Should and can political involvement count as a Community Involvement Project? After all, walking the grounds, talking to residents, engaging them and organizing grassroot activities, in all sense of the word, does engage the community. Not only its beneficial to the community by encouraging our students to do this form of community work, but it also exposes their mind to better political knowledge and understanding of how our political system work.
Pushed an update to my MP absentee parsing script on github.
The gist:
- The script will not download the new reports for parsing if it detects that you have records in the database already
- Script will now generate stats upon completion.
– Absent MPs in the last parliamentary sitting
– Top 5 absent MPs
– Top 5 wards with the most absent MPs
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Absentees on Last Parliament Sitting: 19/07/2010
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Mr Inderjit Singh of Ang Mo Kio
Ms Indranee Rajah of Tanjong Pagar
Mr Low Thia Khiang of Hougang
Dr Lily Neo of Jalan Besar
Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo of East Coast
Ms Joscelin Yeo of Nominated Member
Mr George Yong-boon Yeo of Aljunied
Mrs Yu-foo Yee Shoon of Holland-bukit Timah
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Stats
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Top 5 absent MPs:
Mr Lee Kuan Yew with 48
Dr Balaji Sadasivan with 40
Prof. Thio Li-ann with 38
Dr Loo Choon Yong with 28
Mr George Yong-boon Yeo with 26
Top 5 wards with highest number of absentees:
Nominated Member with 148
Tanjong Pagar with 80
Ang Mo Kio with 75
Pasir Ris-punggol with 65
Aljunied with 63
I was watching in that Parliament session and I can tell you, more than half of Parliament was empty by the time they go into bills reading at the 2nd half of the session. Too bad attendance was not taken during the 2nd half as well.
P/S: I use the term ‘MP’ here sparingly to represent anyone currently sitting in Parliament. This includes NMP/NCMP.
A couple of weeks ago, I started an open project to capture data and information about our current sitting MPs, called MP Databank, and today I’m glad to be able to inform everyone that the data is mostly ready.
The spreadsheet is hosted on Google and is open to editing to all.
With the hardwork of friends like Edward, Nathaniel and Choong Yong, whom without them this would not be possible, we’ve managed to reference the biodata of almost all of the MPs, except their social media presence (Facebook, Twitter). If anyone have found some missing information that they’d like to contribute, please feel free to edit the spreadsheet or even add new columns.
Lets keep this project alive.
The data captured is released to the public domain so you’re free to use any of the data for your own personal/academic/commercial use. All I hope for is that you drop a link here so that the community can check out your cool work :)
My other project, http://political-watch.org will be referencing the data from the spreadsheet. I haven’t had the time lately to work on it, but I hope to push some bugfixes and new features up to the site next week. If you’d like to help out, do drop me an email :)
Its always great to watch both Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman speak at Google’s IO conferences.
This year at the recent Google IO 2010 conference, they gave a talk on ‘The joys of engineering leadership’ which I’d recommend every technical manager to watch.
Their trademark humor and banter makes the video not only entertaining to watch but absolutely insightful too.
Inspiring documentary about people who found their true passion after getting laid off at work.
I’ve reach a point where I feel I’m almost burned out from my professional work. This is not my first burnout, and is just one of the multiple ones throughout the phase of my life in computers.
I started to freelance in early 2009 after my partners and I winded down FRRO LLP, a webhosting company we started 2 years eariler to cover the then non-existent budget virtual private servers industry in Singapore.
We had fun, we played well, but being the overachiever, I tend to burn myself out pretty fast. As we started to get more and more clients working from our homes, we started to feel really good about ourselves. I started to work even harder, pushing myself even more and blaming myself for any of our setbacks. I worked through nights writing technical documents, keying in our accounts, responding to e-mails and thinking about new marketing opportunities. I did these for a few months straight and finally one day, I felt really lousy.
I fell into a rut. I felt really lousy when I couldn’t get the 101th client after trying for days. I got more and more tired about what I’m doing as our business plateau-ed. I started to question what am I doing, whether this is the right job for me and whether there’s any future in it. Deep down inside, I loved what I was doing and I loved working with my partners. I loved IT with a passion, but I just burned out…
We winded the company down months later and took a break before starting to pick myself up again and do something new. I went into web development freelancing. Little did I know, my personal challenges to myself to keep pushing myself to achieve more has led me to the same path. While still doing my freelance on my side, I’ve settled down to become co-founder for a startup doing an online collaborative search platform.
