Citizen

1. Who is to say the noise from the neighbour would not cause the owner to have a nervous breakdown? Especially when he is targeted.

2. Nature of the noise at times are loud, sharp and heavy; types of sound are ramble, knock, thump and others; and, in connection with their work, a noisy drainpipe. Noise is through the day including early morning and late at night. Workers are seen, and there is collaboration with officers.

3. It has been going on for years despite complaints to the authorities. In fact the complaints is cause for the officers to force the owner out of his flat. They could not be disciplined because of their connection, and the stationing of the-people-in-the-flat-across-the-neighbour is part of their strategy.

4. Noise may be reduced for a time after the owner had seen a MP or when he posted in his blog, but there has been no let up in their work. Noise is reduced considerably after he wrote to the President in Sep 11 just after the presidential election. The email to the President is the seventh post counting back or five periods of observation.

5. To a casual observer the noise may have seemed acceptable for two weeks after the Administrative Service dinner referred to in the previous post, but the noise has increased. Over the next four weeks some days are better and others worse. Better, because noise is muffled and less frequent. Worse, where ramble, knock, thump, drag, and drain are heard clearly and frequent. Previously rest day and public holiday were usually worse but, of the five public holidays last week, the two at Labour Day were worse and the three after at Vesak were better. They would maintain a level, start up, reduce for a time being when asked, but not stop, having persisted coming to five years now. The administration in government may not have sufficiently deterred them.

6. It is unconscionable to allow the neighbour to carry on. For a long time noise was undisguised, which forced the owner to leave his flat. The owner went to see his MPs about ten times then wrote a blog. When facts were line up including actions by insiders, it showed the neighbour and officers collaborated. These were listed and explained under various contexts. Yet the problem is not resolve. The neighbour continues with their work because HBO (Head, Pasir Ris HDB Branch Office) is in a position to use his influence, and the-people-in-the-flat-across-the-neighbour watches out for them.

 

7. Thump and ramble could only be from machine-tools, and the noise for hours each day could only be from a trade. It was not that they were not found out, rather the owner was blocked from bringing the case forward. Why the authorities have not taken action has been shown in a letter and two emails to the President.

8. The owner also wrote to the Police, PSC, MND and HDB; and he informed through his blog the media, companies, people he found in the government directory and, where he could find their email addresses, citizens in general. He did it after seeing his MPs many times over a year.

9. It may seems the administration in government is overly legalistic by being silent, but it implies more. The connections between the officers, the-people-in-the-flat-across-the-neighbour, and the neighbour are telling. If there were nothing, the authorities would have said so and put a stop to an issue the owner had brought up many times to support his case. Silence means not disclosing, which muddles the issue, shields the officers, and allows the neighbour to go on.

10. When rules make no allowance for how it is to be used, there is no justice and equality. It is not neutrality either. In the case, HBO answered all letters MPs wrote to HDB even after it was made clear to him it was intended for HDB, and HDB gave no direction nor conducted investigation.

11. In any case the government should respond. Impartial conduct, standard procedure, and authority of the state are values that would apply. Until the owner wrote to the President after the presidential election, he was like a hostage having to cope with the noise as best as he could.

12. Democracy is supposed to create the conditions where ordinary citizens could find their voice. There is no freedom when its citizens would not speak up against wrongdoing because they have reservation about speaking up.

13. Citizenship Richard Bellamy, A Very Short Introduction series

Now any reasonably stable and efficient political framework, even one presided by a ruthless tyrant, will provide us some of these benefits. For example, think of the increased uncertainty and insecurity suffered by many Iraqi citizens as a result of the lack of an effective political order following the toppling of Saddam Hussein. However, those possessing no great wealth, power, or influence - the vast majority of people in other words - will not be satisfied with just any framework. They will want one that applies to all - including the government- and treats everyone impartially and as equals, no matter how rich or important they may be. In particular, they will want its provisions to provide a just basis for all to enjoy the freedom to purse their lives as they choose on equal terms with everyone else, and in so far as is compatible with their having a reasonable amount of personal security through the maintenance of an appropriate degree of social and political stability. And a necessary, if not always a sufficient, condition for ensuring the laws and policies of a political community possess these characteristics is that the country is a working electoral democracy and that citizens participate in making it so. Apart from anything else, political involvement helps citizens shape what this framework should look like. People are likely to disagree about what equality, freedom, and security involve and the best policies to support them in given circumstances. Democracy offers the potential for citizens to debate these issues on roughly equal terms and to come to some appreciation of each other's views and interests. It also promotes government that is responsible to their evolving concerns and changing conditions by giving politicians an incentive to rule in ways that reflect and advance not their own interests but those of most citizens.

