[S I M T A N]

True....with SERS Singaporeans have no say...they can just force 

This type of forcing is not allowed elsewhere.

My suggestion is to change this to allow residents to vote.

I think it would be fairer.

The govt now is not like 50yrs ago. 
It has the resources to offer a fair deal.

Also, since it can usually make much more by redeveloping the place with a higher plot ratio, they will gain.

You’re right in saying the present govt has enormous financial firepower to ensure compensation offered to the affected families is fair, in accordance with legal requirements. In the years after independence, however, we were extremely poor. Under the stewardship of LKY, there was a pressing need for lands to carry out lots of developmental projects in resettlement and the nascent industries.
 
The Land Acquisition Act was enacted in ‘67 to give the democratic nascent govt the power of compulsory land acquisition for public development. But the compensations disbursed to land owners and pig farmers were thought to be barely adequate, leading some to brand the compensatory payments as deriving from “kampung law.” As the country grew more affluent, the act was amended in ‘73. The revised act justly fixed the compensation amount for acquired land at the market rate.
 
Holding a “microcosmic referendum” to decide a Sers issue -- which is basically about whether a parcel of land on which a few blocks of flats sit should give way for a planned project on that parcel -- is a bad idea, impractical and may lead to chaos.
 
Imagine asking the Marsiling residents to vote for or against the planned Woodlands Checkpoint expansion being built on the site of their abodes. At a time of increasingly unattractive rehousing benefits, an awful lot of residents may vote against the proposal, citing reasons like “compensation nowhere near enough,” “emotional attachment to their homes” and the “inconvenience of moving house.”
 
More votes of “nay” than “aye” would mean the painstakingly-researched master plan for the expansion of the world’s busiest border crossing will go down the drain and prolong the frustrations of hundreds of thousands of jam-stuck daily commuters crossing the causeway to no end.
 
When the urban planners put forward a blueprint for a site to be acquired for a redevelopment project, it is for the betterment of the people. The planners work hand in glove with housing analysts and infrastructure engineers to carve out a piece of meticulously careful research after looking at the practicalities; there’s no sentimentality or whatever involved. Just think why the Sers issues never came to vote.