Singapore Democratic Party’s CEC members Jufri Salim, Surayah Akbar and Francis Yong were joined by Abdul Salim and a few others as they were back on their regular house visit at Marsiling – Yew Tee GRC, this time doing their rounds at Block 572 in Choa Chu Kang Street 52.
One of the residents that they met is an elderly 69-year-old Malay woman, Rumini who is currently living on her own after her husband passed away due to cancer 16 years ago. She spends her time by providing religious lessons to the young children in the neighbourhood.
Rumini shared with the SDP some of the issues that she had observed in the estate.
“Madam Rumini also told the team that she has made an appeal to the MP for a small grocery shop to be set up nearby,” shared SDP on their Marsiling -Yew Tee GRC Facebook page.
“She observed that there are quite a number of senior citizens staying in the area and travelling to the nearest markets located at Yew Tee/Limbang may be problematic for those with mobility issues.”
“She also told us that she is baffled about the lack of free parking on Sundays. She shared that she is aware of other places which do not have parking fees on Sunday.”
The team also met another elderly, 70-year-old Halimah who worked as a production operator at Ayer Rajah. She shared with SDP that she has been working there for the last 40 years and will continue to work if her health allows her to do so.
Earlier in the week, Abdul Salim was with the party’s vice-chairman Bryan Lim as they visited Block 24 in Marsiling Drive. Several of the residents that they met are nature lovers and have potted plants outside their HDB homes.
“In this tranquil & laidback neighborhood, we met many residents with green fingers so much so that we couldn’t resist having photo momentos with their pride. Naturally, the topic of mindless #deforestation popped up in our conversations,” posted SDP.
The party questioned why precious lush greenery is being sacrificed in the name of development even though, as SDP shared, “they had refuted our claims that they are not going to cramp 10 million or even 6.9 million on this island republic of ours.”
“The burning question still remains: for whom are the new public housing built for when our birth rate has not been on an upward trend & the resale market has witnessed record transactions in recent times?” added the party.