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[h=1]PAP-WP SHOWDOWN - WHAT TO EXPECT[/h]
Post date:
10 Feb 2015 - 10:58pm
So, who said Singapore politics is bland, or non-existent?
After more than a year of investigating, digging and scouring for information, the good people over at the Auditor General’s Office (AGO) has released its report on the Workers’ Party (WP) Town Council, AHPETC.
The report runs into several documents, if you do not know, a testimony to the avalanche of work done by the AGO, for sure.
Basically, however, it says well there are some problems found with the management of AHPETC, some are more serious than others.
The good thing is that there is no proof of corruption in the dealings or handling of public funds.
The bad news is that AHPETC has failed to install some important procedures to ensure good governance.
All in all, yes WP need to buck up a little and take the AGO report in the right spirit. After all, its chairman, Sylvia Lim, had said the party welcomed the AGO review when it was called last February.
Now, on the other side, it looks like the mainstream media is going on overdrive with this story.
It is clearly way out of proportion.
There are 6 pages in TODAY, while it makes the front page and a double-page spread in the Straits Times.
Is the story such a major one?
Not really, given that such lapses have been found in government ministries, statutory boards and even the PAP’s own town councils (AIM, Lehman Brothers toxic bonds) in recent years.
In fact, the AGO’s annual review of government ministries consistently reveal major failings. Just google for it and see for yourself.
So, yes, what is happening with all the big hooha is well simple politics.
It’s one party trying to show up the other as worse than itself.
So, the showdown in Parliament, scheduled for Thursday, will reflect this - the PAP doing a one-upmanship on the WP, playing to the gallery of publicopinion, and the WP defending itself as best it can, fending off the many poison-laced arrows which will surely come its way.
Some will, however and rightly, see a wider picture to this whole thing – that while WP may have things to improve on, it is the only and first opposition party to manage a GRC and two SMCs, something which no other opposition party has ever had to do.
So one should expect there will be problems.
It really should come as no surprise.
The bigger picture thus is to let the opposition learn the ropes, just as new ministers who have absolutely no experience in government are helicoptered in to learn the ropes too, some even tailcoating on the backs of more experienced ministers in that learning process.
Singapore politics could do very well with a lot more diversity in Parliament for one simple reason – the current PAP, for all its decades of great work, is not as great as before.
It has failed many times, even by its own admission, and when it fails, the consequences are even more devastating.
Just look at the state of our public transport, and even our physical environment.
The chief planner over at the URA recently said, oops, we should have kept some those old buildings instead of tearing them down, for example. Our heritage lost forever, just like that.
And how the govt “just assumed” things when it sold land designated for religious worship in Fernvale to a foreign private company.
In other words, let’s look at things rationally and not be stirred by the big screaming headlines.
The AGO has done his work, and WP needs to get to work to improve on things.
The PAP should let WP get on with it and not try to score political points with this.
After all, isn’t this what the PAP or the Government says each time failings are found within its ranks?
Let’s be mature about this and see that a more diverse parliamentary make-up is what we need here in Singapore, and allow this to grow.
*Article first appeared on http://publicopinion.sg/220/pap-wp-showdown-what-to-expect
Post date:
10 Feb 2015 - 10:58pm
So, who said Singapore politics is bland, or non-existent?
After more than a year of investigating, digging and scouring for information, the good people over at the Auditor General’s Office (AGO) has released its report on the Workers’ Party (WP) Town Council, AHPETC.
The report runs into several documents, if you do not know, a testimony to the avalanche of work done by the AGO, for sure.
Basically, however, it says well there are some problems found with the management of AHPETC, some are more serious than others.
The good thing is that there is no proof of corruption in the dealings or handling of public funds.
The bad news is that AHPETC has failed to install some important procedures to ensure good governance.
All in all, yes WP need to buck up a little and take the AGO report in the right spirit. After all, its chairman, Sylvia Lim, had said the party welcomed the AGO review when it was called last February.
Now, on the other side, it looks like the mainstream media is going on overdrive with this story.
It is clearly way out of proportion.
There are 6 pages in TODAY, while it makes the front page and a double-page spread in the Straits Times.
Is the story such a major one?
Not really, given that such lapses have been found in government ministries, statutory boards and even the PAP’s own town councils (AIM, Lehman Brothers toxic bonds) in recent years.
In fact, the AGO’s annual review of government ministries consistently reveal major failings. Just google for it and see for yourself.
So, yes, what is happening with all the big hooha is well simple politics.
It’s one party trying to show up the other as worse than itself.
So, the showdown in Parliament, scheduled for Thursday, will reflect this - the PAP doing a one-upmanship on the WP, playing to the gallery of publicopinion, and the WP defending itself as best it can, fending off the many poison-laced arrows which will surely come its way.
Some will, however and rightly, see a wider picture to this whole thing – that while WP may have things to improve on, it is the only and first opposition party to manage a GRC and two SMCs, something which no other opposition party has ever had to do.
So one should expect there will be problems.
It really should come as no surprise.
The bigger picture thus is to let the opposition learn the ropes, just as new ministers who have absolutely no experience in government are helicoptered in to learn the ropes too, some even tailcoating on the backs of more experienced ministers in that learning process.
Singapore politics could do very well with a lot more diversity in Parliament for one simple reason – the current PAP, for all its decades of great work, is not as great as before.
It has failed many times, even by its own admission, and when it fails, the consequences are even more devastating.
Just look at the state of our public transport, and even our physical environment.
The chief planner over at the URA recently said, oops, we should have kept some those old buildings instead of tearing them down, for example. Our heritage lost forever, just like that.
And how the govt “just assumed” things when it sold land designated for religious worship in Fernvale to a foreign private company.
In other words, let’s look at things rationally and not be stirred by the big screaming headlines.
The AGO has done his work, and WP needs to get to work to improve on things.
The PAP should let WP get on with it and not try to score political points with this.
After all, isn’t this what the PAP or the Government says each time failings are found within its ranks?
Let’s be mature about this and see that a more diverse parliamentary make-up is what we need here in Singapore, and allow this to grow.
*Article first appeared on http://publicopinion.sg/220/pap-wp-showdown-what-to-expect
