Singapore — Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh asked the wrong question about mayors in Singapore, said Lim Team of People’s Voice in a Facebook post on Thursday (Feb 25).
***Right Topic but Wrong Question Pritam***
Whilst PV is unified with Pritam and the WP in bringing up in Parliament…
Posted by Lim Tean on thursday, 25 February 2021
The Workers’ Party secretary-general said in Parliament on Wednesday (Feb 24) that many Singaporeans feel the salaries of the Community Development Council (CDC) mayors are “outrageous”.
He shared that, according to the 2012 White Paper on government salaries, mayors are paid an annual salary of S$660,000. This is in addition to their annual MP allowance of S$192,500.
The Aljunied MP questioned if there was a need for full-time mayors when other committees such as the Citizens Consultative Committees (CCC) are more connected to residents.
But Lim Tean argued: “The question of whether Singapore needs mayors is not the right question. It is an invitation for the PAP to defend the S$660k per year roles (there are 5 mayors in Singapore so the annual bill is S$3.3million!)”
He said: “When will the PAP agree to a national referendum to let the people of Singapore vote on whether to abolish or reduce the roles of mayors?”
He added: “If the PAP are defending the enormous salary of $660k per year for a mayor because the job is large in scope, then how can this job be done on less than a part-time basis?”
He referred to the Mayor of the South West District, Ms Low Yen Ling, who is also a Member of Parliament for Chua Chu Kang, and is a Minister of State in the Ministry for Trade and Industry (MTI) as well as in the Ministry for Culture, Community and Youth.
He said: “The question is, ‘is the job of a mayor so important and large of scope that the S$660k salary is merited, or is it not important at all and can be executed among several other job positions?'”
The online community has also spoken up on this issue. Many have said they did not know Singapore has mayors and do not understand the role of mayors in Singapore.
Singapore has five mayors, one for each of the five districts (South West, Central, North East, North West, and North East) under the Community Development Council (CDC). According to the CDC website, each mayor also serves as the chairman of the CDC of their particular district. Each council, consisting of a chairman and between 12 and 80 members, is in charge of urban planning, zoning and other similar issues in their respective regions.
Denise Teh is an intern at The Independent SG./TISG