MM Lee says Singapore's green success gives investors confidence it can deliver

S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia 6 May 09;

SINGAPORE : Singapore's success in building a garden city gives confidence to investors that the country can deliver, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

He was speaking on the greening of a nation at a dialogue held to commemorate the Botanic Gardens' 150th anniversary on Wednesday.

He also touched on studies to build seawalls to guard Singapore against global warming. Mr Lee said Dutch consultants have been studying the problem for Singapore.

He added: "If the sea level rises one metre, we can cope. If the sea level rises two metres, which will happen if the ice cap begins to melt both at the Atlantic and Antarctic, it may go up to three, four metres. We will lose our harbour and our coastline.

"So we asked them (consultants) what can we do. Can we build a dyke? (They say) no, on this island, you cannot build a dyke; you will have to build a seawall. We have the resources, we will build a sea wall."

On the value of homes in Singapore, Mr Lee said much depends on how residents took ownership of their environment.

"You destroy the environment and you want to re-sell (your property), it goes down. At the same time, I remind them if you get a bum government, the whole thing comes apart," said MM Lee.

Mr Lee stressed that inculcating values to preserve the environment must begin in schools - something that is already being done. - CNA /ls

Make Singapore stand out with greenery: MM Lee
Show investors that it's a well-organised place, he says
Chuang Peck Ming, Business Times 7 May 09

THE greening of Singapore was the easiest and quickest way to differentiate Singapore from its neighbours - and show investors, especially those from the West, that this is a well-organised place, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said last night.

The man who kicked off the campaign to turn Singapore into a Garden City right from its independence - and has continued to be its driving force - told some 600 guests gathered at the Botanic Gardens to celebrate its 150th anniversary that the greening of Singapore was 'part of a bigger plan' to transform Singapore into 'a first world oasis in a third world region'.

'That cannot be done overnight,' Mr Lee said during a dialogue moderated by Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh. 'But what can immediately be done was to show investors that this is a well-organised place.'

When investors arrive at the airport, especially those coming to the Istana to see him who was then prime minister, Mr Lee said they would pass by greenery, 'which means maintenance'.

'When they enter the Istana, they see green lawns, shrubs, trees,' he said. 'The British had done the basics, but we polished it up. . . So without having to tell anything to the CEO, I knew that he would understand that when I say 'We will deliver', he knew that we can deliver - that this is a country where the administration works, where there's a system - because you just can't plant a tree and walk away - (it's) a very complex (maintenance) which all people who run big organisations will understand . . .'

Mr Lee said that the tougher part was to get Singaporeans to change their behaviour to one that was more in keeping with - and reinforce - a clean and green environment. He said that the government gradually got them to understand that if they keep their surroundings nice and green, their property values go up.

Mr Lee stressed that the green issue continues to be a key plank in 'the overall scheme of things - it's not a side issue'.

According to him, the issue has taken a life of its own - and Singaporeans have taken ownership of the greening campaign, ensuring its success.

'It has taken on a lot of people's interest. . . Without the commitment from the people - and most important, without the commitment of the people for whom it is made - the lesson of the various (housing) estates is if they had not taken ownership of it, it wouldn't succeed,' Mr Lee said.

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, who was at the celebration too, recalled the economic value of the Botanic Gardens, noting that the cultivation of rubber there in the late 19th century had 'laid the foundation of the rubber industry that brought tremendous growth to the region'.

Today, the Gardens is only one of Singapore's top tourist draws, he said, pointing out that the Michelin Green Guide last year gave it a 3-star rating - its highest award.

Mr Mah said that the success of Singapore's Garden City is affirmed by other countries copying it. But this also means Singapore has to reinvest in itself to keep its competitive edge.

'Our goal is to evolve Singapore from a 'Garden City' into a 'City in a Garden', where our entire island is transformed into one beautiful tropical garden, within which our homes, our workplaces, schools, indeed the whole urban infrastructure, is nestled,' he said.

Singapore's green trump card
Making Republic a 'First World oasis' helped woo investors, says MM Lee
Clarissa Oon, Straits Times 7 May 09;

SPRUCING up and greening Singapore with trees all over the island was a key economic strategy from Day One, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said last night.

In order to differentiate the country from its larger neighbours, one of his first tasks on becoming Prime Minister was to develop a Garden City with good infrastructure and telecommunications.

