- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 12,730
- Points
- 113
by Bertha Henson
I KNOW the general elections are coming, and that they will be soon. But truth to tell, I am not keen on an early election.
1. I don’t think voters should be compelled to vote for people who will run their housing estates when the Town Council Act has proven to be so wonky. I have said this before, especially after the kerfuffle over the Workers’ Party’s finances in its Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East town council. It’s just too strange to see the G hammering the WP for tardiness and non-compliance and even making insinuations of criminal activity, without accompanying its words with stronger action. The Town Council Act, passed in 1988, seems too impotent to deal with alleged malfunctioning in a town council. The kindest thing I can say is that the G – and Parliament – couldn’t possibly have foreseen all the circumstances that have since cropped up, like people double-hatting in a town council or the use of partisans in management. After all, the idea was to give elected MPs some autonomy to decide how to run the estate. Another interpretation is that they didn’t predict that an Opposition political party will take control of not just a single-member ward or two, but a whole Group Representation Constituency and the accompanying millions of taxpayers dollars that will go to it.
The current court case involving the G and AHPETC is quite funny. The AHPETC needs the $14million grants that have been withheld by the G but the G will only give it if it adheres to certain conditions. It has come to an impasse and so the G turns to the court to say: Please make AHPETC do this. Seriously, if the AHPETC needs the money, it would have to come to terms. And if it doesn’t, the town council will go bankrupt. The G could sit back and relax because it had, after all, warned that voters would have to live with the consequences of their choice. I figure it thinks it is more politic to force the WP to accept the grants soon while at the same time exposing whatever shenanigans that have been concealed from public eye, than to have residents suffer. I wonder what Mr Lee Kuan Yew would have done if he were alive. He would have made the residents “repent”, methinks.
But the key thing is this: even the courts seem to have trouble interpreting the intention of Parliament when it approved the Bill, including the extent of judicial powers. National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in February that the Act was being reviewed. That review actually started much earlier, way in the beginning of the year before, when the issue was defining whether the town council was a political animal or an administrative arm. If it is a political animal, it should be left to live or die. If it was administrative arm of a elected MPs, then the G should come in to give it a boost. Instead you have the current tug-of-war being played out in court.
What is a voter to think? That I am paying S&C fees to people to manage my neighbourhood but I am not sure if there is any recourse if money is lost? That the financial rules are ornamental? That the operations of the town council are beyond the reach of the Penal Code? That even a small company would be far better scrutinised or taken to task should it run foul of regulations compared to a town council with thousands of households?
I want to be able to vote on surer ground knowing that my money, and those of taxpayers, will be protected and used in the way it is meant to be used. I would like to see money used not just to ensure lifts work and corridors are swept but also saved for the longer-term when blocks need a new coat of paint or the lifts need to be replaced. That amended legislation should be out before the GE, not after. I want to see the rules and how it affects MPs’ running of the estate. Failing which, perhaps, the G could have the proposed amendments as one of the PAP’s election platforms and have the residents base the election on whether they want MORE rules or FEWER rules, and the kind of latitude the elected MPs should have.
Mr Khaw Boon Wan, you are late with the Bill.
http://themiddleground.sg/2015/08/05/three-reasons-dont-want-early-ge/
I KNOW the general elections are coming, and that they will be soon. But truth to tell, I am not keen on an early election.
1. I don’t think voters should be compelled to vote for people who will run their housing estates when the Town Council Act has proven to be so wonky. I have said this before, especially after the kerfuffle over the Workers’ Party’s finances in its Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East town council. It’s just too strange to see the G hammering the WP for tardiness and non-compliance and even making insinuations of criminal activity, without accompanying its words with stronger action. The Town Council Act, passed in 1988, seems too impotent to deal with alleged malfunctioning in a town council. The kindest thing I can say is that the G – and Parliament – couldn’t possibly have foreseen all the circumstances that have since cropped up, like people double-hatting in a town council or the use of partisans in management. After all, the idea was to give elected MPs some autonomy to decide how to run the estate. Another interpretation is that they didn’t predict that an Opposition political party will take control of not just a single-member ward or two, but a whole Group Representation Constituency and the accompanying millions of taxpayers dollars that will go to it.
The current court case involving the G and AHPETC is quite funny. The AHPETC needs the $14million grants that have been withheld by the G but the G will only give it if it adheres to certain conditions. It has come to an impasse and so the G turns to the court to say: Please make AHPETC do this. Seriously, if the AHPETC needs the money, it would have to come to terms. And if it doesn’t, the town council will go bankrupt. The G could sit back and relax because it had, after all, warned that voters would have to live with the consequences of their choice. I figure it thinks it is more politic to force the WP to accept the grants soon while at the same time exposing whatever shenanigans that have been concealed from public eye, than to have residents suffer. I wonder what Mr Lee Kuan Yew would have done if he were alive. He would have made the residents “repent”, methinks.
But the key thing is this: even the courts seem to have trouble interpreting the intention of Parliament when it approved the Bill, including the extent of judicial powers. National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in February that the Act was being reviewed. That review actually started much earlier, way in the beginning of the year before, when the issue was defining whether the town council was a political animal or an administrative arm. If it is a political animal, it should be left to live or die. If it was administrative arm of a elected MPs, then the G should come in to give it a boost. Instead you have the current tug-of-war being played out in court.
What is a voter to think? That I am paying S&C fees to people to manage my neighbourhood but I am not sure if there is any recourse if money is lost? That the financial rules are ornamental? That the operations of the town council are beyond the reach of the Penal Code? That even a small company would be far better scrutinised or taken to task should it run foul of regulations compared to a town council with thousands of households?
I want to be able to vote on surer ground knowing that my money, and those of taxpayers, will be protected and used in the way it is meant to be used. I would like to see money used not just to ensure lifts work and corridors are swept but also saved for the longer-term when blocks need a new coat of paint or the lifts need to be replaced. That amended legislation should be out before the GE, not after. I want to see the rules and how it affects MPs’ running of the estate. Failing which, perhaps, the G could have the proposed amendments as one of the PAP’s election platforms and have the residents base the election on whether they want MORE rules or FEWER rules, and the kind of latitude the elected MPs should have.
Mr Khaw Boon Wan, you are late with the Bill.
http://themiddleground.sg/2015/08/05/three-reasons-dont-want-early-ge/
