Everything About the Debate of CDCs & Mayors in Parliament Simplified for You

If you’ve been watching the parliament closely in recent days, and not just for the Budget, you’ll know that another exciting drama is brewing.

This time, it’s between Mr Pritam Singh, the Leader of the Opposition (yes, that’s an official title, in case you didn’t know) and Ms Denise Phua, PAP MP and Mayor of the Central Singapore District.

I bet most don’t know Singapore has mayors too.

Before we can get into the exciting debate, here are a few definitions to clear up the confusion.

What Is A Mayor? (In S’pore Context)

According to the People’s Association (PA), there are five districts in Singapore, each headed by a mayor.

The mayors also helm the Community Development Council (CDC) in their own particular districts.

Currently, the five mayors are as follow:

• Ms Low Yen Ling, the Chairman of the Mayors’ Committee and South-West District Mayor
• Ms Denise Phua, Central Singapore District Mayor
• Mr Desmond Choo, North-East District
• Mr Alex Yam, North-West District
• Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman, South-East District

The CDC functions include:

• Strengthening social cohesion and fostering community bonds between people in Singapore
• Advising the PA on matters pertaining to the well-being of residents in the district, public services and facilities and public funds allocated for community use.

According to this report on The Straits Times, the mayors are paid S$660,000 per year, which equates to about S$55,000 per month.

Okay, now on with the article.

Are CDCs Really Relevant?

The entire saga started with this question from Mr Pritam Singh.

On 24 Feb 2021, the Leader of the Opposition (LO) called for the Singapore government to examine their spending policy closely.

As you no doubt already knew, about 1.3 million Singapore households will receive S$100 worth of CDC vouchers to be used at heartland shops and hawker centres.

While Mr Singh has no issue with Singaporeans getting financial help, what he has an issue with is the fact that CDC is the one administering the vouchers.

He felt that the Singapore government is trying to justify why CDC is relevant to Singapore when it’s not, really.

The Citizens Consultative Committee (CCC), he pointed out, would be more apt to administer the system since they are even more “connected” to the ground.

Do A Serious Review

Mr Singh also pointed out that since GE2020, there were a lot of questions raised about the necessity of having full-time mayors in Singapore.

After all, many of the functions can be fulfilled by other stat boards, ministries and grassroots organisations.

It was added that “many Singaporeans” think the mayors’ salaries are “outrageous”, and it doesn’t match up with its roles and functions.

He urged the government to give this issue a “serious review”.

It’s not just the mayors, and Mr Singh urged the government to do a serious review on the relevance of institutions in Singapore today, given the “finite fiscal resources” Singapore has to deal with in the near future.

Now, time for part two.

Ms Denise Phua: Nothing Wrong With Trying To Be Relevant

Soon after, Ms Denise Phua, Mayor of Central Singapore District, hit back at LO’s comments.

She rejected his claims of the government trying to make the councils relevant and said he was “belittling” CDC and its partners.

She added that there is nothing to be “ashamed” about for trying to stay relevant.

You Also Did The Same Thing

Mr Singh, Ms Phua pointed out, also did the same thing.

“Did Mr Singh not accept the role when asked – and the office, and the research assistant, and the salary – and try his best to be relevant too? Singaporeans too ask what the role of the Leader of the Opposition in our Parliament is.”

She did, however, thanked Mr Singh for bringing up this issue in Parliament.

The biggest mistake that the CDC did, she added, might be because they didn’t publicise what they did enough.

Which is true, given that when we Googled, all we got was a general description.

So…what does CDC do?

What The CDC Does

The roles of the CDC has evolved over the years, Ms Phua said, with national financial assistance schemes being taken over by social services offices.

However, they still have a role to play.

They support national initiatives like lifelong learning and SkillsFuture at the district level.

For example, they ran 4,819 SkillsFuture Advice workshops in the past three years, reaching over 127,000 participants.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, they coordinated and pooled resources from various agencies and private training companies to help residents train and find jobs.

The mayors also gathered resources and ensure that students who used to get free meals in school continued to get e-vouchers for meals during the circuit breaker.

“The value of the CDC structure… is its relative agility and ability to respond and develop programmes in the district faster than a bigger government machinery.”

Ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s really up to the beneficiaries of the CDC to decide if the councils are truly needed or not, she said.

On a separate note, it was added that Ms Phua is the only full-time mayor, and her other colleagues are “double-hatting or triple-hatting sometimes” while getting only one pay.

How CDC Plans To Administer The Voucher Scheme

As for the voucher scheme, Ms Phua outlined the CDC’s function.

They will be:

• organising the resources
• communicate it to the residents
• getting as many merchants to sign up as possible

While CCCs are more connected to the ground, the CDCs can reach out better to the merchant and hawker associations due to a network of “volunteers and national bodies such as the Singapore Federation of Merchants’ Associations and its subsidiary, the Heartlands Enterprise Singapore”.

They are still in the midst of working out the details, she said, and when ready, will communicate them to members of the public.

Feature Image: PA