Labour Day Message 2015 / 劳动节致词

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of our country. Ever since 1961, the old union was dissolved by the new government, the pro-PAP government's labor movement together with her party set up a new National Trade Union Congress (or NTUC as we know it). It was registered with the Registry of Societies on 17 August and incorporated on 6th September 1961.

Since then, our labour and political parties have moved as one. During the uncertain times of old, she has proven to play an important role in bringing a stable investment environment with ample employment opportunities. Because of the common interests of both the labour and political parties, they could propel Singapore forward together and meet their long-term productivity and development goals. In those days, the labour and political parties stood together for the people and protected the public interest. 

Today, things have changed. In the name of GDP growth, Singapore has opened its doors widely to allow an influx of foreign immigrant workers. The labour-political partnership, instead of working for the people’s interest, are now beginning to become a tool against the people. Instead of fighting for people’s rights; these organizations have compromised that purpose and tagged along with the political and financial sector for the pursuit of economic growth.

Clearly, this has shown that the leaders of the National Trade Union Congress, Minister, and the Members of Parliament of the ruling party represent the interest of the employers. While this is of course for the long term, the macroeconomic growth of Singapore, this represents a clear conflict of interest.  

The question comes – when there is a commercial and industrial labour dispute, in which capacity should the leaders represent? If they fight on the behalf of labour welfare, they may contradict government policy or cause harm to the interest of the employers. If they fight on behalf of the employees, then they’ll violating the spirit of the union, which is to fight for the people.

One may say that the leaders can fight for both the employers AND the employees. That is an ideal situation, but we find that reality is seldom the case. Eventually, there comes a point where they have to choose a side. The union leaders either have to abide by the mission of their political parties and employers and thus unable to represent the workers fairly.

After all, in the end, what is a labour union, but one for the voice of the people? A voice doesn’t have to be rational; it doesn’t have to be huge in scope; it simply must voice the sentiment of the people. It must give voice to those who cannot be heard. That is the essence of a labour union. 

So we see now in reality that the dream of shared prosperity has been shattered. The citizens of our country whom we laboured for must now bear the high costs of living in a First World country, yet earn the wages of a Third World employee. On top of that, our Singaporean brothers and sisters live with the constant fear that one day their jobs will be replaced by the influx of immigrants that are coming in droves.

To ensure that the interest and the welfare of our people, we must sever the ties between the labour, political and financial sectors. The union MUST be a union of the people! She must be independent so that she can play her original function of protecting the interest of our Singapore brothers. 

Instead of placing their party members in the leadership of the union to set their policy, the government must separate these two functions, and instead attempt to maintain harmony with the independent trade union leaders. This will ensure that the interests of our employees are not compromised, and trade union leaders can fight to attain First World salaries to meet the costs of First World living standards. 

As Singapore moves on to a new phase of her life, she needs constant change to keep up with the rest of the world. Whatever that has stopped working must be evolved, changed and even overhauled. Now this is the time when the voice of the people must be heard again; let us change what does not work anymore, and build a model that is ready for the future. 

Happy Labour Day!

Thank you!

With Best Regards

Lim Bak Chuan Desmond
Chairman of Singapore Democratic Alliance

Photosource:  http://festoworld.com/labour-day-1st-may-2015-whatsapp-statusdpsmsphotovideo.html

今年是我国建国50周年, 自1961年时旧的工会被新政府解散之后,亲行动党政府的工运人士，和她的党员成立了新的全国职工总会，并在八月十七日向社团注册局注册。

从此 劳、政的关系就像连体婴儿一样分割不开。 在动乱的时代她确实可以扮演重要的角色,也的确带给了我们一个稳定的投资环境和充足就业机会。因为是连体,所以 劳、政双方顺利拥有共同的利益，一起把新加坡推向前并且达到生产力目标。当时劳、政领袖，也有处处为民众争取福利，提供保护伞，和保护民众利益。

 

今日,国门大开,外来移民和劳工的大量涌入, 使这个连体婴儿，产生了变化,成为劳、资、政为一体的怪兽,  劳、资、政成为一体之后;一切职工运动就必须配合政府执政方针，和资方的利益。全国职工总会的领袖，不只是由政府指定的部长,执政党的国会议员，同时他们也代表了资方的利益,他们担任工会领导也就难免有利益冲突之嫌。

 

