A Town Council is not your provision shop where you could hop around to another one when you are not happy with the service. It is not a shop that can open and close as it likes. It needs to be there providing essential services for the residents. Even a provision shop like 7 eleven has a mission to serve the people at all hours, practically 365 days of the year except one. This is the mindset of an organization wanting to serve the people, to be there when the people need it.
Can a Town Council stop functioning for a few weeks, a few months, whenever there is a change of officer bearers, whenever there is a change of political party in charge? It is unthinkable that the services would be disrupted when the MP changed hands. It is unthinkable that the incumbent can simply remove its operating system, its computer software and hardware and leaving the successor in the lurch, to start all over again, to bring in a new computer system, a new set of officers and staff, probably knowing nothing of the functions and management of a Town Council, a new set of contractors, cleaners etc etc.
How can a Town Council function this way, being crippled after every change of office bearers? It is not easy to get a new system and a new set of staff to get it running. What are the safeguards and provisions to ensure that a Town Council will continue to function regardless of who is the political master, like the civil service and the uniform services?
Is the current Town Council system good for the people? Is this what you called good governance? Why is the Town Council not part of the govt’s essential services to the people, that it would continue to function comes what may? The people deserve an Uninterrupted TC providing continuous services at all time. Who is responsible to set this right?
You tell me.
Chua Chin Leng AKA RedBean
*The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg/