchment numbers and the Speak Mandarin policy, which became the subject of public debate due to the film Dear You. We covered them previously here.

A PAP backbench group – the GPC for transport headed by Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC MP Tin Pei Ling – has also filed a motion asking questions on the future of the sector, and we’re likely to see a hefty Government response.

Last week, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong was in Timor-Leste – Asean’s newest and 11th member state. There, he and Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation.

PM Wong also announced that Singapore will be open to companies hiring workers from Timor-Leste in sectors like construction in 2027.

On to last week:

Subscribed

#YP

The news: The PAP’s youth wing turns 40 this year and on Saturday it announced new programmes as party leaders pushed for recruitment.

Known as Young PAP, the youth wing will set up a new academy to train young leaders and fund 40 of its activists (the PAP’s catch-all term for cadres/members/volunteers) with $5,000 to run community projects.

PM Wong, who is the party’s secretary-general, spoke at the event and he asked young people to join the ruling party’s ranks.

He said the PAP is looking for people with different experiences, perspectives and ideas to help it tackle the challenges ahead and asked his activists to “widen the circle”.

“You do not have to agree with us on every single issue,” he said. “In fact, it’s the opposite.”

“So if you care deeply about Singapore and about our future, if you have ideas about how we can make our country better, then come and join the PAP.”

YP chair Alvin Tan also made a case for young people to join up. Speaking to us before the event, he said young Singaporeans today have options, and attracting them to the PAP is an existential need for the ruling party to survive.

The take: The push to recruit young political talent has taken a new urgency in tandem with rising electoral contestation.

It was clear from the last election that several opposition parties – the WP most of all – have had success recruiting youth to stand for election (some names like WP’s NCMP and youth wing chief Eileen Chong and SDP’s Ariffin Sha come to mind).

Less explicit but no less important is their success in mobilising young people to campaign for them in various spheres, including digital spaces.

PM Wong and Tan’s Saturday speeches made clear that the PAP is aware of this and is taking the need to actively pitch to the youth seriously.

Crucially, the main issue at hand on Saturday was not the youth vote, but the PAP’s youth talent pipeline.

This is in contrast to 2024 efforts like the establishment of climate action and mental wellbeing workgroups, issues which have seized younger voters in particular.

Now that the party has taken steps to widen and fund its youth pipeline through the YP, the big question is whether young people believe they can flow through it.

The view that the ruling party does not allow a diversity of views within itself is not uncommon amongst Singapore’s young people.

The PM in his speech acknowledged this gap – explicitly saying that diverse views are welcomed.

He has made his arguments, but the proof for most youth will be whether they can see substantive change and contrarian views coming from those within.

Eyes will be on the party’s newer and younger MPs to show this diversity is possible, and ultimately, the measure of success on this front will be in the slate that the PAP manages to field at the next GE.

• The Online Safety Commission officially opened its doors on June 29 to help victims of online harms secure swift content takedowns and restrict offender accounts. The idea was mooted in 2024 and Parliament passed the legal framework to establish the commission in November 2025.

• Electricity and gas tariffs continue to rise for the third quarter of 2026, bringing them to their highest levels to date. The Energy Market Authority said the higher prices are due to increased prices of natural gas amid the conflict in the Middle East.

• The general household survey data released on June 30 surfaced some interesting population trends, which our colleagues dived deeper into – about 1 in 7 families have a monthly income of at least $30k, with the proportion almost doubling in the last five years; more young Singapore residents aged 25 to 34 staying single, especially among Chinese; and residents in towns like Sembawang, Bukit Panjang, Punggol have longest work commutes.

Share