The People's Association must have no association

The People’s Association (PA) was established in Singapore as a statutory board on 1 July 1960 to promote racial harmony and social cohesion.
It was supposed to be a non partisan group interested in fostering better ties between citizens of all races.

The PA also oversees various grassroots organisatoins like Citizens' Consultative Committees, Residents' Committees, Neighbourhood Committees etc.

Therefore, the mission of the PA is clearly non-partisan.

The Chairman is none other than PM Lee Hsien Loong himself.
What's worse, they've just added even more PAP MPs into the ranks.

Further, the PA is funded by grants via taxpayers' monies.

Because of the one-sided nature of PA, it's obvious that the grassroot leaders all toe the part line.
These activists are blamed for not passing on proper feedback to the Ministers. In all likelihood, they would rather paint the rosiest picture on the ground firstly to impress the Ministers and secondly to save them the trouble of explaining otherwise.
This has prompted PM Lee to openly defend the activists.

It can be argued that PAP activists are a huge factor in General Elections. Using taxpayers grants, they hire "volunteers" to go door to door, distribute pamphlets, attend rallies etc etc.

The end result is they end up representing the views of the PAP and alienate the views of non supporters. The goal of promoting social cohesion is invariably lost.

Therefore, I would like to request for a radical overhaul of the PA and committees under its charge.

1) The management of the PA should consist of memebers from each registered political party
2) The Chairman of the PA is decided by a popular vote
3) Disallow PA funds from being used for party campaigning during elections

Obviously, it's not going to be easy.
MM Lee once told Chinese Officials visiting Singapore to see how the former ran his country:

“They discover that the People’s Action Party (PAP) has only a small office in Bedok.

But everywhere they go, they see the PAP – in the RCs (residents’ committees), CCCs (citizens’ consultative committees), and the CCs (community clubs).”

That to me, smells of a party wanting to perpetuate it's grip on power indefinitely, regardless of the hard truths on the ground.

If PM Lee is sincere about engaging Singaporeans better, there's no better place to start than a total overhaul of the PA.



So why then is it OK for the PA management to include only PAP MPs?