By LM — Once again, the PAP refuses to be transparent. In parliament, Pritam Singh referenced the PAP’s recent POFMA directions on posts that claims HDB makes a profit. He asked for a breakdown of the total development costs of new HDB flats and the value of subsidies applied.
Yet, Indranee Rajah refused to answer.
According to her, making such information public would be “meaningless”. She thinks we only want to know if we can afford the house.
“Why would you have to disclose or put out the development costs of every single project? It’s just not meaningful. The key thing is, to the buyer: Is this affordable? And that’s what HDB does.”
Indranee Rajah
But the question is why can’t they just disclose? Pritam Singh asked a simple question that many Singaporeans care about. Why can’t his question be answered in a straight forward way? Why is the PAP trying to shun the question?
Knowing how much our HDB flats cost, that is public interest!
The underlying reason is not “affordability”. The actual concern behind such demand is “transparency”. The government should and must be held accountable for all its decisions and actions. Knowing that we are paying a fair price is more important than knowing whether something is affordable.
Publicly revealing the developmental costs will also improve the government’s credibility. Declining the basic rights of the people, the government is only arousing suspicions.
This is the reason why we need opposition in parliament, to keep the government honest and accountable to justify their policies. Singaporeans need answers to why housing prices are spiking up 30%.
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