Grassroots movement has gotten worse in s’pore

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT HAS GOTTEN WORSE IN S’PORE

Post date:
28 Jul 2014 - 9:39am








I’ll be frank here! PAP Grassroots movement has devolved for the worse. Previously, grassroots volunteers were mainly bread-&-butter wage earners. Truth is those grassroots volunteers served because of certain fringe benefits. I’ll not go into these in detail as most people are aware of them. However, the grassroots volunteers then were closely aligned with the electorate because they themselves were HDB residents. But overtime, the key criteria for most grassroots volunteer service is having 2 bites of the HDB cherry. Once that has been exhausted, there is very little incentive to stay on.

To replace these wage earning HDB residents type of grassroots, the professional, managerial, executive class started to infiltrate the grassroots movement. I’ll illustrate with 2 analogy – the first was a Colombo Plan scholar – he failed in the private sector. But as he was very active in the typical CCMC/CCC movement activities – he managed to connect & get a job with a GLC. The GLC CEO there didn’t think highly of him, put him into non-operational role. He continues to work hard on his CCMC/CCC activities because he was insecure! Bloody fella had to put in the day & weekdays in normal job followed by after work grassroots activities plus occasional weekend walkabouts with MP. I don’t envy him as his wife & children hardly get to see him.

The second is a high powered professional working in the corporate sector. Both the professional & the spouse served in their constituency grassroots. When the spouse lost his job after the company closed, he was able to secure one with a GLC almost immediately. They are still active in grassroots activities. Both examples stay in landed property & owned cars. How can they understand the specific problems of the HDB heartlanders?

Around the turn of 2000s, the contractors & labour service providers started to get involve with grassroots movements. Why? The construction contracting business began to be able to secure more foreign workers quotas from the govt. There was an easing of immigration policy towards foreigners. Previously, PAP govt. adjusted foreign workers quota &/or increase worker’s levies to regulate foreign worker’s numbers. The easing was a godsend – some contractors who are wise to the game ‘cheong’ for public sector projects even if they lose money. The trick was to secure the foreign workers quota to do the project – that’s the money maker!

In a crony capitalist economy – there is an element of lobbying to secure economic privileges. That is the US model. In Singapore, the lobbying is done at the grassroots level cosying up to the MP. The grassroots have become a new frontier for Singapore crony capitalism. Previously grassroots volunteers were wage earners & HDB dwellers simply in for the 2 bites of the HDB cherry. These days, the grassroots game has risen as businessmen in their Mercedes Benz or Lexus participate in such activities. Isn’t the grassroots movement becoming a lobbyist environment?

grassroots-a-nest-of-cronies


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