Ways Done in the Past - Tree Planting

Tree Planting Day on 28 October, 1971 - Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew planting a tree sapling at East Coast Park.  Photo Credit:  National Archives of Singapore (NAS).

Tree Planting Day on 28 October, 1971 - Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew looking at how 5¼ miles of arid reclaimed land was slowly coming to life with plants and trees.  The park which lay between the beach and the second east coast highway, will be one of the most beautiful marine parks in Singapore when fully developed in about five years. Photo Credit:  National Archives of Singapore (NAS)

Havelock View Community Party cum Tanjong Pagar GRC and Radin Mas SMC Tree Planting Day 2012.

On 4 November, 2012, Mr Lee was speaking at a tree planting event at Havelock View.  Photo Credit:　ＭｅｄｉａＣｏｒｐ．

 

Many residents of Havelock View turned up to welcome Mr Lee Kuan Yew who was there as part of the Tree Planting day celebrations.

Mr Lee said he had taken a special interest in greening Singapore and for which the National Parks Board was set up.

Tree Planting Day 2012 at Havelock View here .

Singapore may be "a little red dot on the map of the world", it is by no means a concrete jungle without greenery to balance of Mother Nature for a better living with trees and flowers with beautｙ, to become a "garden city" today.

The Chinese saying:　"前人栽树，后人乘凉"  ["One generation plants the trees, another gets the shade"].

Every generation should plant trees to provide shades for the next future generation in Singapore.

The event was held at the new Havelock View estate, which was finished in December, 2011 as part of the HDB Selective Enbloc Re-Development Scheme. It is in the area where the Bukit Ho Swee fire swept away 2,000 attap huts in 1961, leaving thousands homeless.

The Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens Consultative Committee and grassroots leaders paid homage to this history with a video that flashed back to the crisis, and then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's promise to build flats for every affected family in nine months.

"Promise - The Bukit Ho Swee Story" Community Video was first presented at the Havelock View Community Party cum Tanjong Pagar GRC and Radin Mas SMC Tree Planting Day 2012 on 4th November, 2012.

Quote of former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in 1959: