On merit alone

It will ultimately be up to the people of Singapore to decide whether the country is ready for a non-Chinese prime minister, said Senior Minister of State (SMS) Janil Puthucheary... who is from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) and heads the party’s youth wing.

Credit: Institute of Policy Studies.

“I do hope that our racial harmony progresses to the point where when people talk about a non-Chinese prime minister, it’s not about an icon of resetting or an icon of reimagining... but on the basis of that person’s ability to do the job.

“And that will be for Singaporeans to decide.”

It’s disappointing to read this, although I’m not surprised - he has to toe the party line after all.

The people of Singapore do not choose the next Prime Minister of Singapore. It is the party which wins the General Election that chooses the next Prime Minister. Nothing is stopping the PAP from putting forward a Prime Minister candidate who is non-Chinese.

On the other hand, the most popular Opposition party in Singapore, the Workers’ Party, has seen its chief - Low Thia Khiang, a Chinese-educated man wildly popular in the Chinese dialect-speaking heartlands - successfully pass the baton to an English-educated Sikh, Pritam Singh.

In the last General Election, Pritam led a more-than-diverse slate of candidates to run in Aljunied GRC. Other than him, there were two Chinese, one Malay, and one Eurasian. They won resoundingly with 60 per cent of the vote, even in the “heartlands” in the wards of Paya Lebar, Eunos, and Bedok Reservoir-Punggol.

I think Singaporeans are more than ready to look past race when picking our next crop of leaders.

***

That said, I want the best person possible for the Prime Minister of Singapore. It doesn’t matter if the Prime Minister is a Chinese man, a Malay woman, or an Indian transgender - I want this Prime Minister to be chosen based on merit alone. Likewise, I want other candidates to be rejected based on the lack of merit alone.

I don’t want it to be a case of “Singapore is not ready for a minority Prime Minister”, or “it’s a good thing to have a minority Prime Minister”. I don’t want good minority candidates to be rejected solely because of their race, just as I don’t want a minority minister just because it fulfils some race checklist.

The number one lamp post

Tuas South Boulevard is the southernmost public road in Singapore Island, and now, its southernmost lamp post - named Tuas Lamp Post 1 on Google Maps - has become the ONLY lamp post in Singapore on which stickers are officially allowed to be pasted. Ha!

Tuas Lamp Post 1 at the southern end of Tuas South Boulevard, facing south. Beyond is the worksite of the future Tuas Megaport. This Google Maps view was taken in July 2019; the lamp post looked clean then.

Search for “Tuas Lamp Post 1” on the Internet and you will find images of cyclists posing in front of a lamp post adorned with stickers.

Located about 13km from the Tuas Checkpoint, this street light has in recent years become a popular spot for cyclists, who leave stickers as an indication that they have visited among the westernmost points of Singapore.

However, photos circulating on social media on Christmas last year showed workers removing dozens of stickers that had been plastered on the lamp post.

But in a Facebook post on Thursday (Jan 7), Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung announced that changes will be made. Calling it a “special lamp post”, Mr Ong noted that many people were sad to see the stickers go.

“Urban folklore has it that cyclists on round-island trips will make a pit stop there, where they will take photos with the lamp post, and leave their favourite stickers behind,” said Mr Ong.

“I have discussed with (the) Land Transport Authority, who in (turn) discussed with JTC. We decided to make an exception for this lamp post, given that it's a far out location and a special spot to help cyclists find their way,” he said.

“These are little exceptions to the rule, which do not cause disamenities or pose safety hazards to the public, to brighten up life in Singapore,” he added, noting he hoped to visit the lamp post himself one day.

Cycling advocate Francis Chu, 60, welcomed the minister’s announcement as an endorsement of one of the ways the cycling community here expressed itself.

“It is a nice gesture from the authorities that they are willing to listen and be flexible when the situation allows. The stickers collected on that remote lamp post can be seen as a piece of ‘community art’, co-created by the cyclists and evolving as time goes,” said the co-founder of enthusiast group LoveCyclingSG...

I guess one lamp post on which organic expressions are allowed - located in one of the most far-flung, remote corners of Singapore - is better than none!

Credit: Tao Qin, via Google Maps.

Credit: Tao Qin, via Google Maps.

I will probably have to rely on cyclists to upload photos of Tuas Lamp Post 1 on Google Maps. The landmark is 4km from the nearest bus stop along Tuas South Avenue 5, and more than 10km from the nearest MRT station, Tuas West Road.

Credit: Reno Kho, via Google Maps.

