Speech by SMS Desmond Lee at 'Celebrating Ubin's Heritage'

Dec 3, 2016

A very good morning! We’ve got wonderful weather, neither hot nor rainy; it’s a very nice day for us to be out here on this emerald island. 

It is the end of the year, so for those of you who have been working alongside us on the Ubin Project, I thought this is a good time to have a bit of reflection. If you look back, it has been about two years since we first started the Ubin Project. I met many of you two years plus ago, and we’ve been going strong since then. We set up the Friends of Ubin Network, or FUN – a deliberately chosen acronym, to galvanise the wider community and to translate many good ideas that you have into actual initiatives on Pulau Ubin. 

Our FUN members have very diverse backgrounds and interests – but it is the passion and enthusiasm for this island that binds us together, even if we may come to the table with different views and perspectives. And through these two years, we have learnt to work with each other, to collaborate, and at the same time, to respect, to accommodate and to celebrate our different, unique experiences and viewpoints. 

We liked this model so much that we expanded it across more of our parks and reserves through the Friends of the Park Community – which bring communities in other parks and nature reserves together. Whether you are a cyclist, whether you are a bird watcher, whether you like plants, whether you do qi gong, whether you do brisk-walking, you are an artist, you are a musician, or you live nearby and you enjoy the greenery, these Friends of the Park Communities give you the opportunity to come together to activate, to energise, to protect, to cherish, to study, to research these green areas for our communities and for future generations. 

Now, 2016 has been a very exciting year for Pulau Ubin. For instance, we opened the Ubin Living Lab in February. That shows how the concepts brought to the table by educators on FUN have seen fruition, and now we have an Ubin Laboratory. 

In May of this year heritage buffs were excited by the Singapore Heritage Fest, which brought a series of guided walks, cooking workshops and performances to Pulau Ubin. And all who participated had an opportunity better appreciate the heritage and kampong lifestyle on Ubin. This very nicely dovetailed with the cultural mapping work that the National Heritage Board, Singapore Heritage Society and other heritage buffs on FUN carried out. They found such a rich treasure trove of history, of memories, of actual practices that are still very much part of this island, for all of us to enjoy. Those of you that have been following the newspapers, and have been following the snapshots and videos done by our members on YouTube would see how rich and beautiful and precious all of this is. 

During that same month, our FUN members and Ubin volunteers organised the month-long Pesta Ubin. Ria are her team are here – they are the ones who really worked very hard together with NParks and other volunteers to create a month-long festival known as Pesta Ubin. Some 4,000 people took part in activities such as cycling, kayaking, kampung tours, environmental clean-ups, and so on. It really galvanised the community to support and celebrate the best that this island can offer. At our annual Ubin Day in June – which is part of Pesta Ubin, we had guided walks, craft workshops, and even storytelling for children. The beauty about it is that this entire month-long celebration is organised by the community for fellow Singaporeans. 

Why is Pulau Ubin so special to Singaporeans, and why does it inspire and fire so many people into doing something on this island? Sweating under the sun, under the rain, coming together with people who were originally strangers and are now friends – what inspires and drives them? First, many of us enjoy the lush greenery and the unique, rich biodiversity of our forests and shores on Pulau Ubin. And second, Ubin’s cultural heritage and way of life, the gotong royong spirit among its villagers, are essential to the rustic charm we have all come to associate with this island. For some of us old enough to remember life as it was then, that sense of nostalgia is what keeps bringing us back to this island. 

Today, to round off the year of “Celebrating Ubin” activities, I’m happy to share with you a few initiatives that represent our commitment to further protect the cultural heritage of Pulau Ubin and retain the rustic character of this island, for the enjoyment of all Singaporeans, and especially for future generations of Singaporeans. Through these initiatives, there will be more opportunities for the public to get a glimpse of ‘kampung life’ on this island, and experience life as it used to be. 

Cultural conservation efforts: House 363B & Ubin Fruit Orchard

First, we have conserved House 363B, renamed now as ‘Teck Seng’s Place’ – a bit more charming and back to life as it was. It’s the familiar and quaint blue house sitting on a hill overlooking the Sensory Trail ponds. I am sure all of you have been there many times before. 

The house was built in the 1970s, owned and lovingly cared for by Mr Chew Teck Seng who operated a provision shop from it known as “Teck Seng Provision Shop” – a very strategically located provision shop overlooking the sensory ponds. When his family resettled to mainland Singapore in 2005, they returned the house back to the state. Since then the house has been refurbished and kept as a model of a “Chinese Kampung House”. Through the use of interpretive signs and specially curated memorabilia, visitors to the house can get a glimpse into life on the island in the 1970s. 

Those of you have visited it would be scratching your heads and wondering, it is already a model kampung house, what is the difference. If you go there later with us and take a look at how we have made it richer, how we have made it more reflective of life as it then was. But a museum is a museum, it gives you a sense of what life was like, but really there are people living in these homes who still live that lifestyle and celebrate those values that make life in a village possible. And so their story, their memories and their way of life today, is as much part of this living village of memories as Teck Seng’s Place, so enjoy both. 

