Meet-the-People Sessions

Meet-the-People Sessions (MPSes) is a series of one-to-one meetings between elected members of parliament and their constituents in Singapore. The MPS are usually held once a week at a local constituency office staffed by partisan volunteers. Constituents visit their representatice at the respective MPSes in hope of resolving their various problems encountered in daily living. The MP will write petition letters to the relevant ministry, statutory board or any concerned parties to appeal on behalf of the resident. These letters are usually accorded a higher priority by the Civil Service as they come from elected Members of Parliament, regardless even from elected Opposition MPs as the Singapore Civil Service is ought to accord MPs in equality and democratic as based and sworn by the Singapore National Pledge.

Cases deal with a wide range of issues. The list is not exhaustive such as family financial problems (e.g. health-cost issues, jobs seeking, financial assistance), CPF matters, various licenses, HDB-related problems (e.g. subsidized rental housing, obtaining a subsidized HDB flat), immigration issues, and appeals for school admissions and school fee subsidy, neighbor and any other relational disputes.

Almost all Meet-the-People sessions starts after 7pm and can routinely last past midnight based on queue, and are staffed by volunteers.

The establishment of these sessions can be traced back to David Marshall of the Labour Front in the 1950s.

The rationale for the MPS is so that Members of Parliament can get a feel of the ground. Even cabinet Ministers are required to go to their weekly MPS, although sometimes they may seek help from another MP to cover duties when they have ministerial or other work duties to attend to.

The 1966 Wee Chong Jin Constitutional Commission had recommended an Ombudsman to deal with complaints against the bureaucracy, but Parliament rejected the recommendation and instead preferred that such cases were handled by the Members of Parliament themselves or the national Feedback Unit. This need to perform an Ombudsman function is probably another rationale for having the MPS.

...
Wikipedia