To woo investors from developed countries, 'we had to make this a First World oasis in a Third World region', he told some 600 guests from the public and private sectors, non-governmental organisations and the landscape and horticulture industry at a dinner marking the Botanic Gardens' 150th anniversary.

MM Lee took part in a dialogue at the event on the greening of Singapore, moderated by Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh.

Professor Koh asked him at the start of the hour-long dialogue why cleaning up 'dirty and smelly' Singapore was a priority when it faced numerous other challenges upon gaining independence in 1965.

'It was part of a bigger plan. After we were asked to leave Malaya, we had to work out a strategy which would allow a little island dependent on Malaya for its hinterland to survive,' MM Lee said.

What could be done immediately was 'to show investors that this was a well-organised place', he said of what was effectively Singapore's secret weapon.

Coming from the airport into town, they would pass by lush greenery, and when they visited him in the Istana, they would see well-maintained lawns and shrubs.

'So without having to tell anything to the chief executive officer, I knew he would understand that when I say we will deliver, he knows we can deliver; that this is a country where the administration works, where there is a system,' he said.

The fact is, he added with a laugh, 'you can't just plant a tree and walk away. The tree will die'.

'You need tree doctors, you need to understand what soil and how much sunlight it requires. You put it under a flyover and you got to get forest shrubs that grow in shaded areas,' he explained.

'It's a very complex thing that all people who run big organisations will understand,' said the man who personally oversaw the greening process here.

He credited the British colonial administration for having 'done the basics' which Singapore's landscape architects and park managers were able to build on.

Indeed, it was under British rule that the Botanic Gardens first started life in 1859, as a venue for flower shows and later where rubber was first cultivated.

Today it is one of Singapore's top tourist attractions and a premier institution for botanical research, said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan at last night's event.

The dinner and dialogue with MM Lee raised $550,000 which will go towards scholarships for Singapore's future botanists and horticulturalists.

Guests last night also paid tribute to MM Lee's role in greening Singapore. Prof Koh said former National Parks chief executive Tan Wee Kiat, who was at the dinner, told him that he must have been 'the only gardener in the world who reports directly to the PM'.

MM Lee stressed that planting and maintaining trees and parks was 'the easy part'.

The tough part, once all the infrastructure was in place, was 'to get people to change from Third World to First World behaviour'.

This led to 'endless campaigns' to tell people 'not to bring chickens and pigs into high-rise (buildings), not to pee in elevators' and above all, he joked, 'not to steal the plants'.

It took 30 or 40 years, but finally Singapore has reached the stage where its people feel a sense of ownership for the environment, he said.

'It took some time to get them to understand (that) if you keep your environment nice and clean, your property values go up; if your environment is scruffy and dirty, then when you want to sell the flat, the price is down.'

MM Lee was so exercised by the 'Clean and Green' campaign that he told Mr Goh Chok Tong, upon handing over the reins as Prime Minister in 1990, that 'if you lose interest in this, (Singapore) will go back to the bad old days'.

Getting people to be eco-conscious
Straits Times 7 May 09;

Dr Geh Min, former president of the Nature Society: What do you see in the next 50 years from an environmental point of view that will keep us ahead in the competitive race?

I cannot predict what technologies will be discovered in the next 50 years, but I know that innovations that will take place will now move much faster than in the last 50 years.

We have sequenced the human genome. We could search for all kinds of fundamental cures. Life sciences promise a great future for anybody.

Transportation, communications will also be made easier.

I see societies having to change fundamentally in the way they live, work and are governed. So what we must have is a government with capable, imaginative leaders, dedicated people.

You need a Prime Minister who can persuade people, but you also need other ministers who might not be so persuasive but can get things done and foresee what will happen.

One thing beyond our control is global warming. We are going to change bulbs, phase out appliances that are too energy- intensive. But what can we do about the big countries' (environmental policies)?

Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw: The public has often been accused of being apathetic towards environmental issues....How do we cultivate a greater sense of appreciation, responsibility and ownership for the environment?

For the deeper, long-term imparting of values, you've got to start with the children. In school, like planting little shrubs, little plants and so on.

Over the generations, we'll breed large numbers of people who understand that human beings, if they destroy nature, they are putting themselves at risk.

