Not only difficult to take the government to task but also its civil servants

By Sum WL

I have previously written on your esteemed site about the prevailing uneven level playing field of our Political system which has unfortunately spilled into the Judicial system as well and this current undue amendment spells trouble for citizens which only confirms the direction this government will be taking until the next election following its gains in GE 2015.

This signifies a sharp reversal in the People Action Party (PAP)’s “contrite” attitude displayed after GE 2011 when citizens gave it’s strongest rebuke yet of what we perceive as the ruling party’s high handedness and detachment from ground sentiments of massive immigration that accompanied artificial suppression of wages in the backdrop of inflation and high costs of life here in Singapore.

Following that, the government started “consulting” citizens on the kind of society we wished to build and met our aspirations halfway.

Today, we still witness many of these unsolved issues ranging from artificially high BTO prices to transportation woes and the inability of S’porean workers to rise to middle and upper management levels despite “Skills Training”!

I am still unsure if last year’s GE results were an indication of citizens’ satisfaction in the government’s performance thus far or that they were mainly disillusioned with Opposition disunity and their “ability” or future plans to take their town forward from an embroiled saga.

Whatever it is, I believe Bukit Batok residents felt that sense of regret and switched the result back to GE 2011 and would have done more if they had known what was to be unveiled in Parliament on 9 May!

It will now be difficult to not only take the government to task for lapses but also its civil servants who do not duly conduct themselves to their own code.

One example will be the recent illegal divulge of a resident’s personal appeal made through his MP of Kaki Bukit where the HDB officer had illegally released the info to an irrelevant third party politician claiming to be acting under the guise of a Statutory Board. Such incidents are not only limited to Kaki Bukit but my Malay friends from Alkaff Kampung Melayu mosque had also lamented that they felt betrayed by HDB for similarly releasing their application for a charity drive through MP Pritam Singh to the PAP’s Chua Eng Leong without their expressed permission. The lame duck advisors conduct on the grounds of Aljunied are a violation of the Personal Data Protection and POHA laws passed by their own colleagues!

Secondly, I am in the know of a CPF issue (PCP/200309106R-PTE-01) where the directors of a company which was in liquidation, was on the run for several offenses before surrendering in 2013. The CPF Board had initially liaised with the directors in 2010 and subsequently accepted their filing of CPF returns for the former staffs but withheld the info from the Official Receiver. The OR later found out about it and mandated that no further appeals to reverse its final claims, be entertained after May 2012. However, CPF Board later “chut pattern” and did a U-turn by claiming certain staffs were merely assisting the directors on goodwill terms of friendship and that they were then not liable to reinstate the lapsed CPF. Those staffs of course protested but were unable to overcome the “final decision” of the CPF, lacking resources and the opaque manner the CPF had handled their grievances!

I understand that not even the MP letters were entertained as the director in question is a high ranking civil servant presently drawing on state pension funds.

The excuse cited by Indranee that the Courts are the “gate” is at best, a fail attempt to explain away this issue and not recognizing that the Chief Justice alongside his other colleagues are the same characters engaging in a game of musical chair by rotating their roles in the Justice system.

Can a former Attorney-general properly dispense Justice without having confusion in his new role? You be the judge!