Working together as One Community

Changi Simei, Singapore, 5 Dec 2010

This morning, I was at Kg Chai Chee Division with fellow Chairmen of various Citizens Consultative Committees in East Coast and Joo Chiat (the super heroes are on the left photo)  welcoming Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister in Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance and Transport in her ministerial community visit. I stayed throughout the visit which comprised of 4 stations including the usual dialogue session with minister.  

Back in 2007, Changi Simei hosted the ministerial community visit on 3 Dec 2007. The visiting minister was Mr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports. Then we too had 4 stations, a mass walk, and a visit to Sunbird estate, a carnival at Blk 229 and a dialogue session.

The visit begun at 8.50 am on the arrival of the visiting minister. The minister was greeted by the host Member of Parliament, Mr Lee Yi Shyan, and other MP in East Coast GRC, Professor Jayakumar, Mr Abdullah Tarmugi, Mr Raymond Lim and Ms Jessica Tan.

On her arrival, Minister Lim was led to the carnival ground where together with the other MPs, opened the carnival. This was done by releasing balls in the net above the residents. Once the net is released, the balls came down to the delight of residents who picked them up as souvenirs. It seemed that I was at the wrong place during the launch. Many residents move forward thus shoving me aside. The lesson learn was “don’t get in the way” of what people desired to do. There was also a street soccer demonstration put up by Geylang United, one of the professional soccer clubs in the Singapore League. The netball demonstration, the games stalls, the music played a school marching band, the sound and laughter of residents generated much vibrancy in this station.

We next proceed to Station 2 which was visiting the “Pasar” at Blk 216 ie the wet market and food centre. We walked through the wet market with Minister Lim, Mr Lee Yi Shyan and Ms Jessica Tan greetings stall holders and residents in the market. The stall holders and the grassroots leaders were like buddies. Their relationships was perhaps cemented years ago and deepened during the hawker upgrading project where both grassroots leaders and the stall holders worked together to roll out the project.

I heard an interesting comment during the visit to the food centre “oh, election is coming so they are now visiting”. Such comment may not bring justice to our political leaders and the grassroots leaders who have covered the ground. Such comment reflected the ignorance of this group of senior folks who were dressed smartly. Ministerial Community Visit has been a regular feature for the younger minister. I had the honour to organise one such visit in Dec 2007, one and half year after the general election in early 2006. In reality, I was informed of the intention of such visit about a year ahead of the visit. There have been many ministerial community visits since.

Therefore, the negativity of these uncles and aunties who made the comment was unwarranted and it boiled down to their poor awareness of the environment that they were in. Not seeing is not equivalent of no happening at all. I am sure, MPs and grassroots leaders walk the ground very often to engage residents and for ministerial community visit, it takes place about once a month for younger ministers to get to know other divisions.

The 3^rd station was meaningful in that there was a human touch. At this station, besides the completion ceremony of Lift Upgrading Programme, Re-vitalisation of Shops, Main Upgrading Programme etc. A sketch on barrier free was also played on stage. I liked the scripts on barrier free as with its completion, it would mean hat henceforth, getting from place to place by those on wheel chairs, those who have weak legs, the senior folks, those with heavy marketing items would be able to get around the estate easily without much hassle. All these good comforts in life were paid for by the government but unfortunately, many viewed them as their entitlements instead of privileges that the government shared their budget surpluses with the people.

During the one hour or so dialogue session which was the last station, a couple of questions were raised.

One question dealt with the refund of the wrongful deduction in the new distance fare structure. The resident elaborated on the inconvenience of seeking refund. Nonetheless, the minister clarified that with ground feedback, the procedure for seeking refund had been streamlined. On 18 Dec 2010, just tap the link card at the refund counter, the refund would be automatically credited into the link card. There would not be a need to remember about the trips made as the previous travel history were available in the link card thus using IT to resolve the manual way of refund. That was a piece of good news.

One youth asked about which sector of the industries would be thriving and was referred to a study paper available in the government web site for her reading. I don’t think youth during my time would dare to ask such questions so that she could decide the direction she would taking.

A petition was handed over to the minister. The petition addressed the future of the food centre at Blk 207 after its lease expires on 31 Dec 2014. Many of the stall holders who according to the representative who spoke were fearful of the lost of their livelihoods as they have been operating in the food centre since 1978. I could empathise with these stall holders but there is a shelf life for everything. Even our HDB flats have a 99 lease and when its lease lapses, our HDB flats would be returned to HDB. There are always conflicts in life and it is about conflict management to find an acceptable solution for every players.

Yet another resident passionately requested for additional facilities to be made at the Bedok Polyclinic and wanting to know more about the proposed sport hubs. This resident also suggested ideas to get thing done which was praised by the Minister in her reply.

One senior citizen asked about transferring her Block she lives to Fengshan CC as she reckoned that Fengshan CC is located just a street away from her home. Mrs Lim Hwee Hua and Mr Lee Yi Shyan thanked her for her suggestion. Well, does this matter as electoral boundaries are artificial lines drawn to mark areas of responsibilities for politicians like members of parliament. It is arbitrarily and it is not a state to state boundary that one cannot trespasses without proper immigration document.  The senior citizens could join any of the community centres’ based activities as long as they think that the activities are worth their time and money.

The question that set every one in the hall straight was a question on whether HDB had taken measurs on cooling the housing prices. Minister gave an update on how the measures were derived from a study commissioned by Ministry of National Development and Housing and Development Board. Minister Lim said that the cooling measures are beginning to take effect and HDB is also building another 22,000 units of flat next year to further cool the market. With many flats being put on the market, it may dampen demand but the issue is that many would still prefer flats in the mature estate in view of its convenience. How prices will come down will depend on in the next few months, prospective buyers and sellers view the government cooling measures.

The grassroots leaders in Kg Chai Chee had put up a sterling performance in the organisation of this morning visit. The event went like clockwork. It was certainly an event to be remembered by residents of Kg Chai Chee and the informative session derived during the dialogue with the visiting minister. Besides information, the winners of this ministerial community visit were the residents themselves, who came, saw, interact and bond as one community.

I had also learned some thing about the spirit of Kg Chai Chee. Well done Kg Chai Chee