现在矛盾出现了,一旦出现了有工商业劳资纠纷,这些领导到底要以什么身份去代表工人，跟政府和资方谈判呢?如果代表劳工争取福利,就抵触了政府方针,或是损害到资方利益。这样的工会领袖如何能确保员工得到他们应得的利益。

 

在这个条件下的工会领导最终还是得配合自己政党和资方继续做不符合自己作为劳方代表身份的事。包括想尽办法借低薪的外劳来压低自己国民的薪金。

 

这使我们与领导共享繁荣进步的愿望都幻灭成了南柯一梦。

 

因为民众却必须面对第一世界高消费而领取第三世界国家的薪水,甚至担心雇主会随时以外国人来取代我们,增加了我们的生活压力。

所以为了确保民众的利益和福利能得到真正的保维护。我们必须认真考虑请"外科医生"(送更多不同政党的党员进入国会),把这只劳、资、政的连体怪兽给宰了。让工会能够真正独立的发挥她的本来功能,真实的维护劳工的利益。

 政府必须继续跟独立工会领袖保持和谐合作关系，而不是安插自己党员来操控工会和压抑工人。

独立工会能确保我们的员工的利益和福利不会被出卖,工会领导可以在无压抑的情况下,去争取资方支付给员工第一世界薪金，以应付第一世界生活水准的开销。

我国所吸引的投资家，必须是真正制造就业机会给新加坡人的投资,而引进新加坡的外国人，只能从事本地人不做的工作，或是本地人欠缺这方面的经验或是知识的工作。

祝大家劳动节快乐!

林睦荃


新加坡民主联盟主席

[Recap from a year ago] Elderly who sell tissue for livelihood

可能因为残疾或年老而找不到工作,为了生活没有法子才去卖纸巾,每天的利润微博确要交年费$120。如果除以三百六五天来算,的确是一个很微小的数字,但是在人道与人情上确说不过来,希望政府可以即刻废除收费。

 

至今我们年老低收入者,为了三餐 (有些只赚够一餐糊口) 每天还是需要日晒雨淋,我建议政府加多一项,给那些合格者每个月,每人500元的生活费。

 

 

 

Till date, our lower incomes senior citizens still have to struggling to meet the end needs. Can the government reconsider to add in one more item in the pioneer generation package, I suggest paying each qualified individual $500 monthly allowance, aside the medical benefits.

Losing Our Footing

如果有一天,我们失去了地理位置的优势,我们是否能继续的繁荣与稳定?

中国为了自己的战略利益,一直会往外开发以及控制运输航道,这将使我们的水道受到严重威胁,我们的港口受到严重的威胁并将失去了优质的地理位置。

我们必须识时务,认清目前的形势,保障我们自己的未来利益。

我个人认为我们必须采取以下措施:

先从国会选举制度开始,必须更改现有的选举制度,废除集选区,管委和非选区议员制,再以各政党得票率来分配席位以确保国会有不同政党轮替,以及多元化的政治理念参与拟定国家政策,

二, 再还没有强化国民教育和认同感,国家与社会为先的意识之前,暂时停止接纳新公民,

三, 历史虽然不可忽略,但是我们已经跟共产国家有着密切政治,文化,经济与军事交往,因此必须去除矛盾思想,行为和策略。政要要有人性,多注意他国领袖的感受,因此没有必要再高调的提倡反共产主义

四, 开始逐步减少对美国的依赖,身为小国应该保持中立,

五, 设立中华文化研究中心,

六, 恢复南大校名,恢复以华语为主流,并以华语教科目以及考试,来拉近跟中国的关系

七, 加强跟马来西亚的经济合作,共创经济圈,

八, 设立马来文化与语言研究中心,以拉近跟马来西亚的关系

九, 让新马两国公民自由出入境,废除两国公民的工作准证,房屋税,入境税等等,

十, 全面改革我们的教育制度,注重自由创意,独立思考能力,公民道德等等

 

 

 

What if one day, we lose the advantage of this geographical location, would we still be able to continue this prosperity and stability?

We are not only faced with the strategic interests of China because if the development and control of transport routes, so that our waterways are seriously threatened and we might lose our quality geographical location.

Who is our country going to depend on for survival in future?

