SINGAPORE -- A terse exchange in a Singaporean election debate has brought simmering tensions over immigration to the surface, forcing the ruling People's Action Party to fend off opposition claims that it wants a dramatic increase in foreign workers.
The spat broke out during a televised debate Wednesday night, when the chief of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party suggested that Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat had entertained the idea of nearly doubling the city-state's population to 10 million, from 5.7 million as of June 2019.