I kept keeping myself busy because I want to challenge myself and I’m starting to feel the stress of doing too much things at one time. I found myself dragging myself to work everyday, having to juggle both the administrative side of running a startup as well as leading the development team in the daytime and working on my freelance projects on the night time. I started to ask myself if I’ve traded the liberty of working anywhere anytime for the safety and comfort of a desk and whether it was worth it.
(People who know me, know me as someone who refuses to be bounded. I enjoy the freedom of being self-employed as a freelancer as I’m able to choose my clients and work anywhere anytime).
I recognize this form of self-question. I was burning out and burning out fast.
I decided to take a break today from work, to try and catch my breath and hopefully relight the passion. I don’t know how long I can continue to do what I’m doing now with my startup and freelancing, but I’m glad I found this short film today to tell me that I need to slow down and start thinking about which direction I’d like to take with my life.
To all you fellow freelancers and entrepreneurs out there, I hope this film finds you well and helps to keep you going just as you’re starting to feel like you’re about to hit a dark dark road.
On the 10th of June, the Ministry of National Development released the first ever Town Council Management Report (TCMR) that rates Town Councils according to 6 key indicators under 4 areas like, “Cleanliness, Maintenance, Lift Performance and Service & Conservancy Charges (S&CC)”.
The top two ranked Town Councils belonged to the wards of Minster Mentor Lee and Senior MInister Goh, while the last two ranked belonged to opposition-held wards helmed by Mr Low Thia Khiang (Workers Party) and Mr. Chiam See Tong (Singapore Democratic Alliance).
The results irked many netizens who felt that the release of the report was politically motivated with an impending General Election due to be called latest by Feb 2012. Gerald Giam asks if residents were consulted for the report and why the current set of indicators were used instead of others.
Both Tattler from Singapore Notes and Yaw Shin Leong question whether the Town Councils have exercised empathy and were sympathetic to residents who are unable to pay their S&CC due to the poor economic situation, with one of the indicators used in the report being the proportion of household with overdue payments ≥ 3 months.
On the opposition front,
One day after the report, the Singapore Democratic Party released a statement condemning the results and accuses the PAP for depriving opposition-run wards of funds and resources to upgrade their facilities and infrastructure. Both Mr Low (Workers Party – Hougang) and Mr Chiam (SDA – Potong Pasir), MPs of opposition-held wards also came out to dismiss the report:
Mr Low:
‘
Low, Chiam dismiss report
Jun 11, 2010
Both opposition MPs yesterday dismissed the Town Council Management Report that gave their town councils the lowest scores.
In an e-mail statement sent last night, Hougang MP Low Thia Khiang suggested that the whole grading exercise might simply result in residents having to pay more.
He said: ‘Such an exercise … which inevitably requires much resources put in by the town councils, would translate into higher operating costs, and residents will eventually end up paying higher service and conservancy charges.’
He made it clear that he had been sceptical of the whole undertaking from the start.
For example, it was not feasible to assess town councils with a ‘common denominator’, given the differing constituency profiles.
Opposition town councils start from a disadvantaged position, as they are at the bottom of the queue for estate upgrading.
‘Considering this, for the Hougang Town Council to be given a ranking of four for maintenance, as against a three and below given to a PAP town council with all the various upgrading given them by the HDB, it is an accomplishment,’ he said.
Mr Chiam:
When contacted, Potong Pasir MP Chiam See Tong was in a defiant mood. He curtly dismissed the report as a ploy to discredit his town council.
‘They want to thump Potong Pasir down,’ he said, when approached at his Meet-the-People session last night.
Looking clearly upset, the opposition veteran added: ‘Potong Pasir is the best town council in Singapore, what do you expect me to say?’
Responding to claims by the opposition that they do not receive funding to improve the estate, Ms Fu said all town councils are provided funding based on the number and type of households in their wards.
“The operating funds, the grants, are exactly identical,” she said.
She also noted that the opposition wards have been included in the Lift Upgrading Programme or LUP. “There will be flats which are eligible for LUP, including the opposition wards. So all the divisions who are eligible for LUP will get their LUP done.
“As for other upgrading, for example Neighbourhood Renewal Programme or Home Improvement Programme, that’s actually depending on our available resources, and then the allocation will also depend on the needs of the local areas.
“So not all PAP divisions will have the same upgrading done as well. There are some who get more and some who get less. So it doesn’t apply just to opposition towns….”
Potong Pasir Town Council has been engaging competent contractors for all estate maintenance work and our team of estate officers is always there to ensure that the work is carried out effectively.
