Development Plans for Pulau Ubin

There is currently no development plan for Pulau Ubin. Our intention is to keep Pulau Ubin in its rustic state for as long as possible and as an outdoor playground for Singaporeans.

Both SLA and HDB have clarified that the letter sent to the 22 households on Pulau Ubin in March 2013 was meant to notify them of a census survey to determine their eligibility for resettlement benefits arising from the land acquisition exercises in 1987 and 1993. The letter was not an eviction notice.

SLA and HDB acknowledged that the letter could have been more carefully worded and the language updated to reflect the eventual development on Pulau Ubin. They had already apologised for the anxiety caused to the affected residents.

While the affected land owners were all compensated for the land acquired by the Government earlier in 1987 and 1993, not all the households had claimed the resettlement benefits. Furthermore, as these households have been staying on state land since the acquisition exercise without a Temporary Occupation Licence (TOL), SLA is taking this opportunity to regularise the TOL for these households, which is a requirement for them to remain on state land.

The resettlement benefits that some of these affected Pulau Ubin residents are eligible for include an ex-gratia amount payable to the house owners and

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tenants for their houses and improvements made to their surroundings; priority allocation of HDB flats for those who wish to relocate to mainland Singapore; and a transport allowance for the relocation.

To help those residents who decide to remain on Pulau Ubin and not relocate to the mainland, SLA will not be charging them the full TOL fees immediately, but phasing it in over five years. This means that the residents only need to pay the full TOL fees from the sixth year onwards. Most of these households will only need to pay less than $20 per month in the first year and less than $120 per month in the sixth year.

For residents who face financial difficulties in paying the rent, SLA will be facilitating the assessment for them to receive financial assistance from the Government.

Madam, I have three questions to clarify. Firstly, I know some of these people personally, having gone to Pulau Ubin in the last 30 years, both for leisure as well as in my role as an environment educator and nature guide. Some of these residents have told me that not only do they not understand English but they are not literate. Some of them have never gone to school. And they came back only to find this letter in English and, naturally, they were concerned. So, my first question is: moving forward, could the Ministry give some assurance to these residents that, in future, any sort of clarifications be made in a language and dialect that they can understand, and also to speak to them personally perhaps if need be?

Secondly, I am heartened to know that Pulau Ubin will be kept in its rustic state as far as possible. One resident who has been living there for the fourth generation is Kamariah Abdullah. She has done great work in her house which is a really beautiful Malay house in its natural state and has encouraged people to come and stay and enjoy what we call the "kampung" spirit. So, what I would like to ask the Ministry is whether the Ministry has any plans to encourage people like Kamariah Abdullah to stay and rejuvenate this whole life, the "kampung" spirit and encourage people to go. And in addition, to support her financially or in some other ways to continue this kind of existence for the betterment, not just of Singaporeans and future generations, but also tourists who come to the island.

And lastly, moving forward, in terms of future plans, will the Ministry consider engaging not just stakeholders like nature groups and other environmental groups but also people who are living there at the moment as

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stakeholders to get them and their ideas as to how we can encourage Pulau Ubin to stay as rustic as possible for the longest time possible?

Madam, I thank the Member for the three questions. First, I want to assure the Member that we take the interests of the residents very closely to our hearts. I say that because I am also the local Member of Parliament for Pulau Ubin. I meet the residents as regularly as I can, and I know most of them. We engage the residents very regularly through my house visits to them, as well as various events that we organise in Pulau Ubin.

We are very mindful of the concerns that the residents may have. The Member is absolutely right. We could have done better in our communications. We have a local committee in place: Pulau Ubin Changi Village, with various subcommittees which include residents in Pulau Ubin as well as Changi Village because it is their main point where they come to the mainland. Many of the residents, they used to live in Pulau Ubin and they do have some residential property in Changi Village. But they go to Pulau Ubin regularly. We are very mindful of how we should be engaging these residents. I assure the Member that I will personally connect with the residents there.

On the issue of Mdm Kamariah, I know her also. I think she has done a lot of work, too. On how best we can facilitate her work, we can discuss with her on a separate occasion and to look at how best we can look at the whole Pulau Ubin, not as a tourist destination of sorts. I do not like to see it as a tourist destination but I like to see it as a destination for Singaporeans to go back to experience what rustic life is about in Pulau Ubin.

