The PA is non-partisan? Serious?

by Bertha Henson

You can hear the snickering…

So Minister Chan Chun Sing is practically swearing that the People’s Association (PA), where he is the deputy head, is non-partisan. “I will be the last person to ever allow the PA to be politicised.” Sure, it’s not an arm of the People’s Action Party (PAP). It’s just a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and executes the orders of the G.

“The PA does not check on the political allegiance of the participants of our activities, nor does anyone know their voting preferences. It is not relevant to our work,” he said.

I was wondering how he would respond to Workers’ Party Sylvia Lim’s question on Wednesday about whether the PA, which did start out as a mobilisation arm of the PAP way back in 1960, had deviated from its original objectives of building social cohesion that “transcends sectional loyalties’’.

She said: “An unhealthy culture seems to have developed within some quarters of the PA, who see its role to include advancing the ruling party politically, and undermining the work of opposition MPs. PA activists being mobilised to campaign for PAP candidates at elections is just one aspect. As Opposition MPs, when we try to advance our residents’ welfare through infrastructure projects, we learn that the government agencies like MND and HDB will only recognise PA organisations such as CCCs and RCs as ‘the proper channels’.” (CCCs stands for Citizens’ Consultative Committees; RC, Residents’ Committees.)

Yesterday, Mr Chan asked Ms Lim for evidence, assuring her that he would take care to rectify things if there was proof. Ms Lim gave a personal example of trying to get information from the Ministry of National Development on upgrading projects in Aljunied GRC, but was told to go to the CCC instead.

“I then wrote several times to the CCC, but it seems that my letters do not even merit a reply,’’ she added.

To this, Mr Chan said he has “heard from both sides accusing each other of being uncooperative” and urged both town councils and CCCs to put the interests of residents first.

“When things get done, there’s never a shortage of people who will claim credit. When things are not done, there’s always a shortage of people who will claim responsibility. This is not the way we want to go. This is bad politics and this is not leadership,” he said.

But it seems that she will get a reply now – because Mr Chan said so.

This is an old, old issue, one that has been thrown into sharp relief because there seems to be two power centres at the grassroots level – the MP-led town council and the community leaders that come under the PA umbrella.

Seriously, who cares about the voting preferences of participants in a community centre’s activities? It’s the community leaders who should be put under the microscope, not the people who join yoga and cooking classes. It’s the people who comprise the grassroots alphabet soup of CCC, CCMC, RC, and the like.

I am sure not all PA activists are PAP activists and vice versa. And I am sure that I will be criticised for not appreciating such volunteers who spend their time and energy for the neighbourhood. I acknowledge that there are plenty of altruistic people who don’t think of politics when they organise a dance class or give a talk.

My problem is with the structure of the grassroots network on the ground, which leaves elected representatives out in the cold.

Who are these people to whom even an elected an MP has to write to for information about the ward? Aren’t these the people who are in charge of approvals for certain projects in the constituency and even have money to organise activities? Aren’t they the ones who organise Edusave bursary giveaways?

Already, some people are trotting out evidence of activists being mobilised for election campaigns, like aunties being bussed from community centres to PAP rallies, etc. You can even point out heads of CCCs who are PAP branch leaders. Hey, some of them even move on to stand for election on the PAP ticket!

There’s nothing wrong if a person wears two hats – if he or she is clear about which hat he is wearing when.

So the PAP MPs are advisers to the CCCs – are these two different hats? Can the chairman of the CCC countermand his adviser-MP? In opposition wards, it’s not the MP who is the adviser but a PAP member, like the unsuccessful candidate in the last round or would-be candidate for the next round.

The PAP or the G or whichever combination can swear till it is blue in the face that no electioneering is allowed by PA members or at PA’s premises. But you don’t have to wave banners or chant slogans, you just have to bring a politician on stage in front of plenty of people. This stage is denied to the opposition MPs, simply because he or she wears the wrong party colours. That doesn’t strike me as being non-partisan. .

It might be too much to expect that politicians will not make use of its grassroots connections to further their partisan interests. You might even say that the opposition should build its own grassroots network rather than expect to walk in and take over a machinery that has been painstakingly built up by a political party which happens to form the G.

But something sticks in the throat when a person who has been elected by the residents is not the person who has the final say over what happens in the constituency (subject of course to official rules and regulations that apply to everyone). Instead, such decisions are left to a bunch of grey, mostly Chinese, anonymous men – whom residents did not select or don’t even know of.

Mr Chan is right to say that town councils and CCCs must work together. In fact, they probably work very well together – if both are led by PAP MPs. I am waiting for the day, however, when the community leaders and the MPs in the opposition wards sit together to thrash out what residents need on the ground and establish some rules of engagement.

Is this good politics, Singapore style? Or is it bad politics because no party has an advantage over the other because there is no politicking?

 

Featured Image by Sean Chong.

If you like this article, Like The Middle Ground‘s Facebook Page as well!

For breaking news, you can talk to us via email.

The post The PA is non-partisan? Serious? appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Elias Wee