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did just now as well, because the effort has
to come from ourselves. We can live peacefully together if we show consideration and learn
how to give and take. To this end, I agree with many members like Ms Irene Ng and Mr
Hawazi Daipi that citizens should try to resolve their personal conflicts amicably, amongst
themselves. We have spoken to some stakeholders on managing community disputes. Many say that
building strong neighbourly ties can help to reduce conflict. If neighbours know one
another, they will be more likely to broach issues sensitively, and come to a consensus.
Most of the people we consulted called for more public education efforts to encourage
consideration and graciousness in our community. And we agree with them as well as with suggestions
from members to put more effort in this area because day-to-day acts of kindness will also
help to make our communities a more pleasant place to live.
MCCY will continue to work closely with partner agencies like HDB and the
Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) to encourage neighbours to get to know one another, to
strengthen the "kampong spirit" in our urban city. At the same time, we recognise that
there are some who need help resolving tensions with their neighbours. It is sometimes useful
to have a neutral party to help disputing parties communicate better. Grassroots leaders
already undertake this role, and they do their best to informally mediate disputes between
neighbours. Residents can also seek formal mediation at the Community Mediation Centre
or the CMC. It has a fairly good success rate. Out of the 521 cases heard last year, about
70% were successfully resolved. And we believe that mediation continues to be a very
important process as both parties agree on a solution, so there is ownership and responsibility
to follow through. It also helps to preserve and mend relationships, so that neighbours
can continue living harmoniously alongside one another. So we also intend, as part of
our enhanced framework, to increase the CMC's capacity, and provide more mediation training
to grassroots leaders. However, as several members have noted, we cannot compel people
to go for mediation. Currently, 60% of the cases registered with CMC do not turn up.
There are also several difficult and long-standing cases that are initially resolved through
mediation, but later flare up again. Several Members spoke about this, of some of these
very difficult cases and "deadlocked disputes". I share their concerns, and that's why we
had earlier set up an inter-agency team involving my Ministry, together with MinLaw, MHA, MND,
and the team has proposed several measures to strengthen our Community Dispute Resolution Framework.
A key part of the framework is a Community Dispute Resolution
Tribunal to adjudicate difficult cases between neighbours. The Tribunal will have the powers
to mandate mediation, to give parties the chance to communicate and compromise. The
Tribunal can also make judgements and issue orders which will have to be complied with,
failing which there will be consequences including prosecution. So the Tribunal will provide
legal recourse for difficult cases, and especially for aggrieved parties. But I must qualify
that the Tribunal should neither be the first recourse nor the main way we resolve our disputes.
This would be counter-productive. We want to promote a strong sense of community ownership and collective
responsibility, and mediation should remain the first priority. I think Ms Irene Ng agreed
to that and several Members as well. So we do want the Tribunal to be there but it should
be there as a last resort, for the difficult cases.