AHPETC-Desmond Lee Spat Now Shifts To ST Forum
Source:
TR EMERITUS
AHPETC-Desmond Lee spat now shifts to ST Forum
December 13th, 2014 | Author: Editorial
ST featured a letter prominently on its forum page today (‘Worrying lack of transparency’, 13 Dec), condemning WP in its recent town council saga with Minister of State for National Development, Desmond Lee, who is also the son of former PAP cabinet minister Lee Yock Suan.
The letter was written by a Mr Lau Hak Tiong, supposedly a resident of Aljunied GRC. He wrote to complain about the cleanliness of the public streets at Hougang-Kovan Melody area.
“The public streets in the vicinity of the Hougang-Kovan Melody area, where I have lived for the past 30 years, used to be swept daily under the former Ajunied Town Council – until the changing of hands after the last general election more than three years ago,” he said, implying that the present town council under WP is incompetent.
“These days, I hardly see any estate cleaners sweeping or doing maintenance work on public streets. Most of the streets are littered with fallen leaves and rubbish. Often, outdated event banners can be found strung on the road railings,” he added.
“Many of us living in the Workers’ Party-held wards have been keeping quiet in the hope of seeing improvements, but it has been disappointing so far.”
Then comes his general offensive, linking the cleanliness of the public streets at Hougang-Kovan Melody area to the recent spat between AHPETC and Desmond Lee:
“Now, it comes as a great shock to us to be told by WP chairman Sylvia Lim that the town council has been facing problems with its IT system and accounting, and that it has switched to manual sorting methods.
Ms Lim acknowledges there were mistakes and now urges Minister Lawrence Wong ‘not to confuse or alarm the public’.
It is now obvious that the town council has chosen not to be transparent. It inherited a comfortable surplus when it took over from the previous management. If there was proper corporate governance, then there should be no issues with its accounting and audits.
What has happened to the surplus, and what was the cause of the ‘sudden spike’ in its service and conservancy charge arrears?
Director-General of Public Health responsible for cleanliness of public streets
TRE did some research and found that, in actual fact, the cleanliness of the public streets comes under the purview of the Director-General of Public Health.
The Environmental Public Health Act (Cap 95) is the Act which consolidates the law relating to environmental public health and to provide for matters connected therewith [
Link].
Under Section 3:
Appointment of Director-General and authorised officers
3.-(1) The Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint any person to be the Director-General of Public Health who shall be responsible for the administration of this Act and any other written law, subject to the general or special directions of the Minister.
(2) The Director-General may in writing appoint any public officer or any officer of the Agency or of any statutory authority to be an authorised officer for the purposes of this Act.
And Section 5:
Director-General to cause public streets, etc., to be cleansed
5.-(1) The Director-General shall cause public streets, including the footways thereof, and public parks, beaches, foreshores, canals, waterways and unoccupied State land, to be properly swept and cleansed and watered so far as is reasonably practicable, and refuse and filth of every sort found thereon to be collected and removed.
In other words, Section 5 said the Director-General of Public Health is responsible for cleaning public streets and Section 3 said that the Minister, in this case Vivian, will appoint a person to be the Director-General responsible for administrating the Act.
Today, the Director-General of Public Health is Mr Derek Ho Yeong Thye of NEA [
Link]. He also held other concurrent positions:
Head, North-West Regional Office (NWRO), NEA
Director, Environmental Health Department (EHD), NEA
Director, 3P Network Division, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR)
So, clearly, Mr Lau is barking up the wrong tree. He should direct his question on the cleanliness of the public streets at Hougang-Kovan Melody area to Mr Derek Ho of NEA instead.
Together with this letter, ST Forum also published another letter by a Mr Clifton Lee Ci-en, criticising WP (‘Becoming “First World Parliament” despite WP?’, 13 Dec). He said it is timely to review whether WP has lived up to its promise of a “First World Parliament”.
Again, Mr Clifton Lee echoed what Desmond Lee said about WP lacking in accountability even though the AGO has yet to complete its audit review. He said, “How can Singaporeans entrust the Workers’ Party to keep the ruling party accountable to Singaporeans when it does not hold itself accountable?”
“Unlike the Workers’ Party, the People’s Action Party has taken steps to improve since the last GE. For example, it has made progress in addressing critical issues such as housing and transport. Ironically, it appears that Singapore is moving towards a ‘First World Parliament’ in spite of the Workers’ Party,” he added.
To be fair to ST Forum, it did feature an article praising WP by a Mr Hong Chou Hui (‘WP’s track record speaks for itself’, 13 Dec). He defended WP, “While some parts of Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong’s article are well-written and persuasive, they do not represent a ground-level view of what is really happening in a Workers’ Party-held ward.”
“I am a new resident of Aljunied GRC and my estate is well-maintained and clean despite being about 20 years old. The town council is efficient and responded quickly to a weekend appeal for a late-charge waiver not long after I moved in.” he added.
“The spectre of Aljunied GRC turning into a slum, which had been raised by certain quarters of the ruling party before the last general election, has not materialised. Local issues matter, and the WP’s track record speaks for itself.”
But as can be seen, ST Forum published 2 negative letters vs 1 positive one for WP:
To help balance ST Forum, TRE published here 1 letter submitted in today (13 Dec) by “Resident of Aljunied TC”:
Please refer to Shitty Times forum posted by Lau Hak Tiong on Dec 13, 2014.
It is obviously he is a pappy *** barking up the wrong tree. Since when has public street being cleaned by Town Council? Has he paid for S&CC to AHPETC?
Where I live now, I’ve not seen a cleaner for 15yrs unless complaint make to NEA, then you will see a cleaner the next working day, only sweeping a few houses for show then disappearing until the next complaint.
Our govt has been paying millions every year to cleaning contractors to clean up our public roads/drains but NO SUPERVISION had been done to ensure it’s been carried out as per contract obligation! Save for CBD areas and town centres, the rest of Singapore streets are just being neglected resulting in Ponding/Flooding once in 50yrs??
Perhaps, Lau should just drive over to AMK Ave 10 and see for himself how clean the roads and carparks are, under our MaiHum managed by AMKTC before you tell lies about AHPETC.
End Of Article
Reader's Comment
Sharon Ann Gabriel:
December 13, 2014 at 3:52 pm (Quote)
Letters to ST Forum written by PAP sycophants such as LHT is part of PM Lee’s undisguised strategy to fix the Opposition. Without social media, such poisoned letters would have caused irreparable damage to WP. Today, using primitive tactics of the 60s and 70s to undermine the WP is counter-productive. The residents can see for themselves that rubbish is not stacking up to the roof as wrongly predicted by the fear-monger, Ex-PM GCT.
