Today
Upgrading poll leads to war of petitions
Grassroots committee and nay-sayers in tussle for residents' votes on Paya Lebar programme
Monday • August 2, 2004
Derrick A Paulo
derrick@newstoday.com.sg
Campaigning, lobbying, going door-to-door ... It's not the General Elections, but two opposing camps have been fighting for every vote at five apartment blocks in a sleepy neighbourhood estate.
The event? The Housing and Development Board's (HDB) latest polls for its Main Upgrading Programme.
In the past week, residents at blocks 120 to 124 along Paya Lebar Way have found petitions and newspaper clippings slotted between their gate grilles.
Even the Residents' Committee (RC) has gotten into the act to counter the anonymous appeals which have urged residents to vote against the upgrading.
With an earlier straw poll indicating that 76 per cent of the residents were in favour of upgrading — a 75 per cent majority vote is required for the go-ahead — every vote has become crucial during the polling exercise, which began on Thursday and will end tonight.
So crucial, in fact, that the RC did a check to see which households had not voted by Saturday so that it could send them a newspaper clipping exhorting the benefits of HDB upgrading.
A non-vote will count as a vote against the programme.
Explaining why the RC distributed the article on Saturday night, the chairman of the MacPherson Zone 'F' RC, Mr Jeffrey Wee, told Today: "Since the flyers had been all negative on upgrading, some of the residents came to us and said we should do something to keep the other party from succeeding."
About 300 of the 726 households had yet to vote when the RC made its check. Voting is computerised.
The war of letters began the previous weekend, when an anonymous resident or residents circulated a letter arguing that the space-adding item for five-room flats — a 6sq m balcony — was unnecessary and listed several disadvantages to upgrading, such as the inconvenience.
Last Monday, Mr Wee countered with a letter to stress that the chance for upgrading would be "given only once" and to rebut the points that had been made earlier.
Then came a slew of clippings about HDB contractors going bust while working on upgrading projects at other precincts, as well as letters in the newspapers questioning the pricing of HDB flats.
Another anonymous letter cited the case of a resident who had renovated a flat recently, yet would have to spend money again.
While many residents have shrugged off the flurry of appeals, some seem to have given them some thought.
"Actually, we were not in favour of upgrading initially because we just did some renovations, but there's no choice. If we don't vote now, the chance won't come back," said Mdm SK Sim, a homemaker in her 40s, on Friday night.
"But quite a few of my neighbours who have also done their renovations recently are beginning to agree with some of the points raised (against the upgrading)."
Mr Matthias Yao, the MP for the precinct, told Today: "I think residents will be able to judge for themselves whether upgrading is good for the estate and that they will choose wisely."
When asked if he knew the identity of the anonymous petitioner(s), Mr Yao said: "We have not wasted our time doing that."