Singapore Politics

PAP’s Meet-the-People Sessions (MPS)
What happens behind these closed (and opened) doors?

For those readers who are unfamiliar with the Meet-the-People Sessions (MPS), maybe I can help to shed some light on this political pillar of the PAP. For every constituency in Singapore, the Member of Parliament (MP) for that area will “meet the people” on a particular day every week at the void deck or at the PAP centres. For example, people staying in Teck Ghee (Ang Mo Kio) may have some problems and wishes to meet their MP (which is PM Lee), can meet him on every Thursday night at Block 322 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, PAP centre. Thereafter, the MP will write a petition letter to whichever Ministry, Statutory Board or any concerned parties to appeal on behalf of the resident. A list of MPS and MPs is available here.

PAP places great importance in their MPS sessions and mandated that all MPs (less the PM, SM and MM) are required to attend the MPS sessions as long as their schedule permits and when they are not on overseas assignments. So why are the PAP leaders so concerned over these sessions and who are the people that goes there and what happens behind these sessions?

Who Goes There?
Majority of the residents attending these sessions are residents with problems in paying their utilities bills, HDB apartments, S&C charges by the Town Council, reduction of traffic fines and finance-related problems. Another substantial portion of residents come to apply for permanent residence or immigration-related applications for their foreign spouses or friends. Depending on “season”, some times they may have quite a lot of residents coming for financial assistance, unemployment welfare and job-matching. That is usually during the bad-economic periods. Once in a while, there will be ad-hoc and unusual cases such as neighbour disputes, harassed by loan sharks, abusive husbands or people coming to complain about cheating incidents by insurance agents.

What is the Process in the MPS?
The process of meeting the MP or Ministers varies from constituency to constituency. But the most standard procedure is as follows:

1) Registration and take queue number
2) Constituent meets the petition writer who pens the letter (either hand-written or via PC) on behalf of the MP
3) Wait and queue to meet the MP
4) Meet the MP in a separate room, constituent informs the MP of his/her problems one-to-one.
5) MP assures the constituent that they will look into the case and send the letter. For urgent cases, the letter will be typed out, sign by the MP and hands it to the constituent immediately. For normal cases, the letter will be vetted through by the MP’s or Minister’s Personal Secretary and sent out within three working days.

However, as I said, some MPS sessions differ from others. For Minister of Education, Tharman’s MPS, several writers sits around in the cubicles and Tharman will move from station to station to listen and attend to the cases rather than being in the office. For PM Lee’s MPS, the registration from queue number is situated outside the PAP centre at Blk 322 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3. Inside, there are roles of seats for the expected large crowd and computer stations for the typing of letters. In the petition writer’s room, all the petition writers are in the same room but separated by desk-partitions. Thus it can be quite noisy at times. Not all the constituent will get to see the Prime Minister, only the serious and selected cases.

For important key appointment holders such as the Prime Minister, Senior Minister, Minister Mentor and Deputy Prime Ministers, they usually appoint a “Second Adviser”, who are MPs within the same constituency that covers them in their MPS session whenever they cannot make it. I was told that Dr Tan Boon Wan, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC covers the PM’s constituency for two out of the 4 or 5 MPS sessions every month. He will then feedback the cases to the PM and signs all the letters on his behalf. Thus, the letters that were sent out from the PM’s constituency will not have added advantages to the resident or pressure to receiver. This is to prevent any government statutory boards, civil servants or even private companies to act contrary to usual practice or legal ways just because they receive the letter by the Prime Minister.

How Many Residents Attends the MPS Sessions and who is the Most Popular?
The number of residents attending the MPS sessions depends on many factors. The profile of the MP, whether if he is a Minister or just a MP, popularity of the MP, the constituency area itself (eg: Redhill and Kolam Ayer usual have more elderly problems), effectiveness of the MP and many other factors. Usually, every week per session, there is an average of 20 to 30 residents coming to seek help from the MP. If the MP is a Minister, usually there will be around 40 to 50 residents.

The two most popular MP or Ministers was the Prime Minister’s and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean’s constituency. I think the PM’s constituency is naturally crowded and popular for obvious reasons. But for Teo Chee Hean, I heard he is very popular with the residents and sometimes his MPS sessions can stretch past midnight until 1 am in the morning. Both of them serves at around 70 residents every session.

