Dr Chee Soon Juan brought attention to the exposure of a lamp post’s wires near a playground in Bukit Batok.
On Monday night (3 Aug), Dr Chee uploaded a picture revealing internal wires of a lamp post exposed at Bukit Batok Block 230. The exposed area was missing the cover, and had a piece of barricade tape tied around it.
Another picture showed the exact location of the lamp post which was situated next to a badminton court, with a playground nearby.
These pictures were taken at about 1pm on Monday.
“This was brought to my notice on 1 Aug. Even though a warning tape was tied around it, it’s still a dangerous situation to have especially with a playground nearby. This needs to get fixed immediately,” Dr Chee asserted.
The 57-year-old chief of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) contested in the Bukit Batok Single Member Constituency (SMC) in the recent General Election (GE) 2020. He garnered 45.2 per cent of the votes, losing to Murali Pillai of the People’s Action Party (PAP).
Soon after Dr Chee’s post, a Facebook user, who goes by Bs Koh, commented that he had found the cover nearby and attached it back to the lamp post. However, it had to be held together by the barricade tape as it was loose.
“I found the cover somewhere on the ground nearby, this (is) the best I can do right now, but it’s still unscrew…”
The admin of Dr Chee’s Facebook page thanked him, but cautioned him against going near exposed wires for his own safety.
“Thank you. But you shouldn’t get close to the exposed wires for your own safety. Please be careful.”
Mr Pillai has yet to address this issue.
Past community works that were uncompleted or left in a negligent state
This is not the first time Dr Chee has sounded out works in the community that were unfinished or left in a state of disarray. On Saturday (27 Jun), he questioned the lack of fulfillment and delays in Mr Pillai’s SMC projects.
In a Facebook post, he uploaded a series of photos of signboards carrying notices and announcements about projects such as the “Neighbourhood Renewal Programme” and “Revitalisation of Shops”.
He compared timelines and deadlines of these projects with the stages of completion that are actually taking place in the SMC, two of which he said have carried a delay of three years.
He also talked about uncompleted construction works that are unsafe and hazardous. “They are left unfenced and uncovered; not only are these safety lapses an eyesore, (but) more importantly, it also poses a safety hazard (and) should be quickly rectified”.
Four days after Dr Chee’s post, the areas in question were properly cordoned off when he went back, even though it has always been in the “most crowded spot in Bukit Batok with a wet market and a huge hawker centre,” Dr Chee added.
“The people elect you to run the estate, you collect the $16k/month salary, (but) out-source the work to a managing agent and then make the people pay for it. Someone please explain the logic to me,” the secretary-general of SDP commented.
Hotly debated issues between PAP and Dr Chee during GE campaign
Some of the points of contention debated during the campaigning period included the importance of having a full-time Member of Parliament (MP) serving the residents.
Dr Chee explained that it’s difficult for an MP to work six to seven hours a day at another job and then make his way to the ward in the evening to spend time with his people.
The other notable issue was the ambivalence of a planned 10 million population for Singapore.
During the live debate on Wednesday (1 Jul), Dr Chee argued that Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat seemed to have proposed the idea of raising the population to 10 million by continuing to bring in foreigners—especially foreign PMETs—into Singapore to compete with our PMETs for jobs.
Both Mr Heng and Dr Vivian Balakrishnan had vehemently denounced these claims in the days following the debate.
It has been subsequently reported that Hyflux CEO Olivia Lum seemingly claimed during a townhall meeting that the PAP government had “given instructions” for her company to plan for 8 million population. While it is unknown if there is any documents that can prove such claims but there has not been any POFMA orders on this claim by Ms Lum.
