RC Council formed to strengthen grassroots movement

SINGAPORE: A Residents’ Committee (RC) Council has been set up to better coordinate outreach efforts of all the 569 RCs in Singapore.

Twenty—five RC members from Singapore’s five districts have been appointed to the Council, which is led by Nee Soon GRC MP, Dr Lim Wee Kiak.

The People’s Association (PA) said a key area for the Council is to guide the RCs in understanding residents better and to come up with innovative programmes.

The Council is also working with PA and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) to roll out a broadband scheme to support RCs in connecting with residents through social media.

RCs were first formed in 1977 to promote neighbourliness and social cohesion among residents in public housing estates.

The PA’s deputy chairman, Lim Swee Say, assured that RCs will be well supported by the PA.

Mr Lim said: "We want our RCs to become an even more innovative grassroots movement, so in the other words, every RC will be encouraged to look at your catchment, look at your priorities and then the resources will be supported, so not all RCs will be the same, in fact we want all RCs to be same same, but different. Same same as in we are out there to serve the residents, but it must be different depending on the interests and priorities of the community that you serve."

Adviser of the RC Council Dr Lim said: "The RC Council will now serve as a separate platform whereby the RCs themselves will be able to come together to inform PA as to what programmes they will like to see and how they would like to move forward. Likewise, PA can also engage the RC Council directly now, so that they can reach out to all the 569 RCs — not as a top—down approach but as more of a little approach."

— CNA/ck