No Smoke Without Fire

The above screen capture from LinkedIn is either a red herring or a smoking gun. Recall Teo Ho Pin's 26 paragraph exposition on the Action Information Management (AIM) involvement makes no mention of multi-million dollar investment by Town Councils, or $5 million software licenses. The numbers he bantered about were a $140,000 "existing software IP" purchase by a $2 company, and $785 per month lease back arrangement. Maybe the millions involved were contractual obligations protected by "confidential" clauses, as in the Formula One race extension deal.

There must be many "Deep Throats" in the civil service, directly or indirectly associated with Town Councils, who can enlighten us on the real deal. Unfortunately most of them live in fear of the Official Secrets Act 1970 (OSA).

Based on the eponymous British legislation, the Act prohibits any act which is defined as "prejudicial to the safety or interests of Singapore" and the communication of any information or document by any person holding any government office to another person not specifically authorised to receive it. A person suspected of committing an offence under this act may be arrested without warrant. The Act also allows the president to confer the powers of a police officer on any person for the purposes of this Act.

In one memorable interview by author Ross Worthington to test the limits of the OSA, he asked one senior official whether latter could divulge the colour of the toilet paper used by the particular ministry. The official replied with a straight face that it was impossible as it would infringe the act. When it was pointed out to the official the information could be gained by any visitor using one of the toilets in the ministry's buildings, the official maintained that while that was so, nonetheless he could not divulge the information. (Governance In Singapore, page 137)

At the Workers Party by-election rally on Tuesday night, Sylvia Lim called her Aljunied Hougang Town Council (AHTC) experience "eye-opening", noting that it was the first time an opposition party had been able to dig into documents showing how the PAP town councils have been managing Housing Board estates, and coming across aspects that show how political town management had become. Surely that's reason enough to vote more alternate party members into parliament to do more digging.