Second, I am going to talk about the re-established ‘Ubin Fruit Orchard’, and this is re-established as Singapore’s first fruit tree arboretum. True to its name, the site was originally a fruit orchard that belonged to one of the residents formally living on this island. Now, it will feature a collection of about 350 fruit trees that were once commonly planted in kampungs. These are tropical fruits, some of us may be used to seeing fruits in the provision shop or in the supermarket, and I hope that once this fruit orchard is established, especially younger Singaporeans would see fruits on trees, and a whole variety of tropical fruits, not just fruits imported from far far away, but those that are grown on Singaporean soil. Visitors can expect to see over 30 species of trees including durian, rambutan, starfruit, mango and many many more. 

I would like to thank our students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic as well as Nanyang Girls’ High – some of you are here, who had a hand in planting the trees and also preparing the interpretive signs for this arboretum. I hope the experience is something that you will cherish, and you will see the trees grow up with you, and in future you can bring your children and grandchildren to pluck fruits from those trees. 

NParks will include both the Ubin Fruit Orchard and Teck Seng’s Place as highlights in our monthly guided walks. Visitors who come monthly there is a walk, curated and led by our volunteers, so do look out for that, you will visit both of them. 

Conservation of natural heritage: Completion of habitat enhancements for species recovery programmes

On this same note of collective effort by the community, I would like to thank students from various institutions for their effort in conserving Ubin’s rich natural heritage. 

With the help of students from ITE College East and Republic Polytechnic, FUN has completed the habitat enhancements at several locations on this island. In May this year, I worked with a group of ITE College East students to put together a nest box for the Blue-throated Bee-eater – which is a species of bird native to this island. I’m glad to hear that two of these nest boxes have been completed and these are installed at Ketam Mountain Bike Park. 

I’m also happy to announce that we have installed 30 bat boxes across this island for insectivorous bats to roost. Republic Polytechnic students came up with a few designs for the boxes – I saw them, they explained the technical details to me, how these designs would help, and ITE College East students also built a few boxes as well, and tried out different designs. I think it is wonderful. Some of these students never really went out into the wild parts of Singapore, but through this collaboration, they were also excited to then go out into the natural environment, and the rough and tumble of nature. 

Apart from these efforts, we have also completed installation of two otter holts to encourage the Oriental Small-clawed Otter to settle on this island. Though we have not observed the otters using the holts yet, we recorded a group of 10 on the island via a camera trap, in late October this year. This is very exciting news for those in the biodiversity circle because this is the first video record of the species in Singapore. You will get to see a snippet of this footage later on.

Habitat enhancements at Sensory Trail ponds

NParks has also started a new partnership with Ngee Ann Polytechnic to enhance habitats at the Sensory Trail Ponds. Four ponds formerly used for fish farming have been combined into a single pond and reconfigured to provide habitats for wildlife. The students have worked hard to design and to implement the planting plan to attract fauna such as waterhens, herons, kingfishers and dragonflies. It was tough work I was told, as students got their hands muddy to make the habitats as conducive for wildlife as possible. We are all heartened by their contributions. Monitoring work is still ongoing for these species and while it is still early to see results, I’m sure that results will come soon enough, and we will have good news to share. 

Water system at Ubin Living Lab, public toilets & campsites

To further enhance the overall visitor experience at Ubin, and we do want people to come and celebrate this island, NParks will be calling a tender later this month for the provision and maintenance of a water treatment system at the Ubin Living Lab. This water treatment system will provide potable water to educational groups of students and teachers, researchers and members of the public. Separately, compact Point-of-Use water treatment systems will also be installed at public toilets at Chek Jawa Wetlands, campsites and other areas around the island. These systems are expected to be completed by mid-2018. 

Launch of NParks – Community In Nature BioBlitz @ Ubin

Last but not least, I’m pleased to share that today we will be launching Ubin’s first BioBlitz. It will be the first 24-hour biodiversity survey to be held on the island. This event will provide an opportunity for our communities to join taxonomic experts to document biodiversity found on Ubin. We hope to glean data that will set the ground for a more comprehensive biodiversity survey on Pulau Ubin next year. This sets the stage for something much bigger and much more involved next year. Some 30 surveys will be conducted on a variety of fauna including mammals, birds, reptiles and insects. NParks told me that more than 100 people have already signed up! 

Conclusion

The positive developments achieved by the Friends of Ubin Network on this island are only possible because of your commitment and because of your involvement. To the students, to all our FUN members who are here, and all those who have participated in our initiatives – a very big thank you for your dedication and commitment towards conserving Ubin’s cultural and natural heritage. And thank you for respecting and celebrating the viewpoints and values of other people who also love this island but who have different interests. Thank you for accommodating them and working together to create value for this island. 

We have been having FUN meetings regularly, and at the last meeting which was in November – a couple of weeks ago, we shifted gears and discussed possible projects that FUN members and the community can embark on to enhance and preserve the tangible and intangible heritage value of Ubin. So we have shifted focus to community. I look forward to all of you coming forward to join us in the effort to preserve and enhance the living heritage on Ubin, so that future generations can continue to enjoy and create happy memories here. 

On that note, I wish you all a wonderful day, enjoying this good weather, and roam around the island, make friends with the villagers, respect their way of life, and bring a piece of that back with you to Singapore and nothing else. Thank you.