Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Leonard Lim Straits Times 9 Feb 13;

THREE Nominated MPs joined nine Workers' Party MPs and Non-Constituency MP Lina Chiam in opposing the Population White Paper, casting a "no" vote though the motion was amended.

Ms Janice Koh, Mr Laurence Lien and Ms Faizah Jamal did so for varying reasons, ranging from the environmental impact of further growth to concerns over whether Singapore could absorb more foreigners.

The vote was taken after Workers' Party chief Low Thia Khiang called for a division - which means each Member's vote is recorded, in this case by MPs keying in their votes electronically instead of giving a verbal "aye" or "no". Eight Members were absent for the vote, including Mr Inderjit Singh who stood out among the PAP MPs for his strong criticism of the White Paper on Tuesday.

When asked if he had absented himself, the Ang Mo Kio GRC MP replied: "All I want to say is I was not present for the vote." In a Facebook post earlier, he wrote: "I spoke from my heart and will do what I can to change things."

One NMP, academic Eugene Tan, opposed the White Paper in his speech but abstained from the vote after listening to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's pledge to act on the concerns raised.

Fellow NMP, Ms Koh, used her speech to highlight deficits in three areas - psychological, social and cultural - and said that these must be dealt with even as Singapore readies the physical infrastructure for a bigger population.

One, more can be done to assure citizens they are not discriminated against. The figure of 6.9 million people in 2030 may be a planning parameter, but it is hard to swallow it psychologically, given current bottlenecks, she said.

Two, Singapore's social deficit, she said, was a result of rapid immigration, and puts the country at risk of racial and class divisions. Finally, she highlighted the "glaring omission" of the arts in the Land Use Plan, linked to the White Paper.

Ms Koh, a TV and stage actress, noted the White Paper wants Singapore to be a liveable, lively and well-loved city, but does not earmark new spaces for heritage, culture and the arts.

Making a point that was picked up by PM Lee, she added: "It is one thing to build a liveable city. The harder question is how do we build a loveable one?"

Ms Faizah, speaking on Wednesday, accused the Government of stressing economic expansion at the expense of the environment. The nature advocate wants infrastructure plans to undergo an environmental impact assessment and its findings made public.

On Thursday, Mr Lien said the White Paper did not go far enough in restructuring the economy, and the population projections and intake of new citizens were too large.

He produced his own forecasts, insisting they could still bring growth. "We can live with a cap of the population at six million by 2030 and still be very dynamic," he had said.