Adjusting party position is a mark of wisdom and maturity, not opportunism: WP’s Jamus Lim

WP MP Jamus Lim said he found PM Lawrence Wong’s claims to be an “incredible double standard”, pointing to what he described as policy reversals by the PAP over the years.

Published Oct 25, 2026, 05:15 PM

Updated Oct 25, 2026, 05:15 PM

SINGAPORE — Adjusting a policy position if it was wrong previously shows a political party’s wisdom and maturity, Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim said on Oct 25.

It is not opportunism, he said, adding that political parties should be open to and welcome policy shifts when justified.

“This is precisely how democracy, at its best, is supposed to work: to be open to feedback so that collective knowledge is harnessed,” said the Sengkang GRC MP in response to remarks by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

PM Wong had said at the PAP’s biennial conference earlier in the day that the WP had not always taken consistent or coherent positions on policy.

Citing WP’s past and current stances on housing and foreign manpower, PM Wong said the opposition party’s positions seemed to shift with the “political winds”.

The PAP’s approach is different and as the governing party, it must take a wider and longer-term view, he said.

PM Wong said that unlike the opposition, the PAP had to reconcile competing demands and take responsibility for the consequences of its decisions, rather than argue for positions that might be popular at a particular point in time.

In a Facebook post, Lim said he found PM Wong’s claims to be an “incredible double standard”, pointing to what he described as policy reversals by the PAP over the years.

He cited changes in the Government’s positions on issues such as stopping at two children, unemployment insurance, minimum wages for local workers and the repeal of Section 377A, which criminalised sex between men.

Within this term of Parliament, the PAP had also changed positions on smaller class sizes or COE categorisation by engine size, he added, noting that in these cases the ruling party had “shot down alternatives till the last second”.

Lim also said that PM Wong’s criticism lacked nuance and that the WP’s positions on housing and foreign manpower had been taken out of context.

On housing, PM Wong said the WP called for fewer new HDB flats to be built in 2019, when resale prices were falling, but later criticised the Government in 2023 for not building enough flats following construction disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lim said the WP’s earlier position on managing HDB supply was raised in the context of lease decay, a longer-term policy challenge, rather than the short-term construction disruptions caused by the pandemic.

On foreign manpower, PM Wong had cited the WP’s calls for greater flexibility in hiring foreign workers in 2012 and for zero growth in the foreign workforce during the population debate. He contrasted this against the WP’s more recent calls for the easing of foreign worker quotas amid manpower shortages faced by small and medium-sized enterprises.

Lim said the WP had always maintained that the presence of foreign workers was not fundamentally an issue for Singapore as a nation of immigrants.

Rather, he said, the party’s concern was the pace of foreign manpower inflows and the pressures they placed on Singapore’s physical and institutional infrastructure.

Beyond the specific policy disagreements, Lim argued that political parties should be willing to change their positions when circumstances or evidence warranted doing so.

“It is this sort of back-and-forth debate that refines policy, and keeps it relevant,” said Lim, who is the WP’s head of policy research.

“Sure, we don’t want to sacrifice some key principles, but we shouldn’t stubbornly cling to outdated and outmoded policy ideas, either.”

工人党议员林志蔚表示，他认为总理黄循财的说法是“令人难以置信的双重标准”，并指出人民行动党多年来政策反复无常。

发布于 2026 年 10 月 25 日下午 5:15

更新于2026年10月25日下午5:15

新加坡——工人党议员林志蔚10月25日表示，如果之前的政策立场有误，及时调整能够展现一个政党的智慧和成熟度。

他表示，这不是机会主义，并补充说，当政策转变合理时，政党应该持开放和欢迎的态度。

“这正是民主制度在最佳状态下应该运作的方式：乐于接受反馈，从而利用集体智慧，”盛港集选区议员在回应总理黄循财的讲话时说道。

黄之锋总理当天早些时候在人民行动党两年一度的大会上表示，工人党在政策问题上并非一直采取一致或连贯的立场。

黄总理援引工人党过去和现在在住房和外籍劳工问题上的立场表示，反对党的立场似乎会随着“政治风向”而改变。

他说，人民行动党的做法不同，作为执政党，它必须采取更广泛、更长远的视角。

黄英贤总理表示，与反对党不同，人民行动党必须调和相互冲突的需求，并对其决策的后果负责，而不是为了在某个特定时期获得人气而争论立场。

林冠英在脸书上发帖称，他认为黄英贤总理的说法是“令人难以置信的双重标准”，并指出人民行动党多年来政策反复无常。

他列举了政府在一些问题上的立场变化，例如限制生育两个孩子、失业保险、本地工人的最低工资以及废除将男性之间的性行为定为犯罪的第 377A 条款。

他还补充说，在本届国会任期内，人民行动党在缩小班级规模或按发动机排量划分拥车证分类问题上也改变了立场，并指出在这些情况下，执政党“直到最后一刻才否决替代方案”。

林冠英还表示，黄英贤总理的批评缺乏细致入微的分析，工人党在住房和外籍劳工问题上的立场被断章取义。

关于住房问题，黄英贤总理表示，工人党在 2019 年呼吁减少新建组屋的数量，当时转售价格正在下降；但后来在 2023 年，工人党又批评政府在新冠疫情造成的建筑中断后，没有建造足够的组屋。

林冠英表示，工人党此前提出的关于管理组屋供应的立场，是基于租赁期延长这一长期政策挑战，而不是疫情造成的短期建筑中断。

关于外籍劳工问题，黄英贤总理曾援引工人党在2012年提出的在雇用外籍劳工方面应有更大灵活性的呼吁，以及在人口辩论中提出的外籍劳工零增长的诉求。他将此与工人党近期在中小企业面临人力短缺的情况下，呼吁放宽外籍劳工配额的诉求进行了对比。

林冠英表示，工人党一直坚持认为，对于新加坡这个移民国家而言，外籍劳工的存在从根本上来说并不是一个问题。

他表示，该党关注的是外国劳动力流入的速度以及他们给新加坡的物质和制度基础设施带来的压力。

除了具体的政策分歧之外，林认为，当情况或证据需要时，政党应该愿意改变其立场。

“正是这种来回的辩论才能完善政策，并使其保持与时俱进，”工人党政策研究主管林说。

“当然，我们不想牺牲一些关键原则，但我们也不应该固执地坚持过时的政策理念。”