Securing good jobs for citizens key priority for PSP's Sumarleki Amjah

Helping Singaporeans get good jobs and ensuring their job security are top of the agenda for PSP new face Sumarleki Amjah, 53, who is part of the opposition party's A-team contesting West Coast-Jurong West GRC.

- Chin Hui Shan

He highlighted three possible ways of achieving these aims: Proper calibration of the numbers of foreign talent in the workforce, upskilling citizens with the skills to thrive in a technologically advanced economy, and offering retrenchment benefits to those who have been let go.

"Good jobs are the essence of a good life, especially in Singapore," said Mr Sumarleki, who works at a multinational food and beverage firm as its head of packaged food and business development overseeing South-east Asia and the Middle East.

He was speaking to The Straits Times at Taman Jurong Shopping Centre on April 20, just hours after he was introduced as a PSP candidate contesting the GRC.

With rising costs of living and wages that have "barely increased", Mr Sumarleki said middle-income earners – a group he hopes to champion if elected – do not receive enough support.

"These are the people who need help the most," he said, pointing to how the salaries of many middle-income earners are not keeping pace with the rise in cost of living. He noted that the most underprivileged residents are already receiving "reasonable subsistence support" from the Government.

"The middle class forms the core of any nation. If we don't have a strong middle class, the nation will not prosper," he said. "We want to work together with the Government to improve the system and the policies, so that the sandwiched middle class can be uplifted."