This speech was delivered on 13 May 2021.
Mr Leong Mun Wai (Non-Constituency Member): Thank you, Mr Speaker. In reply to the Minister’s comments just now, we are very interested to take up the CECA issue at some point in time. I think we still need to understand the situation more, like what the Minister has said.
However, I must state at the outset that the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) and myself are not being xenophobic. We are just stating the economic effects some of these free trade agreements have had on our economy – the feedback gathered from many suffering Singaporeans.
We still need to know the situation better but we are definitely not xenophobic and, definitely, racism has no place in our overall thinking. It is all about economics, about livelihoods and, today, we are here talking about COVID-19. It is also about livelihoods, about lives over economy. Sometimes, we may have to give up some of our economic benefits for the sake of lives. But at the end of the day, we still need to balance and see what is good for our overall livelihoods.
