Mah Bow Tan: I accept responsibility for unhappiness
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said on Thursday that he accepts responsibility over the unhappiness caused by the sharp rise in housing prices.
"Housing is always a very sensitive subject. And I guess to the extent that in the last couple of years, housing prices went up very sharply, coinciding with the very dramatic turnaround in the economy, I guess that resulted in quite a lot of unhappiness on the ground. And I accept responsibility for that," said the outgoing minister to the mainstream media.
Minister Mah, who was speaking at the sidelines of a Building and Construction Authority event, is one of the three ministers whose retirement was announced on Wednesday. The other two are Ministers Raymond Lim and Wong Kan Seng.
In an earlier statement on Thursday, Minister Mah said he wanted to retire two years ago.
"Now that the elections have been fought and won, all the more reason why I should step down from Cabinet," he told reporters that evening.
He added, the outcome of the pools was one of the factors in his decision.
The results showed the Singapore government needed "fresh minds, fresh thinking, fresh ideas," he said."When the results came out, it was probably a clear signal that I should do so (retire) sooner rather than later into the term."
The 62-year-old minister, who has spent 23 years in politics, also shared the ups and downs of his political career.
He said, forming the Land Transport Authority in 1995 and opening the North-East MRT Line in 2003 was among the high points, while a major low point was his "traumatic time"during the SilkAir crash in Palembang in 1997.
He was Minister for Communications then. He took on the National Development portfolio in 1999.
On whether voters should have known he was stepping down, Today newspaper reported Minister Mah saying, "No, after every election, the PM forms his Cabinet."
Tampines residents may have lost him as a Cabinet minister, but they gained another minister, newcomer Heng Swee Keat who will be the Education Minister, he noted.
Minister Mah said he plans to spend more time with his residents, family and friends.
