Ministers must renew policies to reflect concerns of S'poreans: Dr Balakrishnan
SINGAPORE: Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan said all ministers need to seriously review policies to ensure that the plans implemented reflect the concerns of Singaporeans.
Speaking on the sidelines of a victory parade for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC Saturday morning, Dr Balakrishnan said the government has to be more flexible in the way it implements policies.
"We all will have to
draw right lessons from this election, and I think every minister will
have to take a deep hard look at all our policies, everything we do, how
we do, how we execute the policies, how we make sure that our policies
reflect the key concerns and priorities of Singaporeans. That we
implement with the spirit of the policy in mind rather than just more
rigidly by the letter of the law," said Dr Balakrishnan.
Dr
Balakrishnan said that based on feedback, the government needs to be
more sensitive to needs on the ground and policies should reflect that.
The People's Action Party team in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, led by Dr Balakrishnan, had garnered 60.1 per cent of the votes.
On
how his team plans to win over the 40 per cent who did not vote for the
PAP, Dr Balakrishnan said there must be more outreach and engagement.
Dr
Balakrishnan said: "What we want to make sure in our next term,
everything that we come up with, every plan, every project is one that
is co-created with our residents, their ideas are in it, our residents
take ownership for the ideas and for the projects, and for the
trade-offs that sometimes that will need to be made."
- CNA/cc