Inability to see the larger picture

It's not without reason that Workers' Party is known as the flip flop party.

They seem to have a problem looking at policies from the macro level. Thus they flip flop from one position to another depending on the topic at hand.

[The hon. Member Ms Lee Li Lian argued yesterday that there must be more “affordable access to foreign domestic workers” and all families with a child or elderly have to have access to a foreign domestic worker. She says domestic help is a necessity. I tend to agree, and I think the Budget recognises that in making foreign domestic worker levy concessions and help make domestic help even more affordable. But what she may have forgotten is that her suggestion alone will see an increase in the number of foreign workers in Singapore. Based on information that we can obtain from the MOM website alone – public information – this suggestion means that there will another approximately 250,000 foreign workers in Singapore, just on that suggestion alone.

How then does this square off with the Workers’ Party’s proposal made not quite so long ago in this Chamber of having zero foreign labour growth? It simply does not. So it tells us that the policies have to be looked at, on a macro level. We cannot just go about making politically expedient points without linking it to the larger picture and making sure that it is consistent and that it works.] -- Edwin Tong