Forum: PAP mischaracterising WP’s position

I refer to People’s Action Party (PAP) MP Henry Kwek’s letter, “

WP glossing over own proposal to cut back BTO programme

” (Feb 22).

In its 2019 housing paper, the Workers’ Party (WP) did not moot a proposal to cut the supply of Build-To-Order (BTO) flats in the short term. It made an observation that building BTO flats beyond long-run new household formation might risk vacancies.

But the paper went on to state “BTO projects should continue...”, a four-word phrase that is absent from some of the statements made by PAP MPs on this matter.

WP MP Louis Chua pointed this out in Parliament immediately after this point had originally been made.

An observation about a risk does not amount to a call to action. To illustrate, if one speaks of risks associated with autonomous vehicles, that does not amount to a call to ban autonomous vehicles. It is merely a call to address those risks.

The paper’s observation on the risk of overbuilding should be seen in the context of the paper’s focus on long-term trends, namely lease decay.

This is why our call to action was a longer-term one – to scale back BTO building only when new flats become available through our Universal Sale and Lease Back (USB) proposal, which, as Mr Kwek rightly pointed out, will start to come into effect only in 12 years’ time.

Had the WP proposed a cut to BTO supply in 2019, our paper would have clearly said, “BTO building should be reduced.” Instead, we stated “BTO projects should continue...”

We call for constructive debates based on facts, lest our politics degenerates into non-factual assertions that we see in some other countries.

Lastly, our USB proposal to counter lease decay was made in our 2019 paper. The PAP’s proposal, the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (Vers), remains opaque and mysterious.

WP MPs were unable to elicit any details on Vers during our recent exchanges with Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann in Parliament.

Leon Perera
The Workers’ Party Media Head