Is People's Association still staying true to its objectives?

The People’s Association (PA) was first formed in 1960 as a statutory board to act as a bridge between the Government and the people, as well as to promote racial harmony and social cohesion in Singapore. The grassroots leaders (GRLs) are volunteers appointed by the PA to serve in different grassroots organisations (GROs) where they gather feedback from residents, help implement the Government’s social programmes and assist in explaining Government’s policies to residents as best as they could. However, while speaking in Parliament in 2016, the Workers’ Party (WP) chairman Sylvia Lim questioned PA’s mandate as she believed that the association has drifted away from its original objectives which include “fostering cohesion and bonding, and…promoting group participation that transcends sectional loyalties”. “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,” said Ms Lim She added that when MPs from her party attempted to advance their residents’ welfare through infrastructural projects, they found out that government bodies like Ministry of National Development (MND) and the Housing and Development Board (HDB) recognise only PA organisations – such as Citizens’ Consultative Committees (CCCs) and Residents’ Committees – as the “proper channels”.

Perks of PA grassroots leaders

In 2016, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Deputy Chairman of PA Chan Chun Sing revealed a few benefits that the PA grassroots leaders can receive for the services that they render:

• Apply for Primary One registration for their children under Phase 2B in schools within the constituencies they reside in.
• Apply for HDB Build-to-Order (BTO) flats and Executive Condominium under the Grassroots Organisation Scheme.
• Apply for special parking label to park in designated car parks within the area they serve up to 11pm. To qualify for the special parking label, grassroots volunteers who live in HDB estates must first buy a residential season parking label.  Those who do not live in HDB estates must pay for the special parking label.

Although the idea of recruiting PA grassroots leaders was so they can contribute to the society voluntarily, it seems rather unfair that the Government offers these benefits to entice regular Singaporeans to join the association. This news also didn’t go down too well with the public after the grassroots leaders publicly flaunted these perks to attract more people to join the organisation. In 2017, one of the residents’ committees (RCs) went around and placed flyers at the front doors of HDB flats in Fengshan detailing the benefits that a volunteer gets if he or she joins the committee, the Straits Times (ST) reported. The flyers laid out the eligibility criteria and highlighted the abovementioned benefits, which drew comments from online users implying that grassroots volunteers were motivated by benefits to volunteer. As expected, the action sparked criticism from the public, including WP member Gerald Giam who shared a snapshot of the flyer on his Facebook page, which was shared more than 300 times. In response to the bad move made by the RC, Fengshan MP Cheryl Chan agreed that “the RC has learnt from this incident and felt bad that this has impacted many volunteers who has been volunteering out of deep passion and commitment. And many have volunteered for a long time with a good heart for the community”. If that is not all, a recent article by the ST also noted that grassroots leaders can take advantage of the “lottery effect” of future HDB flats that are set to be built on the prime land of Keppel Club. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is also the chairman of PA, said at the National Day Rally this year that the 30km Greater Southern Waterfront at Keppel will be allocated for Housing Board flats. Although the public and private split for the 9,000 apartments that will be built on Keppel Club is not known yet, property experts foresee that the HDB flats will be oversubscribed. As such, ST made their analysis of the allocation based on a previous project called Pinnacle@Duxton in Tanjong Pagar. For the Pinnacle project, the units were allocated by ballot, and priority was given to former Duxton Plain tenants, first-time housing applicants, children of Tanjong Pagar resi-dents as well as grassroots leaders of Tanjong Pagar GRC. Under the Grassroots Organisation (GRO) Scheme, grassroots leaders who have successfully and continuously serve their GROs for three years are given the chance to apply for HDB BTO flats as well as executive condominiums in constituencies within the town council boundaries which they represent. In fact, Mr Chan revealed in Parliament in 2016 that an average of 28 grassroots leaders make use of the GRO scheme. Responding to the “lottery effect” that ST highlighted, WP chief Pritam Singh stressed in a Facebook post that “there was also reference in the story to PA grassroots representatives who stand to benefit when bidding for these flats – in effect – a double lottery”.

PA is not a political tool

In 2017, Mr Chan stated in a Parliamentary speech that PA was not partisan. He then went on to add the he would be “the last person to ever allow the PA to be politicised”. Despite his strong claim, many other politicians have said quite the opposite. The Member of Parliament for Mounbatten SMC, Mr Lim Biow Chuan, begs to differ with Mr Chan. During the hustling of GE 2011, he even went as far as to claim ownership of the PA Volunteers in his constituency.

“She (his Opponent, Mrs Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss) is someone with no experience to manage a Town Council and with no Grassroot Leaders to help. I can do so, because I have got 300 plus Grassroot Leaders to help me to connect with the residents to serve you to work with you to make this place better. What does she have? I have a team of more than 300 Grassroot Leaders living in this area.”

His opponent, Mrs Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, also lent more weight to Mr Lim’s faith in PA’s partisanship in a Facebook post that read as follows:

“Mr Lim made efforts to impress upon his GE 2015 Rally audience that he had visited more than 40 condos in the past 4 years. Now that is something that only PAP MPs can do and which a non-PAP MP cannot. Only PAP MPs can be Grassroot Advisers. Non-PAP MPs cannot. The PA will help PAP MPs connect with condo residents, but non-PAP MPs will have to find their own resources to connect with condo residents. Thus, for anyone to say that the PA is not political and non-partisan, is like calling a spade a bucket.”

If that is not all, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew also admitted that PA was not only partisan, but that it was subservient to the PAP’s interests. During an interview with the Straits Times, he explained:

To illustrate one lesson the Chinese Officials learnt from Singapore, he said: “They discover that the People’s Action Party (PAP) has only a small office in Bedok. But everywhere they go, they see the PAP – in the RCs (residents’ committees), CCCs (citizens’ consultative committees), and the CCs (community clubs).”

Based on the perks that PA grassroots leaders receive as well as what other politicians said about the organisations’ support towards PAP, we cannot help but wonder if PA is really an organisation that is not politicised.