The Green side of Lee Kuan Yew
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Report By Richard Seah
LEE KUAN YEW DOES NOT SEEM THE kind of person who would lead a "green" political party or an organisation like Greenpeace or the World Wide Fund for Nature. He is best remembered as the prime minister who built Singapore into a city state of skyscrapers, an industrial base for everything from oil rigs to microchips, a giant housing estate of government flats and private condominiums.
The building of modern Singapore meant that kampongs, forests, swamps and even coral reefs had to go. With them went the vegetable gardens, fruit orchards, trees and wildlife — the very things that environmentalists are fighting hard to preserve.
The nation Lee built is not exactly an environment-conscious one. There are no laws to encourage recycling or discourage wastage like those in European countries. While the civil service in countries like Australia has switched to using recycled paper, such paper can scarcely be found in Singapore.
The Ministry of the Environment has been encouraging food hawkers to use Styrofoam plates and bowls, plastic forks and throw-away chopsticks all in the name of hygiene but with apparent disregard for the environmental impact of these products.
So it comes as a surprise that Lee also has a "green" side. He became interested in environmental matters as he could see their potential impact on Singapore — such as if the rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia are destroyed, then Singapore will not get enough rain. In fact, it was to counteract drought that Lee first began planting trees in Singapore.
Lee started the business of planting trees long before the environmentalists came up with the same suggestion for Earth Day. As far back as the early 1960s, he would plant a tree whenever he visited one of his constituencies. Lee took the concept a big step further by getting ordinary citizens Involved. Millions of trees, shrubs and bushes have been planted since Singapore’s first Tree Planting Day.
The result is a Garden City so impressive that tourists, in annual visitor surveys conducted by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, consistently rate "clean and green" as the thing they like best about Singapore. Expertise in urban landscaping have become one of Singapore’s lesser-known exports.
The "Keep Singapore Clean" campaign is another of Lee’s famous or, some would say, infamous doings. Stiff fines for littering and spitting may seem harsh, but it has proved an effective way of controlling pollution at its source. It worked, not just In keeping the place clean, but in making Singaporeans conscious of litter.
Naturally, the keep-clean laws apply to industries as well. In spite of rapid , industrialisation and economic growth, therefore, pollution by Singapore industries has been kept in check. So has pollution by cars.
Some sources of pollution, however, date back to long before Lee became Prime Minister even to before he was born. Both major rivers in the republic — the Singapore and Kallang rivers —used to stink from a mixture of sewage, oil from bumboats and other human, animal and industrial wastes, accumulated since the beginning of Singapore. Today, tourists cruise the Singapore River in bumboats while water-skiers zig—zag down the Kallang. They were cleaned up after a declaration by Lee In 1977 that he wanted to bring fish back to the two rivers within 10 years.
Having successfully brought the fish back, one of Lee’s more recent tasks seems simple by comparison. He wants the birds back too — not the pigeons, mynahs and crows that have adapted to city life but the wild birds.
The World Wide Fund for Nature was consulted and suggested that certain types of fruit-and flower-bearing trees be planted to attract birds. Other experts were consulted and the Parks and Recreation Department planted more such trees. Many different species of birds have returned and one area has even been declared a bird sanctuary. In fact, some of the birds which chose to set up home and possibly breed in Singapore have turned out to be extremely rare.
What motivates Lee to do all this? Maybe it is merely pragmatism and the protection of self — that is, Singaporean — interests? After all, he planted trees to generate rain for Singapore. And he saw that it generated other benefits too, including praise from tourists. But it is more than that, because the survival of the country could be at stake. If global warming causes the sea level to rise, large parts of the island will become submerged. Not many Singaporeans seem to realise that, but undoubtedly Lee Kuan Yew does.
Source : Asian Advertising & Marketing, September, 1991
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