http://geraldgiam.sg/2009/10/hdb-should-be-neutral-and-stop-playing-politics/
HDB should be neutral
and stop playing politics
I am glad to learn that the opposition held wards of Hougang and
Potong Pasir will finally be getting lift upgrading for their HDB
blocks. This is a long overdue measure for the residents of the two
constituencies, which have been strongholds of the opposition since
1991 and 1984 respectively.
Singaporeans will recall that on the eve of the polling day in
1997, then-Prime Minister Goh
Chok Tong warned voters that opposition estates risked becoming
“slums” if they continued voting out the PAP. Thus
started a pattern of Third World
pork barrel politics of the ruling PAP, which
culminated in the 2006 election when PAP candidates Eric Low and
Sitoh Yih Pin boasted that caretaker National Development Minister
Mah Bow Tan had promised the two wards a total of $180 million for
upgrading if residents voted for the PAP.
Fortunately, voters were too sophisticated and principled to fall
for the PAP’s dirty tactics of using taxpayer money to advance
their partisan political ends. Hougang and Potong Pasir voters
proved that they could not be so easily swayed by money and
election goodies by re-electing Mr Low Thia Khiang (Workers’ Party)
and Mr Chiam See Tong (Singapore Democratic Alliance), the former
with a record high winning margin.
Three-and-a-half years after those embarrassing defeats, the PAP
has realised that such underhanded tactics don’t work. So now
they’ve taken a different tack by promising lift upgrading to these
wards just as the next election looms.
TODAY newspaper reported that the PAP’s losing candidate Sitoh had
received an email from HDB informing him of this news. He lost no
time in breaking the good news to residents through a news release.
Mr Eric Low plans to announce the news today at a grassroots event.
In addition, Mr Sitoh said he will be sending out a circular to
residents in the selected blocks soon, presumably with his own
letterhead proclaiming himself as the “adviser to the Potong Pasir
grassroots organisations”.
I see no reason why the
HDB should break the news to the losing PAP candidates. Does the
HDB inform losing opposition candidates of impending upgrading in
the wards they contested in, for example in East Coast or Tampines?
Definitely not!
So why the double standard? Is it to give a chance to the PAP’s
losing candidates to be like Santa Claus bearing good gifts for
residents as if it came from them?
The PAP’s Eric Low claimed
that the upgrading “is a result of our efforts over the years”.
What utter rubbish! It was the Workers’ Party’s Low Thia Khiang who
had asked in Parliament after the 2006 elections for the promised
$100 million to be released to Hougang for upgrading. But the
National Development Minister stoutly refused, saying that the
funds were conditional on voters choosing the
PAP.
Knowing full well that the PAP’s
intention was to put opposition wards at the end of the upgrading
queue, Hougang Town Council had previously gone ahead to upgrade
the lifts at the blocks on Hougang Avenue 3 and 7 at the cost of
some $400,000 to $500,000 of the Town Council’s own
funds. A
mere seven years later, HDB simply demolished those upgraded
blocks, and refused to reimburse Hougang Town Council the costs for
the unexpired cyclical period.
In fact, HDB’s informing of the PAP’s losing candidates of the
upcoming upgrading is just the tip of the iceberg of the agency’s
history of partisan political manoeuvring.
After winning the 1991 elections and assuming the chairmanship of
Hougang Town Council, the WP’s Low was immediately served by the
HDB with a notice to quit the premises at Blk 810 Hougang Central,
which was then occupied by the PAP’s Hougang Town Council. HDB also
served him with a notice of termination of its services as the
managing agent for Hougang Town Council. Despite this, the new Town
Council managed to overcome the obstacles put in its way, built a
new premise within 6 weeks, and took over the management of Hougang
estate from the HDB on 1st January 1992.
Without an office to operate from and to manage the estate, Low
then took on the task of building and completing, within six weeks,
the Hougang Town Council’s office. It is now located at Block 701
Hougang Avenue 2. He also successfully put together a team of
councillors and staff to manage and maintain Hougang estate.
Together, they took over the management of Hougang estate from the
HDB on 1st January 1992.
The HDB should stop
letting itself become a political tool of the ruling PAP. This is
not the way a taxpayer funded statutory board should operate.
Residents of non-PAP wards pay their income taxes and GST, and do
their national service just like the rest of us. They should not be
discriminated against.
I call on HDB chairman Koh Cher Siang, HDB CEO Tay Kim Poh,
Ministry of National Development permanent secretary Tan Tee How
and all the good officers working under them to exercise their
rightful independence and neutrality as civil servants and resist
attempts by the PAP ministers (or any future government ministers)
to pressure them into executing decisions that benefit the party
and not the people.
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visit http://singaporenewsalternative.blogspot.com
.