Forests and golf

After a new National Development Minister - reputedly a nature buff - took over the portfolio last year, I had hoped for a fundamental relook at how land use is managed in Singapore. I had looked forward to the conservation of more forests and areas of natural heritage.

Not for Clementi Forest, it seems. The old trope of how “land-scarce, densely-populated Singapore must balance the needs of development and conservation” remains.

Clementi Forest. Credit: Brice Li.

Clementi Forest. Base picture credit: Google Maps.

Clementi Forest will continue to be earmarked for residential use, but there is “no immediate need” to develop the site for housing, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee yesterday.

In a written response to Dr Tan Wu Meng (Jurong GRC), Mr Lee noted that the site has been zoned for residential use since 1998.

“We will... retain the zoning of the site, while giving our future generations the option of deciding whether to use it for housing, if the need arises,” he said.

Drone footage of the green stretch near King Albert Park went viral last October, with nature enthusiasts later starting a petition to call for the area to be rezoned as a nature park.

Dr Tan had asked if any environmental impact studies had been done on the area, and if the land could be designated as a national park or nature reserve.

Workers’ Party MP Dennis Tan (Hougang) had also asked on Monday if the Ministry of National Development would consider reviewing the status of Clementi Forest and other forests earmarked for development.

In his response to both MPs, the minister stressed that land-scarce, densely populated Singapore will have to balance the needs of development and conservation. As part of long-term planning, land is set aside early for its potential use for future generations.

Mr Lee said: “In doing so, we endeavour to balance the demands and trade-offs across a variety of land-use needs, including that of housing, green spaces, infrastructure and workplaces.”

He pointed out that Singapore has, where possible, reviewed its plans to retain green spaces that could have been used for industry.

For instance, the Mandai mangroves and mudflats were initially planned for factory use. But the area’s ecological value led the authorities to preserve it as a nature park, Mr Lee said.

Other green spaces, such as Thomson and Windsor nature parks, could have been used for housing but are currently retained as green buffers to Singapore’s nature reserves, he added.

And yet other areas such as the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and the upcoming Khatib Bongsu Nature Park were once prawn farming areas. These were abandoned, acquired by the Government, and have over time become green spaces inhabited by indigenous flora and fauna.

Clementi Forest was itself an abandoned rubber plantation that has become a secondary forest, Mr Lee added.

At present, about 7,800ha of land in Singapore is set aside for green spaces, ranging from nature reserves to parks and park connectors. An additional 1,000ha of green space will be added over the next 10 to 15 years.

“After weighing the alternatives and trade-offs, there will be areas that we cannot avoid developing,” Mr Lee said. “Nonetheless, for these sites, possible environmental impacts will still be carefully managed, and natural elements will be integrated within developments where possible.”

He added that there may be changes to how Singapore plans for office and industrial spaces as its economy transforms, with road space potentially freed up for other purposes as the country moves towards its vision of being car-lite.

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Since Singapore is “land-scarce” and “densely-populated”... how about (further) reducing the number of golf courses.

In 2014, it was reported that Singapore had 14 private and three public golf courses, occupying a total of 1,500 hectares of land, or about 2 per cent of the Republic’s total land area.

Since then, two golf courses - Jurong Country Club and Raffles Country Club - have vacated their premises, and the land returned to the State for redevelopment, in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Keppel Club will not have its lease extended after it expires at the end of 2021; likewise for the Marina Bay Golf Course, after its lease expires in 2024.

Altogether, about 200 hectares of land have been and will be freed up for other uses, leaving 1,300 hectares still dedicated to an activity largely reserved for the well-to-do - just 1 per cent of Singaporeans play golf.

Island Golf Course, south of Lower Peirce Reservoir. Credit: Google Maps.

Sembawang Golf Course, north of Mandai Avenue. Credit: Google Maps.

Laguna National Golf & Country Club, NSRCC Golf Course, and Tanah Merah Golf Course, south of Changi Airport. Credit: Google Maps.

The authorities have acknowledged that “golfing and golf clubs are land intensive”, and that “there is a need to balance the competing demands for land”. And steps have been taken to pare down the amount of land taken up by golf courses. However, the cut is not significant enough. More precious land can and should be freed up for the greater good.

Redeveloping half the 1,300 hectares - 650 hectares - would be a good start.

For comparison, the entire Greater Bukit Brown area - immensely rich in both natural and cultural heritage - covers just 158 hectares.

Bukit and Sime Golf Courses next to the Greater Bukit Brown area. Base picture credit: Google Maps.

It is possible for “land-scarce, densely-populated Singapore” to “balance the needs of development and conservation” - it is a case of assessing whether certain types of development, such as golf courses, really deserve the amount of land allocated to them.