I’ve heard that there was a former MP that was quite unpopular with the residents because he refused to write the cases which have slim or no chance of success. He was a former civil servant and was too straightforward in telling off the residents that they have little chance of success and thus, he will not write the letter. No surprisingly, the unhappy residents left angry and scolded vulgarities outside the PAP centre. It fell to the ears of the then-PM and by next elections, he was replaced. Not sure on the validity of this rumour but do take this with a pinch of salt.

What is the Success Rate?
Success rate depends on the “weight” of the MP and the cases involved. For most poverty and financial assistance letters, if it is a genuine case the chances of the family receiving good financial help is up to 95%. But I would like to stress on the word “genuine”. It is difficult to assess if a case and resident is genuinely poor and needs help. Thus, the MP will usually send the letter to the Community Development Council (CDC) to send their staff to assess their conditions. If they are found to be in trouble, financial assistance can range up to more than $800 per household every month, with free healthcare from government clinics.

For deferment of any charges or bills to the SP Services (utilities bills), Town Council (S&C charges) or HDB loans, the MPS letters have a good success rate of 85% at least.

For immigration cases, permanent residences and applying for entry passes for the foreign spouses, the success rates can be quite low but it does help tremendously compared to applying it personally. Compared to open application, the MPS letters can improve your chances by up to 20%.

For reduction in traffic fines, MPS letters are surprisingly effective with a 60% chance of reduction in traffic fines if you are a financially poor or that your livelihood depends on it (eg: lorry drivers, taxi drivers, etc). However, for any court cases concerning traffic or any other criminal offence, any political party including PAP, has no rights to write to the Attorney General or Judge. Thus, MPS session will not accept any court cases but will recommend legal advice or help to the residents.

You might wonder, why are all the cases cited all concerns the Ministries and Statutory boards. Obviously, PAP is the ruling party and thus runs the government. Sending letters and making them successful is necessary to show that they are doing their job in representing the voters. Another thing is that, as long as it is a MPS letter regardless whether it is from the opposition party or PAP, all government and stat boards must respond to it with priority. For certain ministries, either the permanent secretaries or the Junior Ministers will get to see all the MPS letters addressed to their ministries.

Why is Meet-the-People Session Important for PAP?
The MPS session are the most direct and obvious form of serving their voters. More importantly, the PAP MPs are reaching out to the bottom 20% of the residents where they are most likely to switch camps if their needs are not looked after. To the MPs, these sessions will also allow them to see how popular they are and whether when GE comes, will they be in trouble. Singaporeans are more likely to vote based on bread and butter issues, as such; the MPS session deals with this head on. Thus, even when there is an economic downturn, PAP still manages to gain the votes of the bottom 20%.

For the new Ministers and Cabinet Ministers, it provides a good reality check on the policies they made and impact on the ground. And for those newly appointed Ministers (such as the “Super-Seven”), these MPS sessions allows them to understand the people and their problems, not the high paying job as a Minister living in a perfect world. This, I believe is one of the directives of MM Lee Kuan Yew. He wanted all the MPs and Ministers to experience first-hand the poverty and problems of the residents rather than sitting in the office making decisions that affecting people they don’t know.

However, not all the Ministers are able to handle the “shock” in seeing the MPS residents’ problems nor can they endure staying at the session until 12 mid-night (average MPS ending time for most Ministers is around 11pm) every week just to resolve the residents’ problems. It is both a physical and mental challenge for people who came from well-to-do backgrounds. In recent years, there are a couple of Ministers who left the job partly due to this. I guess they are not the kind of “People’s Minister” or natural at helping to solve the real problems on the ground.

Meet-the-People Session DIY
I was thinking maybe it will be useful to let you all know where some of the common letters are send to for the various problems and to whom they address it to.