The Member is absolutely right. We continue to engage the residents. Even when we do any form of upgrading works, it is also to tie in with the nature and rustic environment. We engage the residents quite regularly, even when they have issues with regard to things that needed to be upgraded, we will continue to work with them on the nature and how we go about putting in place some of these facilities for them. So, I assure the Member that we will continue as best we can to keep Pulau Ubin as rustic as we can because that is something that I think Singaporeans can treasure.

Madam, I have a supplementary question to ask. Will the Minister consider developing part of Pulau Ubin into a retirees village with medical facilities like hospital and shops and land made available for farming and growing flowers so that retirees can be gainfully retired and employed? Retirees can then lead a simple and healthy

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life in their golden years. If Pulau Tekong can become an army camp, why not Pulau Ubin become a retirees' village?

I think that is quite a different proposition. I am not sure Ms Faizah will agree to that. Well, I think the issue really is whether that is something that Singaporeans want. When we talk about retirement village, there are also ageing and elderly issues. To put our elderly on an island, you would need to put in a whole slew of services and a lot of issues with regard to cost and whether we can put those infrastructures in place.

That is a proposition that is worth considering in the longer term if it does merit such a proposition. For now, we are quite clear. We want to leave Pulau Ubin the way it is for as long as we can. Even when we have chalets, the chalets try very hard to keep it to the way it is without too much of modern facilities going into it. We want to try to provide an avenue for Singaporeans to go back to something that we used to have.

So, whether it would turn into a retirement village one day, I am not quite sure. Whether that is something that we want to consider at this point in time, I think there are other alternatives for our retirees to age in place. We also want our retirees to age in place rather than go to an island. We want them to be part of the larger community because I think that is where the social support ought to be made available for our retirees.

Madam, I welcome Senior Parliamentary Secretary's assurance that Pulau Ubin will be kept rustic for as long as possible, and also welcome the apology for the anxiety caused by the notice. I would like to ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary, in the first place, how can such a notice go out, phrased in such a way that gave the wrong impression that it would be an eviction notice and that mentions an adventure park to be developed when it is not so? Is there a process and a system in place to vet important notices that go out to residents, especially those which are potentially sensitive and distressing? And, also to do it in the various languages that they would understand; and also to echo the point that the Nominated Member made about explaining it to residents so as to allay their fears.

My second question relates to preserving Pulau Ubin as a place for local culture heritage as well as its natural heritage. Can I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary whether there are plans to recognise Pulau Ubin for the special place it holds in Singapore? As you know, the cityscape is always changing with construction and reconstruction. Many Singaporeans go to Pulau

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Ubin for a simpler way of life and to also enjoy the FEW rustic corners left in Singapore.

Madam, as mentioned earlier, we acknowledge that we could have done better, in terms of the communication. The letter was not the first that was sent. HDB officers sent a letter earlier last year, in 2012. The same letter, but it did not create that misunderstanding. At that point in time, they were also doing the same census. Unfortunately, this time round, it came up quite negatively and we acknowledge that we could have done better in the communications and the processes. I think we have rectified the processes to make sure that it does not happen again.

On the issue of the local cultural heritage, I think Singaporeans acknowledge what Pulau Ubin offers. Whether it is a formalised process we can put in place, various agencies can come together and review that possibility. Even if we do not formalise that process, today, the natural environment and attraction of Pulau Ubin are sufficient for Singaporeans to acknowledge that that is something that we have already. If Singaporeans themselves continue to visit Pulau Ubin and experience the wonders of the rustic lifestyle, Pulau Ubin will continue to be the way it is.

Many times when I visited my residents there, and I visit the shop owners, they are very happy because, over the weekends, there are so many people who come back. During the weekdays, they are quite quiet; naturally, because people do flock over during the weekends. They are quite happy with the way things are happening in Pulau Ubin. And whenever I go there, not only Singaporeans, I also see tourists come and enjoy the various aspects of Pulau Ubin.

These are suggestions for the various agencies to consider.