I am not surprised at the rankings in the Town Council Management Report (TCMR), which was published in the media. It is not at all appropriate to compare the performances of the town councils as the profile and age of the properties are totally different. There is also an inequality in the funds granted among the town councils and the improvement works carried out by the Government.
Potong Pasir is a mature estate where the blocks are 25 to 35 years old. Constant efforts are being made using our available resources to maintain the estate as best as possible.
[snip]
I have been managing Potong Pasir Town Council for the last 25 years as diligently as I can and will continue to do my best.
On the 15th of June, Mr Low Thia Khiang, Opposition MP for Hougang (Workers Party) released a press statement responding to PAP MP Ms Grace Fu (Senior Minister of State)’s reply on the 13th and called upon the Ministry of National Development to release the data of the additional funding allocated to PAP Town Councils so that the public can make its own analysis. He also suggested that two new criteria be added to the next TCMR exercise.
It is time the Ministry of National Development let the public know how much additional funding each PAP TC has received through the various upgrading programmes funded by the national budget or has benefitted from the programme up to the financial year 2009 so that Singaporeans can have a clear idea of which PAP TC did not qualify for the upgrading program as mentioned by Grace Foo. The public should know how much additional funding is given to PAP TCs via the upgrading programs and hence can judge for themselves whether it could affect the outcome of town management.
[snip]
I would suggest two more new criteria for TCMR for MND’s consideration. They are funding either directly received or indirectly benefitted from government programmes to improve and upgrade common areas managed by town councils; and amount of SCCC arrears written off by town councils. Band 5 being for the most funding and SCCC amount written off.
17th June – SMS Ms Grace Fu responded to WP’s Mr Low press release on the Workers’ Party website on the Straits Times but made no mention about making available the set of data that the opposition MP requested.
She said he was ‘overly simplifying the situation’ when he argued that estate upgrading impacts on how well a town council (TC) performs in the maintenance of a Housing Board estate.
For instance, new lifts installed in older blocks will add to the responsibilities and operational costs of town councils, she said.
She stressed that all TCs, whether run by the People’s Action Party or the opposition, are treated the same when it comes to estate upgrading.
Disclaimer: Due to the comprehensive nature of the responses to the report, I am unable to quote in full the various replies. I’d encourage readers to click on the links to read in full detail about what was being said, instead of relying solely on my snipplets of quotes.
Here’s Dr Vivan Balakrishnan, Member of Parliament and Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports on
THE ‘NOT MY FAULT’ MENTALITY
There’s another dangerous mindset that could take root – that of fault-finding and abdicating personal responsibility.
In one instance, his ministry received queries from a local newspaper regarding a family in distress.
“What really alarmed me was the tone of the journalist’s questions: Whose fault is it? Is it the family’s fault for not looking after the children? Was it the FSC’s fault for not reaching out to them? Is it the Government’s fault?” Dr Balakrishnan said. “This, to me, is the reason why I’m very worried about our future – because what has happened to personal responsibility?”
“We decide who to marry, how many children to have, what job to work at … even how much money we want. We are responsible for our children. If we neglect our children, it is a crime morally and legally. If we forget those fundamentals and instead, say ‘who owns the problem?’ or ‘whose fault is it?’, I think we’ll be in big, big trouble.”
But what if some Singaporeans just cannot find work, even if they are able and willing to? The volatility of the new economy has led some experts to conclude that more workers could be unemployed for longer periods due to economic dislocation.
Dr Balakrishnan countered: “You look at the Singapore economy. How many people do we have who are unemployed? It’s in the tens of thousands. How many foreigners do we have working in Singapore? In excess of a million. With that kind of numbers, can we honestly say that we are short of jobs or is there, in fact, a mismatch of expectations, qualifications and abilities with the jobs that are available?”
While globalisation and technology have eroded the market value of certain jobs, the Government has responded with Workfare, which is in effect a wage subsidy, Dr Balakrishnan pointed out.
“We must not fall into this easy trap of saying, ‘oh, this is a new economy, there is nothing that I can do.’ What you’re really saying is that there is nothing that I’m willing to do at the level of pay that is being offered by the market,” he said.
This is one instance where I agree with the Minister.
Everyone should take responsibility for their actions and also for the actions of their followers.
Leaders should lead by example and I’m sure that now that Dr. Balakrishnan has made the first step by asking Singaporeans to take responsibility for their actions, he would do all he can to ensure that his party is held to the same standards as his preachings.
