Denise Phua: Mayors important to S'pore as they aggregate districts' needs & seek resources for programmes

During a Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) rally on Apr. 26 evening, the party's candidate for Marsiling-Yew Tee group representation constituency (GRC), Jufri Salim, called for the abolishment of mayor positions in Singapore.

Calling the positions "useless", Salim contended that the mayors' salaries could be used to support seniors and students, as well as in areas, such as healthcare subsidies, housing grants, and mental health services.

According to a White Paper published by the Public Service Division in 2012, mayors earn an annual salary of S$660,000.

There are five mayors in Singapore, and each of them helms the Community Development Council (CDC) of their respective district.

They are mayor of South West district Low Yen Ling, mayor of North East district Desmond Choo, mayor of Central district Denise Phua, mayor of North West district Alex Yam, and the mayor of South East district Fahmi Aliman.

Response from Phua

During a walkabout at Upper Boon Keng Market and Food Centre on Apr. 27 morning, Phua, who is also a People's Action Party (PAP) candidate for Jalan Besar GRC, rebutted Salim's assessment on mayor positions, reported The Straits Times.

According to Phua, mayors operate "as a regional office" that looks at the entire district, allowing CDCs and mayors to "aggregate the needs of the district" and "find some common areas".

Instead of taking over the role of a Member of Parliament (MP) or the grassroots advisors, CDCs and mayors "look at some of these common needs that I think individual divisions or constituencies may not have the resources or the bandwidth to take over," CNA reported Phua as saying.

She added:

"What we do is, when we identify these pivotal needs, we go and then seek resources... from corporates, from agencies, and then work together, strategise, and make sure these programmes are developed, and most importantly, able to be scaled across the district."

Phua cited the Purple Parade, a national movement that supports inclusion and celebrates the abilities of persons with disabilities, as an example of such programmes, adding that it started from the Central district.

Noting that many may know CDCs as "the lead agency to come up with the CDC vouchers", Phua shared that the CDCs "actually do a lot more than that" and that "a lot of the programmes are actually led by the mayors".

Top images via Denise Phua/Facebook