By Andrew Loh
The government’s reaction to the SMRT strike is a missed opportunity to show exactly what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his National Day Rally speech – that Singapore should be “a home with hope and heart” – with the emphasis on the “heart” part.
The problem with the People’s Action Party (PAP) Government is that it is often too eager to show its tough side. It will roll out the statutes – as indeed it did with the SMRT strikers – and quote you chapter and verse, impressing upon all and sundry why the government is legally right to wield the big stick, as it were. It even goes so far as to explain – in detail – why it considered the workers’ action a strike, no doubt in a bid to show that it is fair in taking time to determine the legality of the term and its appropriateness in this instance.
And as per modus operandi of this government, once the legality is ascertained, everyone falls in line and stands behind this. The Acting Manpower Minister even seemingly boasted about the many government departments involved in handling the incident – “SPF, MHA, MOM, MOT, LTA, MinLaw, ICA, AGC, MFA & Prisons” - oblivious to the impression he is giving, that the government cranks up the entire machinery to go to war with the ordinary workers, workers who have nothing more than their voice to speak up with, when these workers fail to fall in line, and fall into silence.
But all this is bereft of “heart”. You may be right legally, and you are. After all, you have the entire government machinery to help you determine the applicable statutes. But in submerging yourself in the legality of it all, you have also blinded yourself to a simple truth – that workers, whether foreign or local, just want one thing: fair wage for fair work. It is about fairness. And I would argue, just like justice, fairness must not only be done but also be seen to be done.
And this is where the ordinary folk step in to teach the elites – the ministers, the Labour MPs, the unions, the top management of the SMRT – what this fairness is.
On 6 December, it was reported in the news that at the arraignment of the 4 SMRT workers who were charged, their Singaporean colleagues at SMRT came together and raised the bail money for the four. It amounted to a substantial S$50,000. It’s no small sum. (Read it here.)
While one could not be perfectly sure why the colleagues did this, it is not unreasonable to say that fairness has a lot to do with it. And it is heartening to see this act of benevolence by the Singaporean workers.
It is a lesson which the government should learn – that it is not in speaking colourful words, or describing things in beautiful terms, that we show our sincerity in what we say. It is in the practice of these vows and pledges that we give meaning to them.
While we speak of having “hearts” and “hope” and making Singapore into a “home” we can all be proud of, the way the government has treated these workers – who wanted nothing more than just fair treatment for the labour which they provide – makes their words nothing but hot air. They may speak the words but they do not know their meanings.
To hide behind the excuses that the workers have contravened or broken the law, or that we must not allow our “industrial harmony” to be “disrupted”, or that they have to go through the “proper channels” to seek redress, or that they should respect our laws, etc, is to be blind to the simple fact that workers do not go on strike as a first choice of means. Taking such drastic action is always a last – and desperate – attempt to be heard.
Our ministers do not seem to understand this, blinded as they are by the righteous application of the law.
In his National Day rally speech, the prime minister spoke of the relationship between Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans and how we should foster closeness between the two. The prime minister was even reported to have said “we must feel for our fellow human beings.”
It is thus a shame that the government itself does not seem to have taken the prime minister’s advice to heart. That when the workers went on strike, it was not because they wanted to “disrupt” our “industrial harmony”, or that they purposefully wanted to challenge our law. It is stupid, really, to think that these were what they had in mind.
No, when they went on strike, it was a last, desperate attempt to be heard. It was a cry for fairness, a cry for help.
The government has thus lost an opportunity to practice what it preaches - to show some heart and empathy in dealing with aggrieved workers. How is it that such cries are met with arrest, charges, even being locked-up in prison and deportation - while those whose failures gave rise to such unhappiness are let off?
But the government is not Singapore. And from the charitable actions of the Singaporean colleagues of the drivers who were charged, there is hope still that it is the ordinary Singaporean – not the PAP government – who will indeed make Singapore into a home with hope – and a heart.
As Mr JB Jeyaretnam once said, the strength is in the ordinary people. And so it is.