Tan Eng Lock and Ang Ee Jin
Tan Eng Lock:
Since my childhood days, I had been interested in mixing around with friends, neighbours and families. Talking and listening made me realise what life really is like. When I was residing in Sennett Estate, it was my first time meeting the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew who was elected as the first Prime Minister of Singapore. I was accompanied by my elder neighbour who wanted to see the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, giving feedback that the estate had no street lighting and we were very afraid to go out at night when dogs kept barking and chasing after us.
The late Mr Lee Kuan Yew was smiling to him and noted the feedback. A few weeks later, the streets were lighted and we were very happy and safe. We tried to avoid stray dogs so that we would not be chased by them.
During my days in Sennett Estate, I joined the Sennett Community Centre and participated in some games such as badminton and table tennis. Besides, I also mixed with estate friends for cycling and playing football on one of the school fields.
After marriage, I stayed in Spottiswoode Park Estate as I was working in PSA. As my children were still very young, I did not join the Spottiswoode Park RC until early 1990. This was because my children had become independent and I had more time to help out in the RC.
My life in the RC was very challenging as I was able to meet the residents and received some feedback which we were able to help them with. My RC Chairman, Mr Henry Chang, PBM, was very experienced and guided me all along the years. I gained many experiences in the RC as a member, Treasurer, and Secretary. I also shared experiences with the members to organise Lunar New Year Tour, Family Day, National Day Celebration, Hari Raya Puasa, Deepavali, Christmas Party, etc. Many residents supported us in these activities.
In 2004, I was then appointed as RC Chairman. Before officially taking the position, a few of us like all Chairmen from Tanjong Pagar Plaza, Everton Park, Cantonment Towers, and Spottiswoode Park as well as CCC Chairman and CCMC Chairman, were invited to see the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew at the Conference Room in the Istana. When we were at the Istana, we were quite nervous as we heard that he was strict and scary. Our fearfulness cooled down when he approached the Conference Room with a nice smile and greeted us.
During the Tanjong Pagar Constituency Dinner held at the Tanjong Pagar CC, we were allocated seats with the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew. We felt quite uncomfortable sitting and eating with him. Then he turned his head towards me and asked me whether I could take over the project for Lift Upgrading Programme for Spottiswoode. I paused and said I would try. The late Mr Lee Kuan Yew asked me not to worry. All I need was 75% of votes from the owners of the flats and the rest he would take care of.
After many nights of visiting the units, and explaining to them, the survey showed that we achieved 78%. The late Mr Lee Kuan Yew was very glad and said he would take over the rest. As time was running short, we managed to achieve 73% of the total votes and the Lift Upgrading Programme was implemented. The launching of the Lift Upgrading was done on 3 March 2005 and was completed on 5 November 2016.
Ang Ee Jin:
As I am now retired, I spend plenty of time watching and learning new things. Due to the pandemic, I’ve spent quite a good amount of time watching documentaries and have come to learn about the problem of climate change and global warming. Not only do global temperatures rise due to the greenhouse effect, it also causes ice caps to melt, leading to a rise in sea levels. This puts a maritime island nation like us, Singapore, at very high risk!
I realised how we humans have brought this upon mother earth and ourselves and thought that it was of utmost importance for us to take action before the consequences become too severe. Hence, I spent more time researching ways we can help to reduce our carbon footprint, as well as being an advocate for environmental protection. With the rise of social media platforms like Facebook (which a lot of my friends are now on), YouTube, Instagram, and even TikTok, I have seen how individuals like us can have voices that reach the entire globe and can be very good platforms for us to share our passion with the world. For me, I have decided that the environment is what I want to share about - if it doesn’t reach the whole world, I hope it at least gets more Singaporeans to care about it.
One of the most straightforward ways we can help to cut down on our carbon emissions is to use less air-con at home. Not only does air-con leave you with hefty electrical bills, it also consumes a lot of electricity, which (at the moment) is created by burning fossil fuels. It also ejects heat into the surroundings, which gets trapped due to our highly urbanised environment. Yes, Singapore can get quite hot at times but there are many other ways we can stay cool at home, including turning on the fan, which consumes far less electricity, using curtains to block out the sun during the day, and even going to the library to escape the heat during the day since the air-con is already on there! See, so simple!
Another rising problem, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic is buying takeaway food with disposable containers. Did you know, Singapore generated an additional 1334 tonnes of plastic waste during the circuit breaker period? That is equivalent to 92 double-decker buses! This problem can easily be avoided by bringing our own plastic containers and that is something I have personally started doing myself and I hope to be able to start a movement for this one day at the grassroots level.
Last but not least, another behaviour that all Singaporeans should adopt is to make it a habit to segregate our rubbish to increase our recycling rate. Based on any conversations with friends and residents, I realised that most of them do not recycle their rubbish but instead throw all of their bagged refuse into the main rubbish chute. This results in the majority of our waste being incinerated and sent to Semakau Landfill, which is already projected to be fully filled 10 years before its original target of the year 2045. One of my main ideas is to take the lead as a community leader to make Facebook and TikTok videos about easy recycling habits where most seniors and youth spend their time respectively, and would still be a safe way to engage the community in the midst of Covid-19.
While all these green efforts are a far cry from street lamps and lift upgrading programmes, I believe that they are all efforts that Singapore can start to build a better future for our country and people.
