Jamus Lim unabashedly claims credit for revised policies for allocating land to places of worship

jamus lim unabashedly claims credit for revised policies for allocating land to places of worship
The Straits Times reports on 29 May 2023 that religious organisations are set to pay less for new leasehold land and lease renewals, after the Government revised its policies for allocating land to places of worship.
 
True to form, WP Jamus Lim was quick to claim credit in a Facebook post. His basis for claiming credit was because Sylvia Lim had asked a related question in Parliament in Oct 2022, and because both he and Sylvia Lim had made speeches in Parliament earlier this year (2023) that religious institutions need special consideration. 
On 4 October 2022, Sylvia Lim had asked how prices of land leases issued and renewed to religious organisations such as temples and churches are derived.
 
However, even before she asked her question, the Government had already embarked on a review of the policies to calculate land prices for places of worship. 
 
In fact, the Government had put launches on hold since 2020, pending the outcome of its review. The last Chinese temple site launched was in May 2019, and the last church site in December that year
 
The review came about because some religious groups were having difficulty renewing leases for their sites owing to high costs. Land prices for the places of worship have also risen because of competitive bidding by religious organisations. 
 

We have therefore embarked on a review of our place of worship land tender framework and will share more details when ready."

In his answer to Sylvia Lim, Law Minister K Shanmugam reiterated what was already public knowledge. 
 

He said the Government has been in discussions with various Religious Organisations, to consider how best to assist them, in mitigating the price rises, which come from such bidding. The Government has been doing a review of the PW (Places of Worship) land allocation and pricing framework, to see how the price rises can be mitigated.

Mr Shanmugam said this was publicly disclosed and reported in the media in July 2022 in an article titled “Religious groups hope to pay less for leasehold land after policy review.”
 
He also said that significant progress on the review has been made. Details will be released when the process is completed.
 
Did Sylvia and Jamus make their speeches in Parliament this year ahead of the anticipated completion of the review so that they could claim credit for the change
jamus lim unabashedly claims credit for revised policies for allocating land to places of worship

WP's habit of claiming credit

Back in 2020, not long after he was elected as MP, Jamus Lim also unabashedly took credit for the minimum wage feature in the Progressive Wage Model.
 
The Progressive Wage Model (PWM), with its minimum wage feature, was introduced in 2012, many years before Jamus’ election. Still, Jamus ignored this fact and took credit for the minimum wage feature in the model. In a Facebook post, he attributed the feature to the ‘power of the ballot box’ to bring change, and used the hashtag #makeyourvotecount. 
 
Since then, Leader Pritam Singh and Leon Perera have also unabashedly claimed that the Government had adopted a version of their minimum wage proposal even though the PWM was introduced in 2012, and the WP’s minimum wage policy only made its way into their manifesto in 2015. 

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