A day of infamy in parliament?

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

A DAY OF INFAMY IN PARLIAMENT?

Post date:
12 Feb 2015 - 10:10pm








Law will be amended

According to the Straits Times news report ”Parliament: Govt to withhold $7m of grants from AHPETC, change Town Councils Act, says Khaw” (Feb 12) - ”In addition to amending the law to give the Government more oversight and penalty powers over town councils, it will also withhold several million dollars of grants to AHPETC until “it cleans up its mess”, he said.”

Which law allows withholding of residents’ $7 million S & CC grant?

As a resident of Aljunied – I would like to ask – since the Government has to change the law in order to take my town council to task – which law empowers it to take the residents to task – by withholding $7 million of its annual service and conservancy charges (S&CC) grant.

“Fixing” the opposition and voters?

For decades – voters were threatened with “no upgrading”, less funding, taking away the software system when they lost Aljunied, etc – and now using an excuse to fix my town council and indirectly the residents.

Isn’t this unfair and unconstitutional?

Has this Government got no shame – that it would stoop so low to maintain power?

How do the members of Parliament hold their head high when they meet Singaporeans everyday, when they belong to such a Government?

They should be ashamed of themselves. You are a disgrace to the meaning of the word “Singaporean”.

As to “Parliament: Shanmugam says WP took money from man in the street and gave it to their friends” (Straits Times, Feb 12) – Isn’t the withholding of the $7 million S & CC grant akin to the Government taking money from the man in the streets of Aljunied?

De-politicise please for the sake of Singaporeans

I agree with what Mr Low Khia Thiang said – “that in addition to strengthening the Town Councils Act, he hopes that the Government looks at the “de-politicisation of the transition process” when town councils change hands.
The large managing agents that run People’s Action Party town councils in Singapore would not take the WP’s business, he said: “it seems that the managing agents serving PAP town councils are unwilling to serve in non-PAP town councils, and the reason appears to be political rather than professional.”







Detailing the WP MPs’ task of scaling up Hougang SMC’s system for a GRC many times its size, in the face of previous Aljunied GRC contractors terminating their services abruptly – all within a stipulated 90 days transition period – Mr Low said:

“Under our current system, it seems to be that any opposition party which aspires to be elected in a GRC will have to build a town management team to train hundreds of staff officers first, (then) start shopping for an off-the-shelf accounting software.”

“If an opposition party aspires to be the next government, it may need to build an army of civil servants first,” he said. “This is a strange political situation for any functioning democracy to be in.”

Mr Low emphasised that the AGO report did not find the town council to be engaged in corrupt practices nor any money lost.” (“Parliament: WP chief Low Thia Khiang calls for town council transfer to be de-politicised“, Straits Times, Feb 12)

You may appear to be winning the battle of Aljunied now, but at this rate – you will surely lose the war at the end of the day!

Win battles lose war
TRS Contributor


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