Grassroots groups ‘meant to serve Govt of the day’

SINGAPORE — Grassroots organisations are not partisan and are meant to serve the Government of the day, the People’s Action Party (PAP) Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) candidate Yeo Guat Kwang said today (Sept 9). 

He was responding to the Workers’ Party’s (WP) claims during its rallies that the People’s Association’s (PA) grassroots organisations have been politicised. “Grassroots organisations are not meant to be affiliated to any political party … but to forge community ties and provide feedback to the Government,” said Mr Yeo, who was speaking to reporters during a walkabout in Aljunied GRC. 

Yesterday, WP chairman Sylvia Lim said that the Housing and Development Board “secretly” moved 26 amphitheatres and basketball courts from under the town council’s watch and placed them under the PA. Residents were “warned by the PA” not to invite WP Members of Parliament (MPs) to these sites during events or risk not getting an approval in future, she said.

WP chief Low Thia Khiang also said that temples are allowed to hold activities only if they have a supporting letter from the grassroots organisations, and not from him as the MP.

Mr Yeo said the set-up of grassroots organisations is “clearly neutral” and they are meant to serve the Government elected by the people. If another political party is to form the Government one day, its leader will also become the PA chairman, Mr Yeo said. He said PAP MPs do not attend grassroots events in their constituencies in their capacity as PAP members, but as grassroots advisers who might be “more aware of the policies and issues faced by residents”. 

In a tit-for-tat, Mr Yeo accused the WP-run town council of making things difficult for grassroots organisations, citing a community event at a basketball court last week in Serangoon North, which he was invited to.

When he arrived, the area was pitch dark and he later found out that the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council did not want to issue a permit to the organisers and it turned off the lights. The event had to be moved to another location that the PAP had previously helped to upgrade.

“Because the WP is a municipal government in (Aljunied), it doesn’t allow other organisations to hold activities and treat the grassroots organisations as part of the PAP,” Mr Yeo said. “If any organisation is purely to serve a party’s interest, I feel this is a very dangerous approach, (and it) is not right.”