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  Today Online 13 Oct 06
Reaching out better
21-year-old Feedback Unit takes on new media, new channels--and a new name
Tor Ching Li

Straits Times 13 Oct 06
Revamped Feedback Unit to Reach out to more citizens
By Lynn Lee

Channel NewsAsia 12 Oct 06
Feedback unit to be renamed REACH
By S Ramesh

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Feedback Unit, which has turned 21 this year, will be revamped and renamed. Its new name will be REACH, or Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry @ Home.

Announcing this at the feedback unit's 21st anniversary celebrations, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the revamp is aimed at raising the level of public engagement, promote active citizenry, and create more avenues for Singaporeans to involve themselves in the issues that affect their lives.

Mr Lee stressed the government wants to encourage more people to care about issues, take them up, and shape the character and life of Singapore society.

The Feedback Unit's biggest achievement in the last 21 years says Mr Lee is that it has succeeded in changing mindsets both in the civil service and the public.

"In the Government, public consultation is now part and parcel of all major policy initiatives. Feedback is systematically solicited. Exposure drafts of policy papers and legislative changes are published for comments. To facilitate face to face discussions, we have brought together focus groups involving a wide spectrum of Singaporeans, including with industry and professional associations and the unions. All this has improved policy making in Government," said Mr Lee.

Mr Lee added that through such feedback and civic engagement, the government has made many changes to address the concerns of Singaporeans, like sign language for the national day broadcast.

"More recently, one MP told me that one of his residents had asked for sign language to be provided for the National Day Message broadcast, so that hearing-impaired viewers could follow what was said," said Mr Lee.

He added, "I discussed this with Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and consulted MediaCorp. MediaCorp agreed to provide subtitling for the broadcasts, which achieved the same objective but was easier to do. In fact, MediaCorp has now gone further to provide subtitling for selected news programmes. These examples show that feedback can make a difference."

Mr Lee acknowledged that the situation today with regard to participation and feedback is different from the 1980s, with an increasing number of Singaporeans speaking up or writing in, and stepping forward to serve the community, and he pledged the Government's commitment to engaging Singaporeans.

Mr Lee also said that he wanted to encourage more people to care about issues; take them up; and shape the character and life of Singaporean society.

The challenge ahead was to engage Singaporeans even more deeply and, to find out what people thought of the Feedback Unit, a two month consultation exercise was held.

"For this revamp we would want to reach out more to the heartlanders and the so-called silent majority. We are thinking of working with grassroots as well as advisors, go down to the ground and constituencies to have dialogue sessions with them. These are ways we can help to connect the government with more Singaporeans and we will also want to close the loop as far as possible," said Dr Amy Khor, Chairman, REACH.

In the next few months, REACH will carry out a review to enhance the effectiveness of its Feedback Groups. It will also look into developing Citizen Workgroups, formed on an ad-hoc basis to study specific issues that people feel strongly about, and to explore possible approaches and strategies with the relevant Ministries.

REACH will also tap the new media extensively, including blogs and SMS, to reach more Singaporeans and launch a new website. One of the features will be an electronic townhall, where Singaporeans can engage Government agencies through real time chats.

"The Government is committed to stepping up its engagement of citizens. I hope that Singaporeans also understand that good government cannot be based on feedback alone. On nearly every issue, there will be a range of views and ideas. Much as we would like to, it is impossible to make everyone happy with every individual policy. Nor would it be healthy if everyone had the same opinion on every subject. At the end of the process it is the Government's duty to decide, based on the best interests of the nation," said Mr Lee.

However, Mr Lee said that just because an opinion has not been accepted did not mean that the process was unimportant, or that the people's opinions did not matter.

Through the process of consultation, discussion and engagement, Mr Lee feels that the Government can get Singaporeans to understand issues better, build a consensus on the direction forward, and a common vision of Singapore's future, and thus open up Singaporean society while remaining cohesive and united as a nation. - CNA /dt

Today Online 13 Oct 06
Reaching out better
21-year-old Feedback Unit takes on new media, new channels--and a new name
Tor Ching Li chingli@mediacorp.com.sg

THE Feedback Unit--once referred to by its current chairman Dr Amy Khor as a "black hole from which no light emits"--has revamped its image and role after 21 years of channelling voices from the ground to the Government.

Now called Reach, or Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry @ Home, the unit aims to engage the heartlands, employ new media such as blogs and e-Townhall sessions and gather a broader range of views via ad hoc citizens' workgroups.

To address the "black hole" perception, Reach will focus on closing the feedback loop by sending reports and findings from their various consultation sessions to the participants.

Dr Khor, who is also Mayor for South West CDC, said Reach would also help facilitate more detailed replies from the relevant ministries to the public--instead of "infuriatingly official and non-committal" ones.

