by Lim Jialiang
In Singapore, a lot of people understand the electoral injustice and uneven playing field that the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) system creates.
It calcifies voting blocs, strengthens incumbency advantages, and allows gerrymandering to occur to an even greater degree.
It is an undemocratic and highly unfair system that is why even with 40% of the votes going to the opposition in 2020, we still only have 10 elected members of the Opposition.
What people don’t realise is that apart from this authoritarian exercise, the second change that depoliticised everyday citizens was the creation of Town Councils, introduced alongside the GRC system in 1988.
In the past, municipal issues were dealt with by various government agencies. Block isn’t cleaned properly? That’s on the Housing Development Board (HDB) to fix.
The Town Council Act was ostensibly created in 1988 to give more autonomy to the citizens (and, by extension, the Member of Parliament) of the area.
By the 1990s, this had developed into a threat: vote for the opposition, and your municipal upgrades would be last in the queue. This also had the effect of relegating MPs into Estate Managers.
By extension, Meet the People Sessions used to be an avenue for citizens to voice dissent on policies and address concerns of a political nature.
These events have been de-politicised, and turned into occasions where you can complain about the corridor lights being spoiled.
There are, of course, very legitimate and real issues that have to be addressed at Meet the People’s sessions.
But this is all busy work that was created to disadvantage Opposition Members of Parliament, as well as pervert, Meet the People’s session into the safe, letter-writing enterprise that they are now.
You can, of course, disagree with the activists, who did not realise that Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam was a bully and delighted in having evidence on hand as to how he can once again present activists in bad faith.
However, I don’t feel too piteous about a Minister who has tightened almost all aspects of political activism over the past decade.
If you think that Shanmugam will deal with other “civil” activists in good faith, you will be sorely disappointed and gravely mistaken.
This was first published on Lim’s Facebook page and republished with permission
The post Meet-the-People Sessions: From political engagement to estate management appeared first on The Online Citizen.