Above all, the appeal of a society of civic equals who share in fashioning their collective life remains a powerful one. Citizenship informs and gives effect to central features of our social morality. It underlies our whole sense of self-worth, affecting in the process the ways one treat others and are treated by them. It stands behind the commitment to rights and the appreciation of cultural diversity that are among the central moral achievements of the late 20th and 21th centuries. It has become fashionable to try and detach these effects of citizenship from any involvement in politics or democracy. What I hope to have shown in this book is that that is not possible. Citizenship and democratic politics stand and fall together. To seek to divorce the two undermines not just the possibility of political citizenship, but the values associated with the very idea of citizenship itself. The reinvigoration of citizenship, therefore, depends on revitalizing rather than diminishing political participation and with it the sense of belonging and the commitment to rights that are its prime benefits.

News

The Straits Times of 28 Mar 12.

Govt must not shy away from hard decisions: DPM

Engagement is part of policy process but there are trade-offs, he says

Mr Teo, who is also the Minister in charge of the Civil Service, Coordinating Minister for National Security, and Home Affairs Minister, was speaking at the Administrative Service dinner during which 74 Administrative Service officers received their promotion certificates.

Rather than grapple with whether to do more or less, Government should "focus on doing the right things, and doing these things right", he said.

But the greater challenge as Mr Teo saw it was in performing these roles in the right way. This called for civil servants to take a long-term perspective, and ensure whole-of-Government coherence when complex issues no longer fell within neat domains.

Public service standing 'hurt by recent events'

Individual failings must not lead to systemic lapses: Civil service head

The Head of the civil service said at the annual Administrative Service dinner, "It makes some wonder if the public service and the values we esponse are being eroded. There are officers who have felt let down by these episodes. I share the same disappointment."

Mr Peter Ong, who is also Permanent Secretary for Finance and for Special Duties in the Prime Minister's Office said of recent cases of cheating by officers and others being investigated for alleged misconduct. He was probably referring to an on-going investigation into alleged misconduct by the former Chiefs of Singapore Civil Defence Force and Central Narcotics Bureau; and the jailing of two Singapore Land Authority senior executives for cheating government agencies of more than $12 million.

Mr Ong also spoke of changes in public expectations, observing that from 2007 to last year, feedback to government feedback unit Reach and to the Land Transport Authority increased by 200 per cent.

When feedback relates to issues that do not fall neatly into any one agency's work, officers must "deal with the public's immediate needs first and then sort out inter-agency issues backend."

2. As usual, the owner reads between the lines whether the speeches fit his case.

3. There were evasions. After trying to call up the branch office, the owner called the OIC (Officer-in-Charge) who said the office did not receive his second letter. The owner then went to the office with a handwritten copy, asked for an acknowledgment, and insisted on a meeting with HBO (Head, Pasir Ris HDB Branch Office). The acknowledgment was a signed photocopy of the letter but two lines were missing from a page. The lines pointed to OIC having an arrangement with the neighbour. During the meeting with HBO and OIC, HBO asked the owner whether he knew of a recent transfer of the neighbour's flat to throw him off. The transfer was likely to be in '99 just after an eviction, which was about nine years ago and not a recent event.

4. At the first Meet-the-People Session (MPS), the owner handed over a letter to the interviewer who pointed to HBO in the letter when asked what he would do since no MP was present, and he gave his name as that of his brother when asked. His brother who lived in the same block of flat as the owner was later shown to be in contact with the-people-in-the-flat-across-the-neighbour.

5. The owner wrote to the MP and met him at the second MPS. He said he would attach the owner's letters to HDB. HBO's reply was not to refer to the issues raised but that the owner may engage his solicitors.

6. The owner went to see the MPs about ten times that involved HBO himself, his officers, community centre members, residents committee members, and the-people-in-the-flat-across-the-neighbour but each time HBO replied for the owner to seek assistance elsewhere. Later, the owner blogged and he wrote directly to the police, higher authorities and the President.

7. The collaboration between the officers and neighbour is likely to continue since no overt action is taken.