Andrew Loh –
When one reads what Members of Parliament (MPs) are saying about their performance in the Town Council Management Report (TCMR), it is quite obvious where they stand. “We are not responsible for the low scores.” The Ministry of National Development (MND) points its fingers at the town councils. MPs pointing fingers at the MND. MPs pointing fingers at each other. Ultimately, MPs point their fingers at residents. And residents stand bewildered, wondering what the whole fiasco is all about.
Many reasons have been offered by MPs – excuses about why they are not responsible for the low scores they may have received in the TCMR. MND provides more funding to PAP town councils, says opposition MP Low Thia Khiang. It’s not a ranking exercise anyway, says Senior Minister of State for National Development, Ms Grace Fu. They’re trying to thump me down, says Mr Chiam See Tong. We are going to make more inspections and introduce more programmes, including lucky draws and road shows, to get residents to keep estates clean, say PAP MPs. And for good measure, consider paying more if you want cleaner towns, says Ms Fu.
In short, since the TCMR report was released, it has become a finger-pointing farce.
In the 19 June edition of the Straits Times, this comedy was taken to a new level by PAP MPs, in particular Mr Masagos Zulkifli [picture, right] and Mr Lim Biow Chuan.
“We want residents to go around looking for defects, like inspectors,” said Mr Masagos, chairman of the Tampines GRC Town Council. Yes, he wants residents to do the job which he was elected, paid and expected to do, which seems to have been totally lost on him.
For Mr Lim, chairman of the Marine Parade GRC Town Council, the fault lies squarely with residents too. “Why are we getting Level 3 for maintenance?” he asks, referring to the ranking in the TCMR. “Fifty per cent of it is due to obstruction, like clutter and clothes racks along corridors. These are caused by residents, so they must do their part.”
Mr Lim forgets that it is his job to go round, like an inspector, to resolve these problems.
In November 2006, Mr Lim [picture, right] whined about how Singapore “is fast becoming a nation of complainers.” It is thus ironic that it is Mr Lim who is now complaining about residents and forgetting that as MP it is his job to see to municipal issues.
In the circus which has so far ensued, one thing seems to have been forgotten, which is pointed out by blogger Lucky Tan:
“Lets get this very clear – your PAP MP is not the person running your estate,” Lucky Tan says. “Most PAP MPs have full time jobs and their MP role is only a part time job. While he chairs the town council, the actual running of the estate is done by professionals.”
To be clear, MPs are of course ultimately responsible for the state of the estate. But the actual on-the-ground, daily maintenance and inspections are carried out by the town managers hired by the town councils.
This means a report such as the TCMR is rather irrelevant as a gauge on MPs’ performance and, in Lucky Tan’s words, “a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
I concur.
Perhaps the more important issue here is whether we should have full-time MPs, instead of part-time ones. The reason is very simple: with more upgrading being done to housing estates, more maintenance will be needed to be done. This was the view of Ms Fu as well, in her rebuttal to Mr Low’s questions about funds handed out to PAP-run wards. Couple this with the increase in the number of residents (new citizens and Permanent Residents) and one would see that an MP’s burden is increased.
It is only logical that if what Ms Fu said were true, then MPs would have to spend more time overseeing these, on top of their other responsibilities such as conducting Meet-The-People sessions and attending various functions.
Add to this, MPs too have full-time occupations – being lawyers, doctors, businessmen, etc – and also holding directorships in various companies. In the past some PAP MPs held as many as 11 directorships.
Certainly, all of these require much time and effort on the MPs’ part.
Yet, if we are to pay them a whopping S$14,000 a month to be MP, which is a part-time job, and have them delegate the running of the towns to professionals, and then to lay blame on residents if they achieved low scores in the TCMR, is it not more responsible for MPs to be full-timers instead?
As some have said, at the moment being an MP is the best-paid part-time job in Singapore!
You get to be paid handsomely while not having to work full-time and yet be able to lay blame on others when things go wrong!
But of course, besides Mr Chiam See Tong of the opposition Singapore People’s Party, no MPs have volunteered to be full-timers.
Perhaps in this whole TCMR fiasco, instead of finger-pointing, our MPs should consider if it is time for them to put in more time and effort running the towns, rather than looking for convenient scapegoats to lay blame on.
Yes, service comes with sacrifice – but at $14,000 a month, an MP can live a relatively comfortable life.
So the question is: Why are our MPs so reluctant to devote all their time to being an MP? Why do they still hang on to their daytime jobs? How committed are they, really, to serving the people?
As for the TCMR itself, Singaporeans do not need a report to tell us if the towns we live in are clean or liveable. We live in them. We know if they are being taken care of. If they are, MPs get our votes. If they’re not, we will vote them out – as Singaporeans have done in the past.
