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.
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.
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.
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.