Singapore is a country with no natural resources. We are able to have today's achievements due to our geographical location, the previous fine planning, strict management of the society, economy and autonomous education. As such, the Government could, through education, economic needs and self-discpline, penetrate the sub-consciousness of the citizens to create a high-quality and superior people, because it's the only way the ruling party may efficiently develop our country's economic direction in accordance to the international situation to enable us to have today's prosperity and social stability.

If one day, we lose the advantage of this geographical location, and the ruling party can not create a national model for its own benefit, would we still be able to continue this prosperity and stability?

What worries me about the commnity today is this - because the ruling party has opened the doors of Singapore widely, attracting in a lot of foreign population, so that the citizens of our community doping different nationalities of the world, different cultures and social attitudes.Some of them were not even educated in Singapore during their childhood, hence have not been instilled with the self-discipline of our ruling party's educational system; this is also to say that the ruling party would have great difficulty controlling the thinking of these new citizens to reach the desired effect of our economy and disciplinary system.  On top of that, advancement in communications technology has seemed compress the space in this world, our autonomous educational system has been thoroughly defeated by influence of external parties via the Internet.  The ruling party is not able to monitor all the information on the Internet nor ban it, so now even some of our own young and middle-aged citizens have their own political ideology, outgrowing the economic and disciplinary subconsciousness implanted into them since young by the ruling party to form their own set of opinions and ideas that do not waver. This forms two of today's problems faced by the community.

These two social problems have caused the ruling party to feel the need to attach great importance to their own interests and votes. Therefore they must always take into account the public interest and public sentiment in response to certain policies that may invoke dissatisfaction.

As the ruling party can no longer maintain a tough stance as before, or to implement some policies that may be undesirable, It makes it more difficult to meet the challenges of the flexible international situation. In this way, our country is not able to get rid of the risk of facing opposition in its democratic, freedom and economic development.

This also results in the ruling party not being able to be like before - formulating a fine and long-term development policy and planning education and training budget

It is necessary to have talents to achieve national economic development goals, so we are not only faced with the strategic interests of China because if the development and control of transport routes, so that our waterways are seriously threatened and we might lose our quality geographical location. Even our only resouces - Human Capital, due to network technology innovation, change of thinking, people are demanding for more freedom and democracy, following the degradation of social consciousness, we may ultimately have to leave our home territory in order to have a better life.

We must understand the times, and understand the current situation, to protect the interests of our own future; Personally, I think we need to take the following measures:

Let us first start with the electoral system. The existing electoral system must be changed with the abolition of GRCs, management committees and members of non-constituency system, and then to vote for political parties to allocate seats in Parliament to ensure that there are different political parties in power, and political pluralism concepts involved in the formulation of national policy;

Secondly, before we are able to strengthen the national education and identity of the state and society, we should suspend the admission of new citizens;

Thirdly, although history cannot be neglected, we already have close ties with communist countries in political, cultural, economic and military exchanges, it is necessary to remove the contradictions of thoughts, behaviour and strategy. Politicians need to have humanity, showing concern towards the feelings of his country's leaders, so there is no need to advocate anti-communism;

Fourth, begin to gradually reduce dependency on the United States, as a small country we should remain neutral;

Fifth, the establishment of the Chinese Culture Research Centre; to enhance the relationship with China;

Sixth, to restore the reputation of the Great South, a return to using Chinese language as the mainstream, and teach courses and exams in Mandarin;

Seventh, to strengthen economic cooperation with Malaysia, to create economic cycle;

Eighth,  to set up the Malay culture and language research centre; to enhance the relationship with Malaysia;

Ninth, establish Singapore-Malaysia bilateral civil liberties, immigration, the abolition of the citizens of the two countries work permit, housing tax, entry tax, etc.,

Lastly, a comprehensive reform of our education system, focusing on freedom of creativity, independent thinking, civic morality, national philosophy and psychological qualities etc.

 

 

 

 

Who plays the PMETs roles these days?

The roles that were originally be many solely for Singaporeans, such as executives, engineers and managerial positions, and nowadays are being held by foreign talents as well.

 

Do we have so many PMET's positions open for Singaporeans and foreign talents to fill?

 

 

原本只有新加坡人做的执行人员,工程师和经理的职位,现在这些职位都能看到外国人在做。我们一年哪有那么多这些职位提供给国人和外国人填补?

原本只有新加坡人做的执行人员,工程师和经理的职位,现在这些职位都能看到外国人在做。我们一年哪有那么多这些职位提供给国人和外国人填补?

 

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