For adults, it is too late. You can only appeal to their direct interests - 'If you do this, you'll be poorer.' Then they will do something about it.

To the younger children, you say, 'You owe a responsibility to yourself and future generations not to destroy this planet."

Henry Steed, president of the Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects: Singapore's public and private sectors have built a lot of expertise in urban greening. Can it be a world-class centre in this area?

I'm no longer in charge, you ought to put it to the Prime Minister.

Yes, we ought to develop a consultancy and make something out of the expertise we have gathered. We are doing it in many fields - port management, airport management, housing, and water and waste management.

But there will be many competitors in this field. You take China for instance. They have large numbers of farmers with green fingers. They came here to see our greening...We showed them how we did it...

They learnt very quickly.For the Beijing Olympics, from the airport to the city and throughout the city, it was one splash of colour.

We go for shrubs that flower, they go for flowers that need to be replaced every three weeks. Because they got the manpower. And they made 40 million flowerpots bloom at the same time.


MM Lee’s message in a tree
Alicia Wong, Today Online 7 May 09;

HE HAD proposed various improvements to the greening of Singapore to no avail – until then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew stepped in with firm words.

After three to four years of effort and submitting 10 pages of justifications, Singapore’s first Commissioner of Parks and Recreation Wong Yew Kwan recalled: “All I got was one paragraph, four lines, from the Treasury, (saying) you’ve done your job, don’t worry about recruitment, expansion,”

So in 1978, according to Mr Wong’s account, Mr Lee called for a meeting and spent two hours lecturing those present, which included Ministers, the Treasury and Permanent Secretary for finance – whomMr Lee finally pointed at and said,”Look George, give them the money.”

After all, greening the country was part of the survival strategy for a young nation that had just left Malaysia, said the Minister Mentor last night, at the celebration of the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ 150th anniversary.

Being “clean” and “green”, in addition to being modernised and safe, differentiated Singapore from her neighbours. And, greenery that needed maintenance showed investors “when I say we will deliver, we can deliver”. “(It proved) this is a country where administration works, where there is a system, because you can’t just plant a tree and not grow it,” he said.

The difficult part, he joked, was to ensure people did not steal the plants. He also recalled with some amusement how he tried to have creepers on every wall, but caterpillars got in the way.

It took time to get people to understand that it would be financially beneficial to keep Singapore green, as their property prices would go up, said Mr Lee. Green is also soothing to the eyes and cooling he said, noting how Hong Kong, being all “tarmac, bricks and building”, was “stiffling”.

While Mr Lee’s personal attention to the greening drive – he even used the Istana as an “experimental ground” to study the effect on the bird population – is the reason Singapore bears the Garden City tag today, the campaign has “taken on life of its own”, in Mr Lee’s words. He now gives comments on the side, while people take it “to a further stage without my intervention”.

With the success in greening Singapore – resulting perhaps in “environmentally pampered” Singaporeans disconnected to environmental issues, noted executive director of Singapore Environment Council Howard Shaw – should the Republic sell its expertise in urban design and greening to other countries, asked one participant.

Yes but she must hurry up, responded Mr Lee, who suggested targetting Gulf cities and semi-desert places.

‘Humans are too clever’
Today Online 7 May 09;

MM LEE: I read an analysis ... This man said, for thousands of years of agricultural societies, the only source of energy was the sun which limits what they can grow, what animals can feed on the grass, what population you can sustain. Then came the industrial revolution ... (driven by) fire and coal. Coal is stored solar energy. Then they found oil; also stored solar energy.

Now ... they got this experiment to make two atoms collide and see whether they can generate power like the sun. So man is trying to generate mini suns, that can go on forever. But when you switch it on the whole thing burns up. So man has not found a way ...

And if we do find out what’s the way, will that solve it? I don’t think so. We’ve become too clever by far. If we find a solution to energy, the world will be overpopulated ... In 50 years, we are expecting 9.5 billion people from 6.3 billion now. You find a new energy source, we’ll become 80 billion people in the next century. Then what?

So I think sooner or later, the human being must come to terms with the fact that this planet called earth can only sustain so much. You go beyond that, you destroy your habitat.

MODERATOR TOMMY KOH: Haven’t they learnt that already?

MM LEE: If we’ve learnt that, why are we still doing these stupid things?