Last night, I was doing my usual walkabout. As I was driving out from the carpark near Block 108 in Potong Pasir after 11 p.m., I saw a Mercedez Benz waiting to park. It has just entered the car park and its headlights were shining in my direction.
As I exited from my parking lot and passed by the Merc to my right, I noticed the lady driver struggling to turn her steering wheel so as to move her car aside to let me pass. As I drove passed the stationary Merc, I saw that the driver was Mrs. Lina Chiam. She was in her party T-shirt and looked rather haggard.
Along the way home, I kept thinking about my encounter with Mrs. Chiam and felt sorry that she was still out at such a late hour. I recall her recent statement about this election being her last election and that she will be retiring with Mr. Chiam. I began to have this feeling of sadness and couldn’t sleep after reaching home.
I contacted my team members this morning and shared with them my thoughts and feelings. And I told them my decision. I have decided not to contest. Instead, I will lead my team to show our support for Mrs. Chiam at her rally and hope she succeeds to regain Potong Pasir SMC and continue Mr. Chiam’s dedicated service to its residents.
The 3-cornered fight in Potong Pasir SMC that was meant to be will no longer take place. I am sorry to disappoint all those who have encouraged me to offer my candidacy and to serve the residents of Potong Pasir SMC as their Member of Parliament. In my walkabouts over the last 2 months, I have come to know many of you at a personal level and appreciate your warm support. Let me assure you that notwithstanding this decision, I will continue to be at your service. For Potong Pasir SMC will always be my kind of town.
On Oct 1, something important is going to be removed in Potong Pasir.
It is a covered walkway, built in 2008, leading from Potong Pasir MRT station to Block 147 at Potong Pasir Avenue 1. It has to go because a mall and a condominium would be coming up, so residents were told. This might not seem like a big deal – except this is one particular walkway which had been talked about and argued over, even in Parliament and during elections. And is probably one of the last remaining sign of Mr Chiam See Tong’s 27 years stewardship of Potong Pasir.
The MRT walkway built by Mr Chiam See Tong at Potong Pasir. Picture taken in August 2015.
The sign by Mr Chiam’s Potong Pasir Town Council about when the MRT walkway was opened has been removed. Picture taken in August 2015.
Today, the PAP announced its candidate for Potong Pasir. Mr Sitoh Yih Pin, 51, will be defending his seat after narrowly scooping it up from Mrs Lina Chiam in 2011. Mrs Chiam is of course, the wife of Mr Chiam See Tong, who has been synonymous with Potong Pasir since he became an MP in 1984. Mr Sitoh told reporters this morning that the past four years has not been about removing Mr Chiam’s legacy, but whether intentional or not, that is what it has felt like to the residents here who, like me, have come to love the neighbourhood as it was under Mr Chiam’s charge.
When Mrs Chiam lost the Potong Pasir seat by a mere 114 votes, there were plenty of tears not just for the Chiams’ Singapore People’s Party but for what it meant for the ward’s identity. In the months following that May day, my tiny town was invaded by camera-toting Singaporeans, from as far away as Woodlands and Tampines, who wanted to see for themselves the housing estate that had withstood 27 years of wooing by the People’s Action Party.
Was it really a slum? Did Mr Chiam really conduct his Meet-The-People Sessions (MPS) in an open-air void deck? Did residents really suffer from a lack of amenities in the estate?
My constituency, where I have lived for 20 years, became a curiosity. Visitors would get off the train at Potong Pasir MRT station, and recall that it was supposed to be named Sennett, and was rumoured to stay closed even when the Northeast Line began operation in 2003.
They would walk along that walkway to Block 147 and recall how politicised this walkway became during the 2006 elections, a story involving a concrete path sheltered by trees, to having solar powered lights that was left abandoned, and that eventually became that sheltered walkway.
They would have their photograph taken in front of the ‘Welcome to Potong Pasir’ signboard, which had a a smiling Mr Chiam, before it got taken down. They would then head to Block 108, where Mr Chiam had his MPS with the residents, and marvel at the table and chairs.
‘Welcome to Potong Pasir Constituency’ Signboard. Picture taken in June 2011.
Next stop would be the coffeeshop at Block 136, which Mr Chiam makes a point of visiting after each election victory. Then visitors will walk by the river in the estate, experiencing the quiet charm of a slower paced Singapore.
This was a constituency without an NTUC Fairprice supermarket (it used to be at Block 136, but it was closed after the elections in 1984), nor a bank (POSBank used to be at Block 146, but it was closed after the elections in 1988). There was not even a Post Office (there was Promax Stationery, a Postal Agent, at block 148, which performed some postal services, but it closed in the 2000s). Potong Pasir’s lifts did not stop on every floor then.
