WP urges dialogue to settle ‘outstanding issues’

SINGAPORE — The Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) is “always prepared” to cooperate with government agencies for the benefit of its residents, said its Vice-Chairman Pritam Singh, who described Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan’s comments on the spat over the cleaning of two food centres as “belated” and “uncalled for”.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Singh also refuted the suggestion that he had been untruthful in his account of the dispute.

On Sunday, Dr Balakrishnan had charged that “either Pritam Singh or the hawkers are telling the truth. It is obvious that the hawkers are speaking the truth”.

Mr Singh said: “I have been truthful in communicating the town council’s position on the facts of the matter concerned. Equally, there is no reason to doubt the honesty of AHPETC staff in this matter. If the minister has any proof to the contrary, he should present these, rather than make sweeping allegations.”

Last month, it was reported that hawkers at the two food centres in Bedok North — at Block 511 and 538 — complained that they had to bear the cost of putting up scaffolding to clean high areas in the food centres, sparking an exchange of accusations and rebuttals between the hawkers, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Workers’ Party (WP)-run town council.

Dr Balakrishnan waded into the controversy on Sunday, saying that the AHPETC has caused a “completely unnecessary distraction”, and called on it to “cooperate with the NEA” and “fulfil its obligations”.

“All town councils have always done routine spring-cleaning of hawker centres. There is no excuse for the AHPETC to delay the current cleaning programme,” he said.

He also said WP chairman Sylvia Lim was “arrogant and wrong” to accuse the NEA of being “politically motivated” in their actions. On the same day, both AHPETC and the NEA released documents which they said supported their accounts of the saga.

Yesterday, Mr Singh said the town council has been “consistent” in its attitude and is prepared to cooperate with government agencies, pointing to previous statements where the AHPETC indicated its willingness to resolve the issue amicably.

“However, the minister should not mistake this to mean that AHPETC can be bullied or is an easy target to be used by the Government to score political points,” he added.

Mr Singh said the hawkers and AHPETC had been satisfied with the outcome of a meeting with the NEA on June 6. “Why is the minister weighing in now, after the issue has been resolved? Is the minister fair in his statement, resorting to name-calling and character assassination?”

Mr Singh also pointed out that Dr Balakrishnan could have “exercised his leadership” to reach out to all parties during his visits to various markets at Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East town, when the dispute was brewing.

“We expected that as minister, he would use his office to play a positive and constructive role in this episode, but this was apparently not to be,” Mr Singh said.

He noted that while the People’s Action Party constantly warns Singaporeans against divisive politics, Dr Balakrishnan’s approach “appears to perpetuate the opposite”.

“Accusing the elected members of AHPETC of arrogance and being untruthful does not help resolve matters,” Mr Singh said.

“The elected members of AHPETC are committed to serving all residents to the best of our abilities.”

He also invited Dr Balakrishnan to a dialogue with the elected members of AHPETC to “settle any outstanding matters, on this or any other matter in future, should he wish to do so”.