Chua Eng Leong is part of PAP's team who lost to WP during the 2015 General Elections in Aljunied GRC. He is now appointed as a Grassroots Adviser for AHTC. What does he do? He gets to approve the funding which WP wants to use for upgrading works in AHTC.
After Pritam Singh spoke up about the ramp which took 7 years, Chua Eng Leong blasted back with a wordy Facebook post of his own. In gist, Chua claimed that what Pritam wrote was "politically divisive and factually inaccurate". He claimed that Pritam's comments were unsubstantiated. Chua alleged that the Eunos Citzens' Consultative Committee (CCC) had a similar proposal for a ramp. Chua wrote "Considering this was proposed by Eunos CCC, why would Eunos CCC delay the project?"
Funding for the ramp was secured in September 2016 and construction for the ramp started in December 2018. The contractors in charge of the projects had also asked for "extensions of time" which resulted in the long completion time.
Chua also said “It is politically mischievous to suggest that proposals by MPs are commonly ignored”. And of course, he then took a dig at the current ongoing AHTC court case. What a cheap shot.
You can read his full post here:
Pritam responded to this three hours later and he was delighted to see the CCC engage in this issue albeit only after things have gone public. Especially after "repeated emails, requests for answers have gone unanswered and ignored, over many years".
Pritam highlighted that Chua did not explain for the delay after the ramp was proposed. He questioned if having proposals come into fruition with the timeline of seven years was the norm in PAP wards. He also questioned Chua if there was a difference in CIPC funds between Aljunied CCCs and other constituencies. He asked if Chua is able to share the numbers.
Pritam also expected the dig about the AHTC court case and have chosen not to comment on it.
Pritam ended his post by proposing that the Aljunied and Hougang CCs and elected opposition MPs in the ward to sit down together to develop a protocol on how CIPC proposals should be handled in opposition wards.
Who do you think came out on top in this online debate? Pritam is obviously asking for a change in how things are being run while Chua is just "claiming" to do good work. But why is there a need for a losing party to stay in opposition wards to approve funds? We don't get it either. Oh well.
