Civil rights group criticises Home Affairs Ministry for failing to answer their emails

Civil rights group Function 8 has criticised the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for failing to answer their queries. In a Facebook post published last Friday (13 Sept), the group wrote:

“Function 8 is disappointed with the civil servants in the Ministry of Home Affairs. They do not acknowledge or answer correspondence from citizens. Their feedback unit does not even generate an automatic acknowledgement.

“As a public institution serving the citizens of Singapore with an estimated expenditure of nearly $59 million for FY2019 on International & Public Relations, Public Communications, we find it disturbing and ironic that it cannot employ a single staff to attend to emails from the public.”

Function 8 revealed that it contacted the MHA for information on persons arrested under the ISA and the fate of several Myanmar nationals who were deported, in July this year.

Despite multiple attempts to get answers or even an acknowledgement that their queries have been received, the group said that their emails and mails went unanswered.

Sharing pictures of their correspondence to the ministry, Function 8 asked: “What can we, as citizens of Singapore, do to make our ministers and civil servants accountable to us?”

One of the most prominent members of Function 8 is Teo Soh Lung. Ms Teo, a lawyer, was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) during 1987’s Operation Spectrum. In 2011, Ms Teo stood as a candidate for the Singapore Democratic Party in that year’s general election.

The Independent has sought comment from the MHA on Function 8’s complaint. We will update this article once we receive a response.