Singapore’s Renewed Social Compact

Introduction

During a recent press conference, Prime Minister (PM) Lawrence Wong stated that the aspirations and hopes that Singaporeans had shared during the Forward Singapore exercise are underpinned by two important pillars: a renewed social compact and a refreshed Singapore Dream (Prime Minister’s Office, 2024). In this post, I focus on the first pillar and argue for the following:

1. The social compact is not new.
2. The Government had not fulfilled its obligation to the People.
3. The People had not fulfilled their obligations to the Government.

Renewed Social Compact

Given that a social compact is “an implicit agreement between the Government and the [P]eople on the roles and responsibilities each plays” (Ministry of Social and Family Development, 2020), the new social contract states both the following (Prime Minister’s Office, 2024):

1. One of the roles and responsibilities of the Government is to “support [the People] every step of the way and help them to get ahead” if they “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families,” and
2. One of the roles and responsibilities of the People is to “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families”.

If the new social compact is different from the old social compact, then the old social compact states either of the following:

1. None of the roles and responsibilities of the Government is to “support [the people] every step of the way and help them to get ahead” if they “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families,” or
2. None of the roles and responsibilities of the People is to “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families”.

However, it is inconceivable that the old social compact states either of the above. One of the roles and responsibilities of the Government has always been to “support [the people] every step of the way and help them to get ahead” if they “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families,” and that of the People has always been to “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families”. Therefore, the new social compact is not different from the old social compact.

Failure of the Government

The Government has not fulfilled its roles and responsibilities to the People. Instead, there are Singaporeans who “[did] their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families” whom the Government did not “support every step of the way and help them to get ahead”.

Nonetheless, the Forward Singapore exercise and its recommendations suggests that the Government is doing its part to better fulfil its roles and responsibilities to the People (Forward Singapore Workgroup, 2023). In other words, the Government is doing its part to ensure that a greater number of Singaporeans get “support every step of the way and help them to get ahead” if they “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families”.

Failure of the People

The People have also not fulfilled their roles and responsibilities to the Government. Instead, there are Singaporeans who did not “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families”.

In general, if the Government is doing its part to better fulfil its roles and responsibilities to the People, then the People should also do their part to better fulfil their roles and responsibilities to the Government. In other words, a greater number of Singaporeans should “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families”.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the social compact has not changed in the sense that one of the roles and responsibilities of the Government has always been to “support [the people] every step of the way and help them to get ahead” if they “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families,” and that of the People has always been to “do their part to work hard, make the effort to excel and uplift their families”.

Instead, both the Government and the People have not fulfilled their roles and responsibilities to each other. Nonetheless, the Government seems to be doing its part to better fulfil its roles and responsibilities to the People, and the People should also do their part to better fulfil their roles and responsibilities to the Government.

References

Forward Singapore Workgroup. (2023). Building our shared future.

Ministry of Social and Family Development. (2020). Singapore’s social compact: A quick introduction.

Prime Minister’s Office. (2024, August 24). PM Lawrence Wong’s Press Conference on 23 August 2024. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb3xfFUrHgc

Copyright © 2024 Lam Fu Yuan, Kevin. All rights reserved.