(Editor's note: This story has been amended to better reflect the circumstances of the award distribution.)

A resident of Sengkang was surprised that her constituency did not have a ceremony for handing out Edusave awards.

Member of Parliament Jamus Lim explained that he did not distribute the award not because he wasn't interested, or he had no desire to go, but rather, this is due to a quirk of the Singapore political system.

Wrote a letter for a mini-ceremony

In a Facebook post on Feb. 15, Lim explained that MPs for a particular ward are not automatically granted the role of grassroots adviser, who is the person entitled to hand out Edusave awards.

This is because Lim is an MP from Sengkang GRC, an opposition ward.

It has been clarified in Parliament previously that grassroots advisers are appointed by the People's Association (PA) and they typically comprise of:

• PAP MPs, in the PAP wards where they were elected
• Unelected PAP candidates, in opposition wards where they contested

Despite his absence at the ceremony, Lim said that he wrote a letter to the student, encouraging her to keep up the good work and strive for success.

They had a mini-ceremony of their own during a Meet-the-People Session, where Lim handed the student the letter.

Lim said that he recognises the importance of such gestures in terms of validation and encouragement, and hoped he could bring a sense of optimism for the future to the student.

You can see the full post below:

Pritam's previous comment

This issue was previously addressed by Workers' Party leader Pritam Singh.

In October 2019, while commenting on a ramp in Bedok Reservoir Road that had taken several years to complete, Singh noted that in the opposition wards of Aljunied and Hougang, defeated PAP candidates during elections became grassroots advisers.

He wrote:

"Each year, the Government makes available about $40m to all Town Councils for community improvement upgrading projects.

But all MPs must go through their Grassroots Advisers to raise projects for consideration. In opposition wards like Aljunied and Hougang, the losing PAP candidates are the Grassroots Advisers."

Grassroots advisers

In the Goh Chok Tong biography "Tall Order", the former prime minister noted that after the PAP's by-election defeat in Anson in 1981 by JB Jeyaretnam, the younger members of the party were inclined to hand over control of the community centre to the winning party.

He had advocated for an "accept it and shake his hand" approach toward losing a parliamentary seat, which would mean relinquishing control of the ward's Community Centre (CC), and grassroots organisations, to the winning opposition candidate.

However, they were overruled by the "old guard" of the party.

A further consideration was that the CC was part of the government. As Goh wrote:

"We were justified that the CC cannot be given to JBJ because it was part of the government. Therefore, it should not be given to the PAP too -- you could not. It must be even-handed."

The PA became a governmental, not a political body, with a separation between the ruling party and the PA.

Goh said this was fair, noting that a PAP MP cannot use the title of "MP" in their grassroots activities, and can only use the title of "adviser to grassroots organisations".

Top image from Jamus Lim's Facebook page.