Our MPs should stop trying to shirk responsibility for the state of the towns. For if they are seen to do so, they too may be voted out – whether there is a TCMR or not.
The (farcical) buck must stop at their feet.
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ok for a start..let start slappin @ any schoolkids who throw icecreams wrapper outside the bins..let all lynched any foreign elements who ptui ptui here ptui ptui there..last but not least..let staplered any cats who litterred everwhere..
everbody happy?
I feel that we should not be distracted from the main issue here. We are not voting Estate Managers; If you want estate managers, just put up an advertisement and employ one. Full time MPs should be concentrating on law and policy making!
PAP does not want MPs to be too focus on scrutinizing their laws and policies, thus added this distraction of “Town Council management”. We should go back to the basic. Just do a search on the Hansard and see for yourself whether the $14K paid to PAP MPs are worthwhile or not, when many of them hardly make any impact in parliament sittings.
when people are paid too much with the risk of being replaced non-existent, they act like people owe them a living…
alright, alright quit your MP posts & just stick to your day jobs if cannot cope with this “extra” part-time job loh…
talk about kicking cans (responsibilities) down the road…
Please support politicians with a voice and not silent Estate Managers.
Your estates will not turn into slumps. The 19-year-old secret kept by the opposition is out – opposition TCs do receive grants.
Like SMRT GRAFITTI CASE, They say commuters should be involved in SMRT SECURITY, AND dint report the grafitti.
The real issue is the potential terrorist threat BUT SMRT toking about grafitti.
NOW TOWN COUNCILS BLAME RESIDENTS
” We want residents to go around looking for defects, like inspectors,” said Mr Masagos, chairman of the Tampines GRC Town Council. Yes, he wants residents to do the job which he was elected, paid and expected to do, which seems to have been totally lost on him.
For Mr Lim, chairman of the Marine
Parade GRC Town Council, the fault lies squarely with residents too. “Why are we getting Level 3 for maintenance?” he asks, referring to the ranking in the TCMR. “Fifty per cent of it is due to obstruction, like clutter and clothes racks along corridors. These are caused by residents, so they must do their part. ”
If there is debit, who takes?
Credit, of course, its me. I should be the one to take.
Does HG and Potong Pasir ALSO got same funding to use Professional maintenance service people to maintain their estates so that the MPs there just manage them?
Yes / No ?
Its migrant labour that keeps the city clean. There must be a general frustration among the population to defy the government’s plan in little ways–like not being civic conscious. Who knows? I am not a sociologist. I do find that people are becoming less considerate and often downright rude.
Can we then say that it became a liability to vote for PAP ministers when after they were voted, they vote their blame on us.
all the finger pointing only means somebody is sleeping on the job?
keke…
This TCMR is surely an ‘Improvised Explosive Device’ deliberately planted by Minister MBT to blow up the reputation of the wards managed by the Alternative Parties.
Unfortunately, this was done without too much intelligence that it will backfire on his own PAP MPs.
Considering the efforts given to produce the TCMR to make it credible, it is difficult to understand that the PAP wards are all not scoring excellent points despite the extra funding given as alleged by WP’s Low.
Perhaps, Minister MBT is not too excited about his own prospects at being re-elected, and is planning that some other PAP MPs will accompany him to fail in the coming election ?
ACTING BLURR IS ‘THEIR’ FORTE
see postings at below TODAYonline n Asia1 forum thread.
http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?t=30429
http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100612-0000081/Are-our-tourist-sites-wheelchair-friendly?
One fine day, the PAP will blame the citizens for the economic crisis
Hi TOC
Can someone do a bit of research and find out the size of the consituent?
The grant they are getting?
I asking this so that we have a balanced view, in the sense it is quite unfair to measure Potong Pasir with AMK GRC because the resources are quite different so by using ratio we will get a more accurate picture.
Please Mr Leong your in depth analysis would open some eyes.
And let’s be clear, too, that we have no choice but to vote out all these self-serving people from the political arena.
And we can’t afford to wait any longer; the coming GE is our golden opportunity to show the papies what we, the citizens, are capable of.
Ant
I asking this so that we have a balanced view, in the sense it is quite unfair to measure Potong Pasir with AMK GRC because the resources are quite different so by using ratio we will get a more accurate picture.
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indeed we should…
amk hav big swimmin aircon pool
poton pasir hav bathtub if you can afford 1
amk hav aircon bus terminals
poton pasir hav yet to get a feeder bus service
amk gok coffinshops and COURT includin singtel/m1 and starhub
poton pasir only have 3 umbrellas..orang/red and green..ok ok maybe a couple of shops with silver papers/jossticks materials…
They get paid and fat bonuses for us doing their jobs??? Something is very wrong with the equation.
