GE2025: PAR proposes shrinking ‘bloated' civil service to fund free education
Speaking at PAR's first rally of this general election at Northlight School in Towner Road, Mr Lim said this could improve Singapore's 'disastrous' total fertility rate of 0.97.
These free programmes can be funded without taxing citizens further or dipping into the reserves, Mr Lim claimed, by using the interest the Government earns from investing Singaporeans' CPF money.
Mr Lim added that he will cut down on 'wasteful expenses' such as the Founders Memorial and what he described as 'a bloated civil service'.
He suggested that providing free education, school meals and healthcare could lower the cost of living and encourage Singaporeans to have more children, which would make Singapore less reliant on foreigners.
'It is disgraceful that a so-called First World nation cannot afford free education and free healthcare for its people,' said Mr Lim, who is contesting Potong Pasir SMC.
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He also took aim at Singapore's immigration policies and foreign workforce.
'Continuous net immigration' has grave consequences for cohesion, he added, calling it a 'pseudo solution' by the ruling party, whose policies 'have driven the cost of living through the roof'.
He criticised the India-Singapore free trade agreement, saying that it should be abolished and claiming that it has taken jobs away from Singaporeans.
Mr Lim also said the first thing he would do if elected on May 3 is 'cut the Prime Minister's pay by 70 per cent and abolish the mayors' positions'.
A mayor's job is 'the most unconscionable job in the whole of Singapore, because, like many of you, I really do not know what a mayor does', Mr Lim said.
Ms Han Hui Hui, a human rights fellow at a foreign university who has contested in previous general elections, also spoke at the rally.
She is a candidate for Tanjong Pagar GRC, which she acknowledged is a PAP stronghold.
'If we don't take the first step, who will?' she said to cheers from spectators.
Among the issues raised by Ms Han, a mother of three, was the six-day childcare leave entitlement of employees.
'How can you increase the birth rate, the (total) fertility rate, when you are only giving (six days of childcare leave) for the whole family, rather than per child?' she said.
PAR, an alliance of three parties, is contesting 13 seats in two GRCs and four SMCs this general election.
Its Jalan Besar team comprises four political newcomers.
They are freelance private tutor Chiu Shin Kong, nurse Sarina Abu Hassan, early childhood educator Vigneswari V. Ramachandran, and the party's treasurer Mohamad Hamim Aliyas.
The PAR team in Tanjong Pagar comprises commercial banker Prabu Ramachandran; Mr Nadarajan Selvamani, a director of a private school; Mr Rickson Giauw, a site safety adviser and officer; Ms Han; and senior logistics assistant Soh Lian Chye.
Mr Mahaboob Batcha, an oil and gas company director, is contesting Queenstown SMC, while businessman Mr Kumar Appavoo is running in Radin Mas SMC.
Dr Michael Fang, a health sciences lecturer at a private college, is contesting Yio Chu Kang SMC.
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Without direct state attribution, it is often the media and analysts who examine potential links and broader implications as part of their reporting and analysis. For example, when Singapore telecommunications company Singtel disclosed a malware attack in November 2024, it was a Bloomberg report that attributed it to Volt Typhoon, a group allegedly sponsored by China. Similarly, when Singapore blocked roughly 100 social media accounts for circulating disinformation in July 2024, including those linked to a right-wing group created by former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, it made no mention of the United States. During peacetime, technical attribution offers a more pragmatic way to deter cyber threats. Cyberspace is a complex environment, and non-state threat groups, which may or may not act on the behest of a state, are the dominant actors there. This method allows authorities to expose threat groups without directly shaming the country from which they may be operating. Arguably, not shaming the country where the threat group operates from could risk emboldening future attacks and invite scrutiny from security partners who expect transparency. More importantly, it may make public education about the seriousness of cyber threats more challenging. The public may not understand the full context, for example, of the motivation or geopolitical implications of an attack. WHY NAMING WITHOUT SHAMING While Singapore avoids attributing cyber threats to specific states, naming and shaming is the preferred approach for many Western countries and some of their Asian allies, particularly those that view China as a preeminent threat. For countries not directly involved in adversarial relations or those that pursue a foreign policy of non-alignment, it may be more prudent to deter cyber threats without exacerbating geopolitical animosity. The cost of escalation may be too high a risk to bear. Moreover, it remains debatable whether naming and shaming helps to curb cyber threats in a meaningful way. In Singapore's context, there could also be other plausible strategic considerations. First, Singapore is a cosmopolitan country made up of locally born citizens, naturalised citizens and foreigners. Social cohesion is the glue that keeps its people together and maintains communal harmony. Publicly identifying another country as a threat carries the risk of fuelling racism and xenophobia, including Sinophobia. For example, in 2021, the fear that the Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) posed a threat to the livelihood of citizens raised the ugly head of xenophobia. Second, there is an observable trend in which Western cybersecurity companies often attribute cyber threat groups to China following incidents involving Western digital networks. 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For example, imagine a scenario where Singapore faces military coercion and concurrently a cyberattack by a state-linked threat actor that shuts down the digital infrastructure and electrical systems of hospitals nationwide, resulting in deaths. These are extreme scenarios that, hopefully, Singapore will never have to deal with but must prepare for in the unlikely event that they occur.
