SINGAPORE: Concerns have arisen online over the way the Ministry of National Development and Sembawang GRC MP Poh Li San responded to a suggestion Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan recently made.
The veteran opposition leader had commented in a recent social media post that a Sembawang West resident he had recently spoken to said there were hardly any green spaces and playgrounds for his children.
Calling this “sad,” Dr Chee said, “Now, you don’t need an MP to be there for five years to notice that Sembawang West lacks green open spaces and playgrounds. If an MP truly cared about the well-being of his residents, he would’ve noticed the matter and asked the government what could be done to rectify it.”
Dr Chee’s post quickly gained the attention of Ms Poh. She took to Facebook to share a photograph of herself running with Sembawang residents and, in what appeared to be a pointed comment, said: “Life isn’t defined by political lines. It’s shaped by the places we love and the community we share. In Sembawang West, nature and recreation are always close by.”
She then proceeded to list a series of local parks, park connectors, leisure spaces and community gardens. She added, “It takes time and commitment to truly know a place. But spend just a week in Sembawang and you’ll already know where to go for that perfect evening stroll. Because home isn’t just where we live. It’s where we belong.”
Ms Poh has reason to hit back against Dr Chee — she is expected to go toe-to-toe with him at the next election at the new Sembawang West SMC. Dr Chee has already staked his claim to the ward and while the ruling party is keeping its cards close, Ms Poh is tipped to be the party’s pick for the single-member ward.
But critics are wondering whether this should have been the battle the incumbent should have picked with Dr Chee. For one, some eagle-eyed observers are asking why she posted a photograph from 7 January 2024 – a shot taken more than a year ago – to make her point.
MND then joined the conversation. The ministry thanked Dr Chee for his suggestion but claimed that the SDP leader had suggested the acquisition of residents’ homes for the purpose of creating more open spaces and greenery. The ministry also thanked Ms Poh “for pointing out that nature and recreation are always close by in Sembawang West”.
Like Ms Poh, the ministry issued a list of green spaces residents can avail in Singapore, including two neighbourhood parks, two regional parks, open spaces, precinct greens, community gardens, and a network of park connectors and cycling paths. MND also listed future plans for additional green spaces, which it said “can be achieved without acquiring residents’ homes, as Dr Chee has suggested.”
Less than an hour and a half after MND published its post, Ms Poh shared the post on her own Facebook page.
She wrote, “We thank MND for sharing details of many parks and community green spaces in and around Sembawang West that residents can enjoy with their families and friends! We also thank NParks and HDB for the excellent efforts to create a high quality living environment for our residents, with more parks and green spaces to look forward to in the future!”
Netizens have expressed concerns over the tone with which MND responded to Dr Chee. The timing of the posts by the MP and the ministry have also sparked questions as to whether this could have been a targeted campaign to discredit the opposition.
Questioning whether the opposition politician’s remarks were taken out of context, some online have asked why the ministry characterised Dr Chee’s suggestion as something that required acquiring residents’ homes. Dr Chee had, in fact, suggested that the Selective En Bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) could be utilised to earmark areas for redevelopment to implement more open green spaces — after residents benefiting from SERS have been allocated to new homes.
These residents would not be made homeless nor evicted from their homes. MND’s own statutory board, the Housing Development Board (HDB), reports on its website that as of a 2020 survey, “about 90% of the households surveyed were happy with SERS and highly satisfied with their new homes”.
In referring to Dr Chee’s suggestion, however, MND did not mention his key point about SERS.
The main question on some observers’ minds is whether a response was warranted at all. Some have suggested that the posts have backfired since Dr Chee’s initial post had hardly gone viral and the posts by the MP and MND drew more attention to Dr Chee than his own suggestion did.
/TISG