@goh meng seng –
A wannabe who does not wish to meet the people and understand their day to day problem does not really meet the grade to be our MP. Deflection of the cardinal MP responsibility is nothing but a dime a dozen. What we really need is real commitment.
Though MP technically is not an estate managers, he is at least able to sit to devise policy together with his town councilors. Having dedicated a job to someone does not absolve one from responsibility.
Having read your posting everywhere I can only interpret your desire to govern as a desktop manager and unwilling to spend quality time mixing with the residents. Your family time is way more important than the residents I suppose.
If you are a serious MP wannabe I propose that you truly seek to know your residents intimately and understand their aspiration for the town they want to be living in.
Please try not brainwash us that the custody of the estate is not a MP responsibility, we are more discerning than you think. Even though we like to have opposition in Singapore, we do not hope to get MP that does wish to sacrifice.
Dear Singaporeans,
“It’s all your fault, nothing but your fault.”
After all, most of the MPs are just mouthing this same kind of Singaporean bashing, following the bad example set by some of the seniors.
You pay $14000 to be insulted. No wonder a lot of foreigners think little of Singaporeans.
These 14K Mps, do not even know how to hire a private eye to check on his/her estate.
The TCs simply clean the places, before the MPs go for walkabout and the goondu MPs think everything is perfect.
Then when the TCMR came out, everyone tried to blame the opposition but in turn realised that the stirred shit had hit them too. Now unfortuntly they all stink .
We need MPs, proper MPs. Who work for the people. Please vote for them. At 14K these PAP MPs are having it too good, shamelessly.
For 14K, Man. I would come clean your toilet too. Each and evey residents. My men will be cleaning all of you & the estate until the estate cannot be cleaned anymore.
Perhaps opposition wards should follow the example of the PAP by creating new positions in their Town Council such as MM TC Mgr, SM TC Mgr etc…..and then put in their own people….
using MP to answer town council performance is a shameful and an abuse of tax payers’ money !
MP represents people, citizen, raise issues, criticize and modify bills tabled. what have PAP MP and those sleeping GRC MPs have done – NOTHING !
Ask PAP to stop all the extra money and funds thy gave to PAP wards s freely and do a report again…
the report is another political motivated wastage on tax paid
@Objectives citizen – the MP is the steward of your conservancy fees and he is in charge of how wisely it is spend and on whom it is spend. If we absolve him of this basic responsibility, when your town turn into a slump he will push it to the town councilors and will not be held responsible for anything that goes wrong in the constituency.
Since MP represents the people of his constituency anything that affect the people of his constituency directly or indirectly will be his concern. Therefore he must bring it up in parliament for discussion. He also must ensure those in charge must adhere to the constitution and shape a government that protect its citizens.
The town council report is not at all necessary as it does not serve any purpose except for the PAP to discredit their opposition. This will backfire and they will feel the heat of the wrath of people on the forth coming election. I can only hope the people will do the right thing this time and that is to stop the PAP from being arrogant and irresponsible.
Objectives citizen and busybody,
I agree with your comments.
Let’s face it, what %#&@ing good is a papy MP?
You can’t even trust them with your dog or cat!
What is the role of a Mayor in Spore.
So we have MPs, then TC and then a Mayor.
What is all the wayang about backfire?
The bloody fact is PAP TCs have performed much better than Hougang TC.
It is in passing that the PAP MPs mentioned the residents have a part to play (which is very true). And it is not just about keeping the areas clean. Take for example S&CC. Every resident has the responsibility to pay on time.
It is the majority (more than 60%) Hougang residents that are refusing to pay up on time. Perhaps they are very displeased with their MP. It has nothing to do with PAP.
some TCs have too much $$$ in their kitty till need to find something to do about it, like invest in toxic funds? with that much cash on hand, they ought to be faultless, & the estate- spotlessly clean.
@Deeply Curious – Thia Kiang and his residents don’t talk about money like the PAP. They believe in brotherhood. Worker party loves to help weary and cash strap Singaporeans.
The reason that all this backfire is brilliantly shown as it unfolds.
PAP has resorted to hiding their big spending when Thia Kiang demands that they be transparent. This will dent the integrity of the PAP.
If I have to choose between a smart manager and an honest manager, the latter will be my choice.
DEEPLY CURIOUS 21 June 2010 What is all the wayang about backfire?
The bloody fact is PAP TCs have performed much better than Hougang TC
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indeed so efficient that onlEE houghgang hav 8 white paper elephants made by a famous girls school and pap wards was so very very jealous that the home affair minister want to hav that girls school courtmarshalled and crucified….