Tan Jee Say Urges SGs to Vote for a New Balanced, Coalition Govt!

ST: This is Straits Times. Thanks for taking my call
earlier. As I was saying, I’m trying to gather the different political parties’
reactions on the town council issue that has been in the news recently. As you
know, SDP has also put out a town council management plan to try and convince
voters that they are capable of running town councils well. I was hoping to find
out more from you about your party’s plans about this issue.

Do you think that town council management will be one of the main issues
during the coming general election? Do you think voters will want more assurance
about the competency of a party to run a town council, especially since Workers’
Party has run into problems with the National Development Ministry?

SingFirst: Of course, PAP will exploit the issue to frighten
Singaporeans. But they would be misleading the voters. Opposition MPs have run
town councils for more than 20 years beginning with Potong Pasir and then
Hougang, and the HDB estates in these 2 constituencies have been well run. In
fact, despite all the negative publicity the estates in the
Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East combined town council have also been
well-maintained. The roads, pathways, gardens, car-parks and corridors are
clean, rubbish chutes and bin centres are cleared regularly, and the lifts,
water systems and lights are working. So estate management is not an issue in
AHPETC.

We understand that AHPETC had a problem with the accounting software and had
to do manual accounting, thus causing a delay in completing the required
financial accounts. We wish AHPETC success in resolving the matter
soon.
​

ST: SingFirst is a relatively new party in Singapore. How is
the party planning to reassure voters that you are able to run a town council
give your relative inexperience?

SingFirst: We will reassure voters by reminding them that
inexperience had not prevented Mr Chiam See Tong and Mr Low Thia Khiang from
running Potong Pasir and Hougang town councils successfully. We will retain the
estate managers in existing town councils and if any one does not wish to stay
on, we will hire replacements as these are not difficult to find since there is
a lot of expertise in estate management in Singapore (including estate managers
with experience of working in town councils and managing agents of private
estates).

Many of us in SingFirst have working experience in large and medium size
organisations in both the public and private sectors and we will know how to
deal with these management issues. In addition, we will beef up the accounting
systems and procedures and hire a dedicated compliance officer to ensure that
these procedures are adhered to on a daily basis.

My colleagues and I will take a special interest to oversee this. Having
worked in the financial sector which is highly regulated by the MAS with strict
compliance requirements, I will bring my experience in these matters to the
running of town councils.
​

ST: How is SingFirst planning on differentiating itself from
other parties who have experience in running town councils, for example WP, SPP
and SDP?

SingFirst: We will want to benefit from the experience of
our friends in WP, SPP and SDP in running town councils. They will want us to
succeed as well since we all share a common interest in serving Singaporeans. We
understand that Mr Chiam shared his experience of running Potong Pasir TC with
Mr Low when the latter was first elected in Hougang. We will of course share our
experience acquired in beefing up the accounting and compliance procedures with
the other parties.
​

ST: Could you share any other town council related plans,
such as if SingFirst is planning a dialogue on town councils, how SingFirst is
planning to address town council questions should they come up at dialogues, or
how SingFirst has addressed town council questions that have already come up. Or
if there are any discussion within the party on town councils and if there are
plans to release a paper like SDP?

SingFirst: We have discussed town council issues within the
party. We have also met up with a managing agent who has more than 10 years’
experience in running several residential estates, condominiums and shopping
malls. The managing agent shared his experience with us and assured us that
estate management and maintenance is not difficult as Singapore professionals
have a lot of experience in this area.

What we need to pay particular attention to is financial accounting. His
company is prepared to assist us if we need their help. We will answer all
questions on town councils if and when these surface at our dialogue sessions
with residents. In fact, we are holding a public forum in due course and it
includes segments where concerned citizens can participate on issues related to
town councils.
​

ST: Do you have any other thoughts on town councils that are
not addressed by the questions above?

SingFirst: As I said before at our party’s inaugural dinner
on 22 March 2015, “The real solution is to return the management of estates to
the HDB like in the past, so that residents benefit from overall economies of
scale and pay a uniform fee. This way, charges will be kept low for all
residents all over Singapore and no estate will be overcharged. But we can do so
only if we are voted in to form the government.”

In the event that the opposition could not form a government, as in a
coalition government, we will take over the running of the town councils
ourselves by retaining existing estate managers and officers, and improving the
accounting and compliance procedures. Residents can rest assured that we will do
a good job based on the working experience of our party leaders and the advice
of experienced managing agents. We also hope that the mass media will help
residents understand the true nature of the town council issue and not over-hype
it for party political purposes.
​