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This Barrier-Free-Access (BFA) ramp at Blk 108 Bedok Reservoir Road has been a long time in coming. First mooted by residents to the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council in late 2012, it was finally handed over to the Town Council by the People’s Association this afternoon, seven years after it was first proposed. While the TC continues to wait for all the documentation and additional pipe diversion works to be completed, we have received approval to open the BFA for resident use. It will be open tomorrow.
Each year, the Government makes available about $40m to all Town Councils for community improvement upgrading projects. But all MPs must go through their Grassroots Advisers to raise projects for consideration. In opposition wards like Aljunied and Hougang, the losing PAP candidates are the Grassroots Advisers.
Through such upgrading projects, losing PAP candidates are made relevant for residents and can be said to campaign for votes well before the General Elections because they are embedded as leaders in various grassroots organisations that approve the dispensation of large sums of taxpayer dollars. I spoke about why the PAP has adopted such political double standards at a rally during the 2015 elections. See here:
http://www.wp.sg/pritam-singhs-rally-speech-punggol-field-…/
As we get closer to the elections, more and more I hear various 4G leaders speak of the dangers of a polarised society, dysfunctional politics with social media often blamed, amongst other reasons. The 4G leaders also repeat calls for an inclusive society, co-creating policies etc. But would the 4G leaders dare consider that the PAP’s divisive approach to politics may be the elephant in the room that will make Singapore a politically polarised society?
In this regard, the instincts of former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong’s 2G team were not wrong. After the PAP lost the constituency of Anson to the Workers’ Party in 1981, PM Goh and his young team were minded to transfer the Anson Community Centre and control of grassroots organisations etc. to JB Jeyaratnam “to be fair”. But their natural instincts were overruled.
And here we are.
A simple BFA ramp that could have been built in months, took years to complete. How many senior citizens, immobile, and yet others recovering from episodes such as debilitating strokes could have benefited from this facility earlier, but for how the PAP determines the People’s Association operates in opposition wards? Other proposals by opposition MPs for the community are commonly ignored by the People’s Association.
This will not do, no matter who is in Government and who is the opposition. Singapore and Singaporeans deserve better.