General Manager of HDB branch or HDB Hub
- HDB apartment problems, rental of 3-room flats (average queue is around 1 year), resale, loans,

General Manager of Community Development Council (CDC)
- Financial Assistance, Job matching, poverty related, free healthcare for poor

Commissioner of Immigration & Checkpoint Authorities (ICA)
- Permanent Residence, social visit pass, long-term visit pass, citizenship

Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Manpower
- Work permit, Employment Pass, S-Pass, Contract Marriage, work place discrimination

General Manager of Workforce Development Agency
- Job Matching

General Manager of (depends on constituency) Town Council
- S&C Charges, trimming of trees, cleanliness around blocks

Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Health
- Special use of Medisave, Medishield, hospital-related

Registrar of Registry of Marriage
- Marriage of under-18, marriage issues, recognition of foreign marriages

Manager of Legal Aid Bureau
- Legal advice for poor or needy constituent on any legal issues

Commissioner of Traffic Police
- Reduction of traffic fines or punishments

CEO of Land Transport Authorities
- Appeal for covered overhead bridges, roads, carparking (sometimes it is HDB)

What happens behind the opened (& closed doors) of the Meet-the-People Session? This is a system, that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), UMNO of Malaysia and Thailand recent came to PAP to observe and copy. The Meet-the-People Session isn't a walkabout for Members of Parliament, but a political vehicle to serve their voters and for the leaders to "feel" the ground. It was deemed so important by the PAP Leaders that all MPs must attend their Meet-the-People Session if they are present in Singapore (not on overseas assignment).

Now, why are we not surprised over this walkover. Anyway, as election and voting are quite foreign to Singaporeans in recent decades. Even when Andrew Kuan submitted the form and prior to all his employment scrutiny, many people and myself thought that he wouldn’t have been eligible anyway. The Presidential Elections Committee’s task is to apply the constitution and not bend the rules to allow more candidates in for the sake of contest. Unfortunately for Andrew Kuan, he fell slightly short of the “CEO”, Director” or “Head of” mark, as he was only the CFO. The constitution clearly states that

ARTICLE 19 OF THE CONSTITUTION

So I think he failed based on the technicalities of the constitution and stringent criteria. As I said in the earlier articles, not many would be qualified to run as President anyway. But what was interesting is that, I heard news that NTUC have asked their core volunteers to get ready to take the passes to enable them to campaign for President Nathan. NTUC was not the only organization. According to my sources, some branches of the PAP have been asked to send their members to campaign on behalf of Nathan. But of course, these campaigners would not be wearing the “hats” of NTUC nor PAP but as “so-called individuals”.

Are the Scandals of Andrew Kuan True?
To be honest, this is not something which I can comment on and will be develop into a libel suit if I’m not careful with my words. President Nathan was the Director of the Internal Security Department many years back. For him to get information on anyone and everyone is as easy as it gets. So for our “National” newspaper, The Straits Times to dig dirt on him is really not surprising. But again, from what I heard, journalists from Straits Times was not asked to dig dirt from Andrew Kuan but rather, the young journalists wanted sensational news of their newest “talk of the town”, Andrew Kuan. A scandal on the Presidential hopeful will get them notice fast and strong, so quite a few eager journalists clamored for his employment history.

But PAP is taking quite a political risk with President Nathan. He is 81 years old and there is a chance that he may land up dying in office like President Benjamin Sheares. If he dies during the term, elections will have to be called and then, PAP may lose control over the choice of candidates. (Critics may also suggest that PAP never loses control over the candidates but what if the opposition party could manage to snap up a permanent secretary or director of a $100 Million company? Technically, there are at least 200 Singaporeans qualified under these criteria. Very few but PAP are too kiasu to let any probability of more than 1% of unknown get out of their hands) But notably, the constitution does not allow ex-member of parliaments from taking part in the Presidential Elections which is the most obvious way of inviting opposition members to challenge the PAP authorities.

It is no surprise again that the Presidential Elections (PE) is scheduled before the General Elections (GE). To PAP, the PE is like a dress rehearsal for the GE. So when is the GE? I’ve asked couple of MPs, but they have no idea and different predictions on the dates. One clue that I can provide is that, just observe the movements and stock take of the PAP General Branch in Bedok. As yet, they have not order the necessary election inventories which may signal that it is not so soon. Maybe June 2006 or December 2006? No body knows except PM Lee Hsien Loong…and his dad.

