GE2025: PSP’s ‘anti-foreigner rhetoric’ will affect jobs and businesses in S’pore, says SM Teo

Follow our live coverage here.

SINGAPORE – The PSP’s “anti-foreigner rhetoric” will drive away international companies, as well as jobs and businesses for Singaporeans, said Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean. 

Singapore’s unity, stable government, and its consistent and rational policies are strong attractions for such companies to operate here, he said at a rally in Pioneer SMC on April 27.

The rally, held at Jurong West Stadium, featured speeches by the party’s candidates for Pioneer SMC and West Coast-Jurong West GRC. In both constituencies, the party faces a challenge from the opposition PSP. 

Many companies are now seeking to rebalance their operations and find the best places to locate themselves, he noted. 

SM Teo said what the PSP is doing will “make our pie smaller”.

“Instead of spending our energy like the PSP to try to pit one group against another group to snatch more of the pie, let us see how we can work together to make the pie bigger, so that everybody can have a little bit more rather than trying to snatch from each other.”

Singapore needs the politics of unity and not the politics of division, SM Teo said. 

He outlined challenges the country faces due to uncertainty over worldwide tariffs introduced by US President Donald Trump. 

He said: “The damage to the wider world trading system in the long term can already be seen.”

The World Trade Organisation has forecast that world trade will shrink in 2025, and Singapore’s economists and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) economists have forecast that Singapore will grow more slowly than earlier predicted, he added. 

SM Teo noted that the PSP has called these challenges fearmongering tactics by a PAP trying to retain its power. 

“Really, is the PAP really so powerful that it can tell the IMF and the World Trade Organisation how to forecast the world?” 

To try and brush this away is “just totally irresponsible”, SM Teo said.

PSP leaders had earlier in April stated that the Government’s response to the US tariffs was “overblown”, with party chairman Tan Cheng Bock saying that the Government’s rhetoric might be aimed at swaying voters through fear.

PSP chief Leong Mun Wai later said the party had no intention of downplaying the tariffs. Both Dr Tan and Mr Leong are contesting West Coast-Jurong West GRC under the PSP banner. 

SM Teo asked: “Has the PSP any solutions to this? Perhaps because the PSP knows that it has no solutions to offer, it tries to sweep aside these real problems with assertions that it is not a real problem.”

He went on to detail the PAP’s efforts to ensure Singaporeans can have good jobs and salaries, including policies aimed at making sure people have avenues to upskill. 

He said: “These are real measures to address the real issues that Singaporean workers face, so that for the long term, our workers can continue to have good jobs and salaries that keep up, not just with inflation, but with the better quality of life that Singaporeans want for themselves and their families.”

SM Teo said the PAP does not take risks with Singapore and Singaporeans, and must prepare for all eventualities. 

The PAP Government does not have all the answers or the solutions yet, because it does not know the extent and the nature of the problem yet, he pointed out.

“But we still must prepare,” he said. 

To do so, Singapore must strengthen itself as much as possible, not only in its financial reserves but also in its “community reserves of social resilience and unity”, he said. 

SM Teo began his speech in Malay, saying that the conflict in Gaza has surfaced many emotions among Singaporeans.

“Rather than letting conflict elsewhere divide our community, Singaporeans, regardless of race and religion, have come together as one to send help to the victims in Gaza,” he said.

The Government’s stand is clear, he said, and it condemns the use of violence against innocent civilians, and has voted in support of a two-state solution.

He urged Singaporeans to give Prime Minister Lawrence Wong a strong mandate so that he has the means to negotiate with the leaders of other countries. This will also give investors confidence to invest in Singapore, and create jobs for Singaporeans, he said. 

SM Teo, who announced his retirement after 33 years in politics on Nomination Day on April 23, also touched on why he is not contesting the general election.

While he was on walkabouts in Pasir Ris and Punggol – where he was previously anchor minister – residents had asked him to carry on, he said. 

He said he told them he did not want to leave them either, but had to be sure that he could commit himself “fully and energetically for the full five years, not just the 10 days of an election campaign”.

“Otherwise it’s not responsible for me to ask you for your vote.”

He added that he hopes his residents will have peace of mind knowing that they have “good, strong teams to help take care of them for the full five years for the future, and not some group that comes along and campaigns for 10 days and says, ‘I will look after you’”.

SM Teo added that the PSP has said that PM Wong does not need a strong team, as Singapore has overcome crises in the past and will weather this crisis as well. “After all, we also have a very good civil service. This will see us through. Is it so simple? Is this like a driverless car on AI...?”

That is not the way running a country works, SM Teo stressed.

“It requires good leadership, good government and unity of the people... We need a strong government. We need unity.”