Singapore—Opposition politician Dr Chee Soon Juan took to Facebook on Sunday (Dec 13) to state the need for better safety measures after a tree cracked and fell on several cars and motorcycles.
One car, he wrote, “was completely covered by the falling branches” when the tree cracked and fell, in an incident that occurred near his home.
The secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party expressed the hope that no one had gotten hurt in the incident, adding that “a couple of similar incidents” had already taken place in his neighborhood.
He also wrote that the Town Council of Bishan Toa Payoh and NParks, the National Parks Board of Singapore, “should make greater effort to safeguard the public by checking the health of the trees,” pointing out that the tree “must be old and rotten inside.”
Bishan Toa Payoh is represented by the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Dr Ng Eng Hen, Mr Chee Hong Tat, Mr Saktiandi Supaat and Mr Chong Kee Hiong in Parliament. Ms Gan Siow Huang, MP for Marymount SMC, is also on the Bishan Toa Payoh Town Council (TC).
Mr Chong is the Chairman of the TC, and Mr Saktiandi and Ms Gan are the TC’s vice-chairpersons.
According to the website of the Bishan Toa Payoh TC, ”Our mission is to provide a clean, green, well maintained and healthy environment for the residents, through close co-operation with the residents, grassroots organisations and related government agencies.”
Dr Chee had contested against the PAP’s K Muralidharan Pillai, the incumbent, for the Single Member Constituency seat at Bukit Batok in this year’s General Election, which was held last July. He lost to Mr Pillai, having only won 45.2 per cent of the vote to the PAP candidate’s 54.8 per cent, or less than 3,000 votes.
In spite of his loss, Dr Chee has remained active on the ground at Bukit Batok, helping and serving residents in various ways, as well as drawing attention to problems within the community, including advocating for the preservation of Bukit Batok Hillside Park, and publicly calling via social media on Mr Pillai as well as Ms Amy Khor, MP for Hong Kah North and Senior Minister of State in the Ministry for Sustainability, to do the same.
On Nov 30, he wrote, “Mr Murali and Ms Amy Khor must sign the petition calling for the preservation of the Bukit Batok Hillside Park (BBHP)…
If Mr Murali and Ms Khor genuinely represent the interests of the residents, they must join in the call of thousands of Singaporeans who don’t want to see even more wildlife sanctuaries from being destroyed.”
—/TISG
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Chee Soon Juan joins petition to save Bukit Batok Hillside Park