National Day: Beyond You and Me
My 2-cents worth in evoking nationalism…

I think anyone with a pair of function eyes can see that there aren’t many National flags hanging out of the HDB windows, less those with the full and complete set (the whole HDB block and every apartment hanging their flags) done by the resident’s committee (RCs). Meng Seng (Singaporealternative.blogspot) might equate this to silent protest against the ruling PAP government but I think that these errant ones may only constitute to less than 20% of the non-displaying of flags population. The rest are simply bochap (or couldn’t care less) or are too lazy to do so. National Day isn’t about you against the PAP or support-the-PAP-day. As correctly mentioned by Meng Seng, Singapore doesn’t equates to PAP and rightly so. If a person chose not to display the National Flag for the reason that he/she is against the PAP government, I think he/she is just puerile.

Since our independence, we have been called many names: "the red dot among the sea of green", "the country size of a snort aka mucus" and "China's lackey". How many Singaporeans stood up to that? But when the prices go up, everyone moans and groans, curse and swore at the government. It is not my nature to make moral judgment on anyone but some of the complaints are rather biased and narrowed-minded. We are never the most contented or do we treasure what we have as much as we should have. At most times, the people who complained are the people who have benefited from the system (implicitly and explicitly) and the reason that they can complaint is because the system, which they hated, has helped them to. For a small country like Singapore, our wealth and standard of living is world class. Skeptics would have argued in comparison with Hong Kong. But this is unfounded and I can raise many reasons to counter that argument.

The education we have, the schools we stayed in, the HDB we lived, the jobs we have, the MRT and transport we commuted in and many other tangible and intangible assets that we enjoy don't come overnight or by chance. Do you think investors would flock to Singapore if we do not have a clean and corrupt government? Would they come and invest if we do not have this first class infrastructure? Yet, year on year, we have a budget surplus. As Margaret Thatcher said, Singapore is nothing short of a man-made miracle.

I'm not implying that our government is almighty and we will never need an opposition. I'm not pro-government and pro-PAP. But it is that attitude to the people which shock me most. If you think you income is not high enough, are you not working hard enough? If you think our government is corrupt, try going to Philippines and see if you can apply for a driving license without having to bribe. I’ve been meeting some residents and helping them to break the poverty trap but reality bites. Quite often there will be people whose utility supply was cut off, accumulated up to 5 police offences that are cause by his personal negligence and doesn’t even make an effort to find a job. His wife simply told me that she is reluctant to work anything more than part time as it is tiring. The constituent doesn’t intend to work beyond a security guard because it is an easy job. How do you expect the government to help you if you don't help yourself?

The world at large has faced many challenges and threats such as terrorism, rising oil prices and growth of China and India. Each threat is real and present but to a Singaporean, it is only another article in the Straits Times and would not think that it will affect them. Each time, Singaporeans expect the government to meet their expectations, safeguard their interest and shelter them from these challenges, so much so as to take our safety, economic prosperity and wealth for granted. If the government failed to meet our expectations, we will fire all criticism at them and publicly lynch them with our sharpen tongues. If the government met our expectations, don’t expect words of thanks but maybe we will still criticize them for the high Ministers’ pay.

We are a young nation thrown into deep and unfriendly waters of the world. But in a short forty years, not only have we learnt to swim, but we have also swum faster than most other nations. In the next 10 years, we will face more competitions and more unknowns. Allow to spell out the challenges that you, me and all other Singaporean Youths will face:

Economically, we will face many challenges from our neighbouring countries and growing Asian powers such as China and India. We are still "licking" our wounds from the lost of shipping giants, Maersk and Evergreen to our neighbours couple of years ago. With Thailand planning to build the Kra canal, which bypass all shipping lines of the Straits of Malacca to the east, it has threatened to deprive Singapore of our important port businesses. Our neighbours are getting more and more competitive and might eventually catch up or even surpass our standards. The success factors that brought us prosperity in the last 10 years are quickly replicated by Thailand and Malaysia. We tried to go into the medical industry, Thailand under cut our cost by 8 times. We tried to do value-added high technology products, Malaysia setup their multi-media super corridor at Klang Valley. We can no longer rely on our past success factors but have to constantly find new niche for ourselves and the generation after us.

The meteorically economic rise of China and India have made us less attractive to foreign investors but we have survived the economic tsunami with only the worst unemployment rate peaking at 4.5%. Economists thought that we have suffered and survived the initial brunt and shock to our labour markets and things should be better but we will never know. There is still an element of unknown in terms of the potential of the Chinese and Indian economy. Slowly but surely, the world is reverting to a three super-power status again.

