Policies may change but underlying principles such as multiculturalism, incorruptibility remain sacrosanct: PM Wong

SINGAPORE — The balancing act between respecting the past and taking bold steps for the future of Singapore has to be rooted in the nation’s fundamental principles, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Friday (Aug 23).
These fundamental principles, which include but are not limited to multiculturalism and the ethos of self-reliance, are those that Singapore will continue to retain even while it thinks about making bold changes, he added.
The recently announced support package for retrenched workers is one “clear illustration” of this, Mr Wong said, noting that the Government has “for many, many decades” eschewed unemployment insurance due to the negative repercussions of such policies as seen in other countries.
Mr Wong was speaking to members of the media, sharing his thoughts on the recent National Day Rally and his priorities for the nation. 
He has said before that he would like to speak more regularly with Singaporeans on the Government’s “thinking and considerations”, by stepping up engagement through the media.
Mr Wong was sworn in as prime minister on May 15, which meant that Friday was his 100th day in office. 
When asked what his immediate priorities were in these first 100 days, he said: “Well, I don’t think of 100-day, 200-day and any of these milestones.”
He added that his immediate priorities after the leadership transition was to think of how to take Singapore forward in its next phase of nation-building.
“I took reference, of course, from the exercise that we had just completed, the Forward Singapore exercise,” he said, referring to the consultative exercise that took feedback from Singaporeans from all walks of life about their hopes and dreams for the country.
He added that the National Day Rally was the first opportunity on the national level for him to crystallise that vision and talk about a few crucial issues in “clearer and more concrete terms”, adding that the Government will continue to work on various other matters as well moving ahead.
In his first National Day Rally address, Mr Wong had touched on the importance of respecting the past while at the same time not allowing it to constrain Singapore’s options for the future.
On Friday, he spoke about the principles such multiculturalism, self-reliance and a focus on families, saying that they are important values that Singapore should preserve.
“So if we understand what these (fundamentals) are, then we don’t discard them, and we retain them even as we think about making bold changes.”
He gave the example of the Skillsfuture Jobseeker Support Scheme unveiled during the National Day Rally, which offers up to S$6,000 of temporary financial support for people who lose their jobs involuntarily.
The scheme is widely seen as a departure from Singapore’s long-standing aversion to provide handouts to retrenched workers, since the experiences of some economies have shown that such a policy might disincentivise the unemployed from seeking new jobs.
“But it doesn’t mean that we cannot do something different in Singapore, appropriately designed for our circumstances, and well-designed to minimise the negative effects we’ve seen elsewhere,” Mr Wong added.
That was why the Government took a long time to come up with the scheme to include “appropriate conditions” — to ensure that individuals also play their part by getting skills training and career coaching.
Mr Wong also said that it was important for Singapore not to assume that the nation can “simply cruise along just with the status quo”, but to instead constantly relook every issue and policy.
“It’s not so much to change for the sake of change alone, but always to have the perspective that some things can be improved.”
While policies come with trade-offs, circumstances can change over time, and along with it, Singaporeans’ appreciations of such trade-offs, he added. 
During the National Day Rally, Mr Wong had called upon Singaporeans to join the Government in the “major reset” needed to help Singapore achieve its new ambitions of creating a society where people may flourish and succeed in their own ways without getting caught up in the rat race.
He said then that this reset would involve changes in both policies and mindset among the populace.
Asked on Friday whether there are “non-negotiable” policies that Singapore cannot reset, Mr Wong said that it is not so much a matter of policies that are non-negotiable, but more the core principles and values underpinning them that may be sacrosanct.
Multiculturalism, meritocracy and incorruptibility are but some values that “cannot be compromised”.
“But how these principles are manifested in policies, well, then you can have a debate,” he added. 
For example, whether certain policies are the best ways to uphold meritocracy or whether they have led to “inadvertent consequences” such as stress and elitism, could be discussed and debated.
“So it’s really differentiating between the core principles and values, as opposed to the manifestation of them in policies, which we will always be prepared to review our assumptions to see what can work better.”