An Open Letter to Ms Sylvia Lim
Dear Ms Sylvia Lim,
I am not your resident. I live in East Coast. But I hope you will not ignore me.
In Parliament Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam outlined some questions for the town councilors of AHPETC including:
1. Why did they not comply with normal accounting standards, resulting in millions of dollars in related party transactions?
2. Did they know that the managing agent FMSS was owned by a husband and wife team who were Workers’ Party supporters? Why was FMSS paid $1.6 million more per year compared to other town councils?
3. How much profit did FMSS make? How much were the husband and wife paid?
All these are valid questions. Instead of answering them, MP Pritam Singh stood up in Parliament and said he answered only to residents. If the Law Minister was a resident, said Mr Singh, he would answer him.
This is ridiculous. It has been many weeks since the Parliamentary sitting.
I pay S and C fees and I want some answers too. These are questions that ought to be publicly debated, not just whispered in shadows and coffee shops.
Mr Shanmugam is the Law Minister, and he says what the town councillors did was “unlawful”, taking money from the man in the street and giving it to their friends through town council operations.
He says: “Maybe there was no one taking money through the backdoor in the dark of the night - because the money was going out in broad daylight through the front door.”
Maybe, maybe not, but maybe is not good enough for me. I want to know for sure. It’s time all of us, residents or not, got some answers.
After all, if you are coming to my ward in the next GE, I want to know that my sinking funds are safe.
Joshua Lim
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