Domestically, our unemployment rates (presently 3.6%) have seemingly stabilized but old jobs are gone and new jobs are not regenerating. More and more graduates hit the streets jobless. A degree is no longer a passport to a well-paid job. Our domestic market is too small to be self-sustaining, unlike Thailand or China. We can no longer provide cheap labour and compete with countries like China and India. Thus, we have to shift from labour-intensive to knowledge/technology-based intensive. However, this transition will not be a smooth-sailing one. In the past, each percentage increase in our GDP represents the creation of 12,000 jobs but today, each percentage increase only accounts for 8,000 jobs.

You don’t need to be any economic genius to know that our manufacturing industry is bleeding. It is now only supported by the bio-medical and oil related industries. Other industries and SMEs will continue to see their businesses seeping away into the Chinese markets. Jobs will be lost and we have to find the duel track (secondary economy) to sustain the losses. On the same token, every percentage drop in the GDP is a loss of 8,000 jobs.

For the finance industry, several MNCs and large banking corporations are moving their headquarters to Hong Kong and Mumbai due to their talents and favourable time zones.

Regionally, by size and weight, we are a small kid in an unfriendly neighbourhood. We are constantly being the "punching bag" for our neighbours should any of their elections looms near. The former Malaysian PM found us as a convenient “enemy” to unite the Malay people. For the water issues, we are labeled “arrogant” and “uncaring” and from time to time, our counterparts threatened to turn off the taps on us. Even when then-DPM Lee Hsien Loong visited to Taiwan; it caused China to blow hot air at us for three months.

We are a very vulnerable state, with no self-sustaining water resources or any other resources. The economic impact of SARS just goes to show how fragile we can be. A relatively unknown disease can virtually wipe our service sectors out, crippled our transport systems and scare away foreign investors.

Yet, we prevailed and emerged stronger. But have we learnt? I don’t think the Singaporeans have understand how vulnerable our position and status quo. Ask any 20 year old Singaporean walking on Orchard Road of their opinions of Singapore’s challenges and political thoughts, and you will receive no answer. Our youth are far too pampered and shielded from the storm by their parents and the Government. To think that they will be the ones at the forefront in 10-20 years time, make you wonder of whether Singapore can withstand another “tsunami”.

Amidst all these moaning and groaning, the only thing on some Singaporeans’ minds is to leave this “repressed” nation whenever they have the chance. To them, this is not their country but a “comfortable prison” or a “3-star hotel”. We always like to think that there is always a greener pasture outside Singapore, one that is the land of the free and home of the brave (aka USA). Little did they know that their greener pastures still have unequal voting rights for minorities (Blacks, Hispanics and Asians), racial discrimination, welfare system that does not cater to the poor and needy and guns in every household (for the state of Florida). European countries fared no better and suffered double digit unemployment for many years. Don’t expect yourself to walk in the streets of Rome or Boston in the middle of the night expecting the same kind of safety in Singapore.

My point is that, we have something very special, intangible and valuable in our home and our nation. We make this nation our home and our place not because we are born into this land but it is because we choose to do it. It is not about the petty arguments we have against each other but something that goes far beyond you and me. Our Government has done miracles in transforming a kampong slum with no resources, to an Asian economic power with US$170 Billion reserve, in 40 years of independence. All credit to the former Prime Minister and now Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and his team for our present well-being. It is high time that the youth of today take this baton and weather the storm ahead of us. If you want ownership, be prepared to take responsibility. They might have done a wonderful job in bring us from third world to the first but if we do not carry on that baton and take ownership, all that will go to waste. It's time to think, are you a Singaporean by birth or by heart? By the way, I am not a citizen of the world; I am a citizen of Singapore by birth, by choice, by blood and by heart.

Changes must be made and voices must be heard. We need more like-minded youth to be gathered, be prepared and plan for our future. To succeed we have to stop day-dreaming for our neighbours to fail and stop over-relying on the government to provide. The country is not made up on 20+ Cabinet Ministers but you and me. Since National Day is coming, fly the flags in our hearts not just outside your windows.