Hammering for change: Supporters attending the opposition Workers’ Party rally in Singapore. Waving yellow balloons shaped like hammers, young Singaporeans are whetting their appetite for politics in large opposition rallies for the first time in a decade ahead of tomorrow’s election. — AFP
When 68-year-old Richard Han heads to the ballot box tomorrow to vote in Singapore’s election, cost-of-living pressures will be on the retiree’s mind as he worries about his daily expenses and his son’s prospects after university.
Financial consultant Catherine Tan also worries about the future for her two young children.
The 30-year-old is finding it hard to make ends meet on a S$5,700 (RM18,800) household income, especially when a specialist visit for her son’s eczema can cost up to S$300 (RM900).
“The prices of all other things increase, but our pay does not increase,” said Tan, whose household income is below the city-state’s median of S$11,297 (RM37,290).
They are among 2.76 million voters going to the polls on May 3 as the threat of US tariffs and a softening economic environment raise the risk of a recession in the city-state.
Singapore was named as the world’s most expensive city to live for the second year in a row by international bank Julius Baer in a 2024 report on global wealth.
Tan said she is hoping the government will give more support for families to help with childcare and medical bills.
Han thinks Singapore needs more opposition voices so the PAP would “think more for the citizens”.
“If there were more opposition voices, they would listen more,” he said.
According to an April poll by Blackbox Research of 1,506 people the government’s ratings on 26 issues were at the lowest level, but still net positive, for its handling of cost of living (52%), goods and services tax (55%), inequality (57%), car prices (58%) and housing affordability (59%).
“(The GST) is just getting higher and higher, we can’t make it go down. And then the daily cost of living – it is daily, you know?” said Han, who earned S$8,000 (RM26,400) a month as a financial controller and worries he will not have enough from decades of working to fund his retirement.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who is also the finance minister, announced in February what analysts called an election budget with a raft of goodies, including grocery and food vouchers, tax and utility rebates.
Han thinks the vouchers, meant to compensate for a 2-percentage-point hike in the consumption tax, do not adequately address his worries and his 22-year-old son will have an even harder time after graduating from university.
While the core inflation rate has tapered to 0.5% in March from a peak of 5.5% in January 2023, suggesting an easing of price pressures, Tan said the daily reality was different.
She sometimes goes to nearby Malaysia to buy milk formula at about a third of the price in Singapore. — Reuters
