Your daily OM….

Questionable Ethics and Pure Hostility towards Community Cats

Background of the Case:

Last week, the Town Council Property Officer received a complaint from the Eunos Crescent area.  The complainant was upset that a stray cat ran into their house and scared their grandchildren.  They therefore asked that Town Council to remove the cat.  The cat caught was far from black, it was white.  Mr. Snowy, a sterilised cat.

However, the complainant realizing that their one letter to the MP and GM could be so powerful, decided to complain against another black cat which is still running around the neighborhood.

Fact:

The cats in this neighborhood are 100% sterilised.  They do not create trouble for people, do not caterwaul and do not exhibit territorial behaviours.

Prequel:

Being a resident in the area and a Cat Welfare Committee Member, I decided to meet the MP at the Meet-the-People session.  The entire episode just made me lose every little single shred of respect I have for Dr. Ong Seh Hong, the MP of the Marine Parade GRC.

The Session:

I started off explaining the background of the case and what CWS do on the ground to try to control the cat population.  He wasn’t giving me much pockets of conversation window to actually cover what I want in detail and immediately made blanket statements like:

“I walk around the neighborhood.  There are complaints of cats scratching cars.  And when cats poo they do it on the sidewalk.”

It makes me wonder if he really saw the happenings or are they just hearsays he read / heard from other Town Councils and conveniently apply them here.

I appeal to him to balance the sentiments of cat haters and cat lovers.  And he again blanket sweep concluding that there are more cat haters in this neighborhood than cat lovers. (Hmm…really?  But this happen to be the Malay Village area, Geylang Serai…where healthy fat cats run in abundance and feeders try to keep up with the sterilizations).

I offered to do a survey of how many residents don’t mind tolerating cats, like cats, and hate cats.  He said that if this survey was done by me, the responses will swing favorably to cat lovers. Unless I can show him survey results done by independent 3rd parties.

I proceeded to tell him that the complainant does not live in the neighborhood.  He only comes back once in a blue moon to visit his parents.  Why does he have the right to order Town Council to remove sterilised cats?  Dr Ong offered no explanation and just asked me to go confront the complainant to “educate” him.

I responded that the people who need to be “educated” first would be the Town Council.  I asked him what’s the rectification / resolution for this case and he said “NO RESOLUTION”. I asked if he’s going to remove a cat everytime someone complains and he said “yes”.

When I proceeded to “educate” him on the whole VACUUM EFFECT and what CWS do, he scoffed at me and very condescendingly tell me that I can fight all I want but they still act whenever there’s a complaint. He didn’t let me begin what I set out to say, let alone finish.

I never felt so disrespected or patronized when talking to an MP.  I stood up, stared him in the eyes and asked him “SO WHERE’S THE VALUE-ADD FROM THIS MTP-SESSION?” He shrugged his shoulders and walked away…averting my glare the whole time.

Name                    :      Dr Ong Seh Hong
Constituency     :     Marine Parade GRC
Address               :     c/o Marine Parade Town Council
Blk 50 Marine Terrace #01-265
Singapore 440050
Tel                         :     64487529
Email                    :     ongsh@mptc.org.sg

My Om..pinion of the Day:

A Buddhist should show loving kindness (or metta), no?  I didn’t feel any sense of compassion for animals in our brief conversation, let alone any Bodhicitta. And on his CV, his religion was stated as Buddhism? Hmm…Om Mani Padme Om.  Anyway, calling TRUE KIND SOULS….please give Snowy a home.  He’s a very beautiful and friendly cat.

Some Interesting read:

1. “End of Road for PAP MP Ong Seh Hong” – http://singsupplies.com/showthread.php?t=24925

2. “PAP Dr. Ong Seh Hong eat and littled in Parliament” – http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.singapore/2009-02/msg00920.html

3. “Of Dr. Ong Seh Hong, Renci Charity Scandal, NEA and the Geylang Serai Indian Rojak Mass Food Poisoning Incident” – http://singaporeshortstories.blogspot.com/2009/04/of-dr-ong-seh-hong-ren-chi-charity.html

4. “It’s your ‘duty’ to procreate – ST, Mar 10” – http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=85678&page=10