‘Town council report is politically motivated’
Veteran opposition leader Chiam See Tong said the recently-released third town council management report (TCMR) which gave the Potong Pasir Town Council he had long managed higher marks than last year's is "politically motivated".
The report, based on the period between last October and March 2011, gave the council one point higher marks in cleanliness, maintenance and households in arrears than in the previous round conducted between April and September of last year.
In a statement released to the media on Sunday, Chiam called the ranking improvements a "consolation prize", saying that he did not believe the report.
"At all material times, I have been maintaining the estate well. This report is politically motivated," he said.
Chiam led the Potong Pasir ward for 27 years. For this year's GE, he decided to lead a team to contest Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, but both the team and his wife, Lina, who stood in his place in Potong Pasir, lost by small margins in the polls to candidates from the ruling People's Action Party.
Potong Pasir made the most significant improvements from the previous round of evaluation conducted by the Housing and Development Board, the latest TCMR showed.
But, overall, Potong Pasir and Hougang, the only two town councils under opposition leadership at the time, once again performed the worst out of all the town councils, receiving levels 4 and 5 for maintenance and conservancy charge arrears.
The other councils were given at least a level 3 rating for maintenance, and level 1 for arrears, except for Bishan-Toa Payoh, which received a 2 for households in arrears.
Asked for a response to Chiam's statement, current Potong Pasir MP Sitoh Yih Pin focused on the importance of moving forward and improving living conditions for his residents, according to Today.
"We also have to... improve the overall maintenance of the town council," he said, adding that a working committee was formed last month to look into why families are in arrears for their service and conservancy charges.
Chiam See Tong -- as well as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, former Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo, and other opposition figures Nicole Seah and Vincent Wijeysingha -- are the nominees in the politics category in the Singapore 9, a Yahoo! project to recognise nine Singaporeans who really made a difference in the past year. Make your vote count here.
