WP chief rebuts Mah's
remark on fund access
Straits Times Online, The
(Singapore)
Nov 11, 2007
OPPOSITION MP Low Thia Khiang has disputed National Development
Minister Mah Bow Tan's statement on a fund that can be used to
improve estates in a constituency.
Mr Low, the MP for Hougang and the Workers' Party leader, said that
while the funds have always been available, they were for potential
People's Action Party (PAP) candidates and not elected opposition
MPs.
He was referring to the Community Improvement Projects Committee
(CIPC) funds, which Mr Mah said on Friday have always been there
for opposition MPs to make use of.
'This is factually incorrect and misleading,' said Mr Low in a
statement he issued over the weekend as chairman of Hougang's Town
Council.
He cited two examples to support his charge.
In September 1995, the Hougang Town Council made an application to
the Hougang Citizens Consultative Committee (CCC) for CIPC funding
to install illuminated carpark direction signs.
'Contrary to Mr Mah's statement, the funds that were 'always there'
were not made available to the town council, as no support was
given for the town council's proposal by the adviser to the CCC,'
said Mr Low.
'Instead, the CCC itself submitted an application to the HDB about
two weeks later in October 1995 for a similar project.'
As a result, his town council's application to HDB, the landowner,
was held in abeyance by the HDB, said Mr Low.
It was only in September 1997, after the CCC withdrew its
application, that the HDB gave the town council the go-ahead for
the signs, he said.
'No CIPC funds were given for the project.'
Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits
Times.
Time to adopt a new
direction for estate improvement fund
Straits Times, The
(Singapore)
Home
November 7, 2007
Author: Peh Shing Huei
OVER the last 17 years, like a pebble in the shoe, Mr Chiam See
Tong has found himself feeling routinely hobbled by the acronym
CIPC.
While the prosaically named Community Improvement Projects
Committee (CIPC) may not mean much to the average Singaporean, it
has been a source of frustration for the veteran opposition
MP.
Since 1990, when the CIPC was first formed, he has asked repeatedly
in Parliament for a share of the funds which are used for minor
improvement works in housing estates.
But the response, presented by different
Ministers and Ministers of State for National Development, has
always been that he can apply for it, through the Citizens
Consultative Committee (CCC).
And when the CCC is inevitably helmed by a People's Action Party
(PAP) man, it means that despite being the elected people's
representative, Mr Chiam has had to suffer the humiliation of
asking for the funds from the very men he defeated at the
polls.
He has endured that, only to find himself in an even more
demoralising situation of being rebuffed. From Mr Andy Gan to the present Mr Sitoh Yih Pin, Mr
Chiam's requests for money to build amenities have always been
rejected.
Now, in an unexpected development, as The Straits Times reported
yesterday, the CIPC funds are close to reaching his hands after
nearly two decades of exasperated appeals.
As the Government seeks to achieve barrier-free access for all
public housing estates by 2011, it is finally willing to give Mr
Chiam and the other opposition MP, Mr Low Thia Khiang, the funds to
build ramps and handrails.
The Government has maintained that the decision does not mark a
shift in position - the CIPC funds are still disbursed through the
PAP's advisers to the CCC.
That is why in Potong Pasir, a joint committee has been set up with
representatives from Mr Sitoh's CCC and Mr Chiam's town
council.
In Hougang, Mr Low Thia Khiang has submitted a proposal to the
PAP's Eric Low.
But the bottom line remains that the two sides are now working
together and money will be given to the town councils eventually to
do the upgrading works.
Why is the Government doing it?
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said that it is to meet
the tight deadline of 2011.
There is no such arrangement for the much more desired Lift
Upgrading Project (LUP), which is due for completion in only
2014.
The LUP promises lifts on every floor for almost all Housing Board
blocks, but Hougang and Potong Pasir are at the end of the queue as
they are opposition territory.
Nanyang Technological University Associate Professor Ho Khai Leong
said the Government's move is likely to be driven by the
administrative considerations of a pressing deadline and the need
to spend the money in the Budget.
But he added that political motivations cannot be ruled out.
'The PAP is definitely not trying to enhance the legitimacy of the
opposition MPs. They must hope that by pumping in the money, they
would ultimately take back the two wards.'
Another pragmatic reading is that the PAP simply has no choice, but
to work with the town councils on such a project.
If this reading is correct, then such collaboration is probably a
one-off exercise or contingent on when it benefits the Government's
agenda first and foremost.
If so, it would be a disappointing outcome.
The bipartisan tie-up has already attracted applause.
As a reader wrote on the Straits Times Online: 'The only good piece
of news in the ST today! People elected into public office should
always work for the common good of the average person on the
street.
'Truly hope this will be the new direction Singapore politicians
will take - after all they are elected to care for those who put
them there in the first place.'
Another reader said that it was 'something really fair'.
The Government can, and should, distribute more of the CIPC funds
to the opposition wards, whose MPs it has repeatedly described as
responsible and credible.
Instead of channelling the funds through the CCC, why not through
the town councils which are in charge of the estate anyway?
A step forward has finally been taken after 17 years. A few more
paces in the same direction, minus the pebble in the shoe, would be
even better.
[email protected]
Copyright, 2007, Singapore Press Holdings Limited
