November 28, 2009 by admin
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OPINION
It was revealed by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan lately that there are
about 4,500 new citizens serving as grassroots leaders in various
estates in Singapore.
He claimed that this will help promote integration between the
newcomers and Singaporeans.
With due respect to Dr Vivian, the grassroots organizations such
as Residents’ Committees (RCs) and Citizen Consultative Committees
(CCCs) have long failed in their original mission to “bring
Singaporeans of various races and religions together”.
Few Singaporeans will bother to participate in events organized
by these quasi-PAP organizations, let alone volunteer their time
and services to join them as grassroots leaders.
You need only show up at every event organized by your RC/CCC
for one month to realize that it is attended by almost the same few
faces.
There are literally no young Singaporeans seen at grassroots
functions such as block parties and dialogue sessions with
ministers.
It will be interesting to find out the membership growth of both
the locals and new citizens in the grassroots organizations.
Unlike Singaporeans, the new citizens have plenty of reasons to
join grassroots organizations.
Being new to a foreign land, these government-affiliated
organizations will provide a much needed source of support and
help during times of need.
Furthermore, it will also serve the purpose of networking for
the newcomers to make new friends and acquaintances in
Singapore.
For Singaporeans who have been living here for their entire
lives, they have their own circle of family and friends and do not
need to rely on the grassroots organizations.
Many are too busy with their daily lives to find time to “serve”
their community. They will rather spend their weekends with their
family or do their shopping instead of going for a morning stroll
with the MP.
So if there aren’t that many locals in grassroots organizations
or participating in its activities in the first place, how are they
going to serve as a medium for new citizens to reach out to their
Singapore neighbors?
It is highly likely that the new citizens will end up mixing
only with a particular clique of Singaporeans who are politically
affiliated to the PAP.
It is an unspoken truth that grassroots organizations are no
more than the “eyes and ears” of the PAP on the ground.
All of them are directly controlled by the People’s Association
headed by the Prime Minister himself.
Grassroots leaders are more than often not PAP branch
secretaries who sit on two or more committees such as the RCs and
CCCs at the same time.
With more and more new citizens being roped into grassroots
organizations, they may end up mingling among themselves rather
than the larger population as a whole and accentuating the divide
between them and the locals.
Being highly politicized organizations which are intricately
linked to the ruling party, grassroots organizations should not be
beneficiaries of the $10-million Community Integration Fund paid
for by taxpayers’ monies.
Not only will they not help the newcomers integrate, they will
have the unintended effect of securing their allegiance to the
ruling party.
The PAP knows that Singaporeans, especially the younger
generation, desire more opposition to check on them in parliament
and its support base is slowly being eroded with time.
New citizens who have no inkling of Singapore’s politics, are
usually more inclined to vote for the incumbent government which
gives them the opportunity to start their lives afresh in
Singapore.
Their votes will be crucial to counter the rising support among
indigenous Singaporeans for the opposition in the next few
elections to enable the PAP to maintain its political hegemony.
We must not forget that the entire political system in Singapore
is designed to entrench one single ruling party in power to the
exclusion of others – the government dislikes having an effective
opposition to hold them accountable.
To them, this is “adversarial” politics which is anathema to
their interests since their flaws, fallacies and hypocrises will be
exposed clearly for the public to see.
Even with the GRCs, it is a tall order for the PAP to win 98 per
cent of the seats in future elections repeatedly.
Winning the new citizens to its side first before anybody else
is crucial for the ruling party as they and their next generation
will form a powerful voting bloc to contend with.
The control of the media and grassroots organizations is
instrumental in engineering past electoral victories of the
PAP.
With the information monopoly enjoyed by the mainstream media
being chipped away gradually by the new media, it is imperative
that the PAP cultivates close ties with the new citizens and voters
of the future right now.
Singaporeans should demand stringent criteria to be set before
the fund is allowed to be used by the grassroots organizations.
For example, the activity or event will only qualified for
funding if there are are approximately equal mix of locals and new
citizens.
There is little point in conducting HDB block parties for a
group of Indian expatriates with few Singaporeans involved or a
one-day tour to Malaysia attended by the same cliche of
geriatricians with little participation from the new citizens.
Singaporeans will have no objections to fraternizing with the
newcomers, but $10-million is no small sum and we have to make sure
that it doesn’t end up promoting the interests of the PAP instead
of the community as it should be.