These changes take into account views gathered from a month-long public consultation exercise held last month involving some 750 people; 180 people took part in dialogue sessions and 564 responses were collected via online and telephone polls.

Eight in 10 felt that the unit should continue in its role of gathering feedback on Government policies and issues, and acting as a bridge between the Government and the people.

Said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, at the unit's anniversary dinner last night: "The Feedback Unit has come a long way since it was first established. Its biggest achievement in the last 21 years is that it has succeeded in changing mindsets both in the civil service and the public at large.

"In the Government, public consultation is now part and parcel of all major policy initiatives. Feedback is systematically solicited."

Last year, the Feedback Unit held 28 dialogue sessions on various issues, as compared with 20 sessions in 1986 soon after the unit was first set up by Mr Goh Chok Tong, then Deputy Prime Minister, in 1985.

Reach will continue to gather feedback--and more.

According to Dr Khor, the formation of ad hoc citizens' workgroups early next year will encourage more active citizenry from Singaporeans. "With just fixed Feedback Groups, we can't get more people involved," she said.

Meanwhile, the current eight Feedback Groups will also be restructured from covering specific areas such as "transport" and "SMEs" to broader scopes such as "the economy" and "built environment".

Said Dr Khor: "We're also thinking of tying up with the Government Parlimentary Committees to involve the Feedback Groups as part of the resource panel for the committees."

Another plan is to bring dialogue sessions into the heartlands to reach "the silent majority" for the first time, through collaboration with the grassroots and constituency advisors.

Launched yesterday, the new Reach website (www.reach.gov.sg) will feature blogs and an e-Townhall platform for the public to engage Government agencies in real-time discussion on various policy issues.

Issues on which public input has made an impact include the preservation of Chek Jawa and the use of Medisave for outpatient treatments.

However, Mr Lee stressed that good government cannot be based on feedback alone; eventually, it is the Government's duty to discern what is in the nation's best interest.

"But just because an opinion has not been accepted does not mean that the process is unimportant, or that people's opinions do not matter," he said. "Through the process of consultation, discussion and engagement, we can get Singaporeans to understand issues better, build a consensus on the direction forward, and a common vision of Singapore.

"This is how we can open up our society, while remaining cohesive and united as a nation."

Straits Times 13 Oct 06
Revamped Feedback Unit to Reach out to more citizens
By Lynn Lee

AFTER 21 years, the Feedback Unit has come of age and is gearing up to reach out to even more citizens. For a start, it is launching a new name and image. So, it's out with Feedback Unit and in with Reach - or Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry@Home.

It has three new broad aims, said Feedback Supervisory Panel chairman Amy Khor, who took over the helm in May.

These are to tap a more diverse range of views, ensure that more citizens remain engaged in policy decision-making, and that they are involved in implementing their suggestions if they get the green light.

On reaching out, it will look at whether the scope of its current eight feedback groups, which scrutinise issues such as community development and health, can be widened.

It will also do more to garner the views of those not traditionally heard, such as the heartlanders. 'They are the silent majority, and very often we may not be able to reach out to them,' Dr Khor said.

Some ideas that have been thrown up include the placing of suggestion boxes at community clubs and working with MPs and grassroots groups to hold dialogues.

Reach will also form ad hoc citizen work groups when issues of interest arise.

The hope is that it will be led by 'passionate' volunteers brimming with ideas. In some instances, these groups will be paired with relevant ministries so they can work out solutions and help roll out new initiatives if their suggestions are adopted.

Reach will also boost efforts to get feedback online. It launched an online forum in 2003. Now, its website will have interactive features such as blogs and an e-town hall, where Singaporeans can have real-time online chats with ministry officials on specific topics.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong launched the unit's new name and logo at a dinner at the Pan Pacific Hotel last night.

He noted that the Feedback Unit's biggest achievement had been in changing the mindsets of the public and civil service to view feedback as an integral part of policy-making. Public consultation is now part and parcel of all major policy initiatives.

'These contributions help my colleagues and me to stay attuned to concerns on the ground, understand what people are thinking and feeling, and adjust policies or their implementation when necessary,' he said.

Mr Lee cited some examples of how feedback had made a difference. These included how the National Development Ministry had deferred reclamation works at Pulau Ubin's Chek Jawa beach after calls by nature lovers some years back, and how Medisave can now be used for selected outpatient treatments, after being mooted by a feedback group earlier this year.

He pledged the Government's commitment to step up the engagement of citizens.

But even so, at the end of the process of feedback and consultation, it is the Government's duty to 'decide, based on the best interests of the nation'. And if their opinion is not accepted, Singaporeans should not feel that the feedback process is unimportant, or that their views do not matter.

Feedback helps people understand issues better, and build a consensus on Singapore's future, he said. 'This is how we can open up our society, while remaining cohesive and united as a nation.'
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