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SINGAPORE \u2013 Adjusting a policy position if it was wrong previously shows a political party\u2019s wisdom and maturity, Workers\u2019 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is precisely how democracy, at its best, is supposed to work: to be open to feedback so that collective knowledge is harnessed,\u201d said the Sengkang GRC MP in response to remarks by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.<\/p>\n
PM Wong had said at the PAP\u2019s biennial conference earlier in the day<\/span><\/a> that the WP had not always taken consistent or coherent positions on policy. Citing WP\u2019s past and current stances on housing and foreign manpower, PM Wong said the opposition party\u2019s positions seemed to shift with the \u201cpolitical winds\u201d. <\/span><\/a>The PAP\u2019s approach is different and as the governing party, it must take a wider and longer-term view, he said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In a Facebook post, Lim said he found PM Wong\u2019s claims to be an \u201cincredible double standard\u201d, pointing to what he described as policy reversals by the PAP over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n He cited changes in the Government\u2019s positions on issues like stopping at two children, unemployment insurance, minimum wages for local workers and the repeal of Section 377A, which criminalised sex between men.<\/p>\n