It lacked amenities, yes, and this lack contributed to the laid-back, kampung feel of Potong Pasir. Without an NTUC, you would have to patronise the estate’s wet market at Block 148, or the neighbourhood dry-goods uncle’s shop at Block 137, or the 24-hour neighbourhood supermarket at Block 136. The shopkeepers and stall holders will always have time to banter with you.
New stage area built between Blk 136 and 140 at Potong Pasir. Picture taken in August 2015.
The iconic walkway with a pavilion in the centre that was completed in July 2000. It has been demolished in the recent upgrading. Picture taken on 4 Jan 2013, by Matthew Ang.
Residents find it painful to use the stairs because lifts do not stop at every floor, yes, but this meant that they had more time to chat with each other while waiting at lift landings. Helping an elderly aunty lugging her grocery up the stairs became the norm.
While there wasn’t a Post Office or a bank, there was the facility-filled, ever-bustling Toa Payoh Hub, a short bus ride away on the only bus service in Potong Pasir (there was another bus service serving the estate, but it was rerouted after the elections in 1991). And when Serangoon Nex opened its doors in 2010, it was an even shorter train ride away.
One Potong Pasir quirk was the signs by the Town Council showing when amenities and improvements were installed. They were everywhere: in playgrounds, parks, and even on trees planted by Mr Chiam.
Tree planting sign board, during Mr Chiam’s stewardship at Potong Pasir. Picture taken in May 2011.
Almost all have been replaced or removed because of the intense upgrading programme Mr Sitoh Yih Pin, the PAP MP, has embarked upon since 2011. Potong Pasir is being made over. You see it – the “keep out” hoardings. You hear it – the pounding of construction equipment.
Since 2011, an NTUC Fairprice supermarket, a Post Office, a bank, and even a gym has come up. We have lifts that stop on all floors save for eight blocks in the estate. We have more sheltered walkways being constructed, and a beautiful riverside park newly opened for residents. A new street soccer court has been built beside Block 109, as there are plans to reuse the space of the street soccer court built by Mr Chiam. We also have more family service centres at void decks serving the residents.
The new futsal court in Potong Pasir that was built by Mr Sitoh Yih Pin. Picture taken in August 2015.
The old futsal court in Potong Pasir that was built by Mr Chiam See Tong. Picture taken in August 2015.
Progress comes at a price. A few of our old-time shops have closed down, and I don’t know where uncle has gone. The supermarket and the bank bring more non-residents into our estate. Our coffeeshops are now so crowded and I have to ‘ta-bao’ my family dinner instead of having my family eat there. It is now more difficult to linger and catch up with people in the estate you know.
I dread the upcoming mall and condominium. I have an inkling that it would be like going to Nex at Serangoon. You find yourself swept in a shifting sea of people, able to only wave a ‘Hi!’ to a familiar face before being pressed on. My in-laws already complain about the lack of parking spaces in their carpark that is just next to the NTUC supermarket.
Sometimes, I wonder if all this infrastructural ‘upgrading’ is just to show activity and money spent. If something is upgraded or new, does it follow that it must be good? All the busy-ness is hurting the connections that residents have built up over time. Soon, the new, shiny Potong Pasir will be just like any other PAP ward with no sign left of Mr Chiam’s struggles to maintain the estate for 27 years – and the residents’ efforts to be self-reliant.
I intend to snap several pictures of the walkway to keep the memories of this undaunted little place alive.
Former National Solidarity Party (NSP) secretary-general and lawyer Tan Lam Siong has declared that he will be running in Potong Pasir SMC as an independent candidate in the coming elections.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday (01/08) at the sidelines of a Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) walkabout in Sengkang that he was there to show support for, Mr Tan said he made the decision after regular visits to Potong Pasir in recent weeks to speak with residents.
“I’ve been going down to Potong Pasir and Toa Payoh frequently in the last few weeks, especially after Whampoa was absorbed, and residents tell me they want a choice,” he said. “I will be running there, and I won’t be donning any colours this time around.”
Mr Tan had previously expressed interest in running in Whampoa, where he had been working the ground and where he said he had become familiar with the residents there. But the SMC was merged with the reconstituted Jalan Besar GRC in the electoral boundaries report that was released last week.
Potong Pasir, which the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Sitoh Yih Pin won over from the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) in 2011 with a wafer-thin 114 votes, had already looked set to be a battleground, with the SPP and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) both having declared their interest to contest the ward.
But Mr Tan said he was unfazed by the thought of jumping into a four-cornered contest as he wanted to give voters there “real choice” and that he would “relish the fight”.
“As an independent, I’m also not involved in the horsetrading talks between the different opposition parties,” he said. “Let the people have all the choices, rather than preselect for them.”
Opposition parties will hold their traditional pow wow session this Monday (03/08), where they are expected to divvy up the different constituencies with minimal overlap so that the opposition vote will not be split.
