People’s Association is not politicised: Chan Chun Sing

SINGAPORE – Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing on Thursday (April 14) refuted allegations that the People’s Association (PA) was involved in political campaigning for the ruling party, saying that the association does not mobilise individuals for any political party.

On Wednesday in Parliament, Workers’ Party chairman Sylvia Lim had questioned if the association had deviated from its mandate. She had alleged that some quarters of the PA saw its role to include the political advancement of the ruling party. She cited the mobilisation of PA activists to campaign for the People’s Action Party’s candidates during elections as an example.

In his response, Mr Chan, who is also the PA’s deputy chairman, said the association is an apolitical organisation that “executes the directions for the government of the day as per any statutory board”.

“The People’s Association does not allow any political activity or canvassing on our premises or in our activities and we certainly do not mobilise anyone for any political party,” he said on the second day of the debate on the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth’s budget.

Participants of the PA’s activities, Mr Chan added, come from all walks of life and the association does not check on their political allegiance.

“Nor do I or anyone know their voting preferences; it is not relevant to our work,” said Mr Chan, who is also the head of the labour movement.

Mr Chan said he had personally witnessed participants supporting both the ruling party and the Opposition during elections.

“I will be the last person to ever allow the People’s Association to be politicised,” he added.

Ms Lim had also questioned the PA’s “ever-increasing” budget, saying that its FY 2016 budget was “still very high”. Its FY 2015 budget, she noted, was understandably much bigger than usual because of the SG50 activities that were organised, among other things.

Mr Chan, noting that the PA’s FY2016 budget was about 5 per cent lower than FY2015’s “in aggregate”, said that it would be embarking on the upgrading of 24 community clubs.

Mr Chan pointed out that the increase in the PA’s budget was not exactly the result of SG50 expenditure, which pushed it up only by about S$4 million.

Significant slices of its FY2015 budget went towards the set-up of the Pioneer Generation Office and capital expenditure, particularly on the building of Our Tampines Hub and the Wisma Geylang Serai civic centre.

For an increasingly diverse and sophisticated population, the range of programmes that the PA has to undertake now is “very different from what it used to be”, Mr Chan said.

Ms Lim had also said that her letters to the Citizens’ Consultative Committee (CCC) had gone unanswered when she tried to request information on private estate upgrading projects in her ward. On the incident, Mr Chan said he had no details.

“I have heard from both sides on the ground accusing each other of being uncooperative. All I can say is that I urge both sides – be it the town council or the CCC – to always remember to put the interests of the residents first,” he added.