Building a Democracy of Deeds

Mr Speaker, Sir, I move, "That Parliament do now adjourn."

Question proposed.

Mr Foo Cexiang.

Mr Speaker, in 1971, Mr S Rajaratnam spoke about how we needed to build a "democracy of deeds" in Singapore, where an active citizenry works with the Government to solve problems. Rather than a "democracy of words" – mere political rhetoric or adversarial debate.

Fifty-five years on, this concept of a "democracy of deeds" remains deeply relevant. Indeed, a "we first" society which the Prime Minister has rallied us towards, is a society where the democracy of deeds flourishes. How would such a society look like? Sir, we are still in an early phase, but I hope Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru can serve as a living prototype. Through several initiatives, we have observed the democracy of deeds manifest in three ways.

First, residents taking the responsibility to act and solve problems. Second, residents having the imagination to create shared spaces. Third, residents demonstrating the maturity to reach consensus through dialogue. I will illustrate each of these.

First, civic responsibility. In August last year, a group of residents of Seng Poh estate in Tiong Bahru led by Mr Kelvin Ang wrote to me. They had observed a worsening issue of the blue recycling bins in their estate being contaminated and becoming littering spots which spoilt the environment of their beautiful neighbourhood.

They sought my support to try a different approach. Remove the blue bins and they would organise regular recycling collection drives instead to ensure that residents sorted and deposited clean recyclables. So, I contacted the National Environment Agency (NEA) to give my support for the initiative and requested that they partner us too.

What heartened me most was that our residents were stepping forth to take on responsibility for a shared problem and that NEA was prepared to cede some level of control and test a different approach with us.

Today, the "Bye Bye Blue Bins" pilot in Seng Poh estate is ongoing. We have removed the bins for three weeks and have conducted two recycling collection drives. For the first event, we had 50 households turn up with about 200 kilogrammes of recyclables. For the second event, we had more than 100 households turn up with about 600 kilogrammes of recyclables. So, it is growing.

The residents who proposed the initiative have worked incredibly hard, not just to organise the recycling collection events, but to knock on doors, put up and distribute flyers all over the estate so that fellow residents know about the initiative and have avenues to provide feedback. They have also been working closely with the Town Council to coordinate enforcement.

While the early results have been encouraging, it is early days yet. The team is collecting feedback and will continue to improve the approach.

Second, civic imagination. In December last year, another resident, also from Seng Poh estate, Mr Warren Wee, wrote to me as well. He is an art curator and wanted to organise a digital art exhibition at the Tiong Bahru Air Raid Shelter where he would invite both local and international artists to present their works.

I gave him my support as well. His exhibition ran for a week from 19 to 26 January this year and I visited it three times: the first at his invitation for the opening reception, but the latter two were my own accord to bring the media and friends because I thought it was an excellent exhibition and I was very proud to share what our local boy had achieved. Shin Min ran an article about the exhibition, spotlighting an artificial intelligence (AI) work by Ms Bianca Tse from Hong Kong, which seeks to recreate the Kowloon Walled City.

I spoke to Bianca. She told me that the setting of the Tiong Bahru Air Raid Shelter captured the emotions she wanted to evoke through the work of the Walled City. Both were harsh environments which yet sheltered resilient communities.

Anyone who has visited the Air Raid Shelter will know what she means. It has been largely untouched since the 1940s. Very dark, little ventilation. There are areas which are leaking and there are broken bricks in some places. Hardly a welcoming environment.

Yet, Warren had the determination and boldness to conceptualise a digital art exhibition in the Shelter. He brought in works, like Bianca's, which spoke to the natural conditions of the Shelter and put in quite significant resources himself to ensure that it would be fit and safe for the public to spend some time in.

Warren told me he was fascinated by the space since he was young: its heritage, its history, how it would have held more than 1,600 residents during the Second World War. He asked if it would be possible for the Government to retrofit it basically, for better ventilation and environment, and his dream will be to run it as a more permanent art museum and heritage node.

Third, civic dialogue and consensus. Just last month, I partnered the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) to conduct a Participatory Budgeting (PB) pilot in Spottiswoode Park estate. The concept is simple. We set aside a budget of $200,000; residents develop and pitch ideas on enhancements for their neighbourhood. They sell their ideas to their fellow residents, the ideas are put to a vote and those that fall within the budget get implemented. So, ideas from residents, voted by residents, built for residents.

When IPS approached me with the concept last year, I was enthusiastic to pilot it. Because I strongly believe in the potential of such a project in strengthening the sense of ownership and belonging of our residents and that given the right resources and facilitation, our residents will be able to develop the best ideas for their neighbourhoods.

We completed the kick-off session for the pilot two weeks ago. Close to 200 residents turned up, a good range of ages reflecting the general demographics of the estate. We collected more than 120 ideas. But that was only the beginning.

Since then, IPS has worked with the residents to categorise the ideas into seven areas. They conducted a deep dive with 25 residents last weekend. Residents volunteered to lead the work, set out detailed proposals based on the ideas in collaboration with the other residents. These residents will be hard at work over the next couple of weeks. Then, the ideas will be put to a feasibility committee made up of the technical agencies before we proceed with an exhibition and voting.

Mr Speaker, these initiatives have had a catalytic effect on the rest of Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru. Residents from other estates in the division have written to me, volunteering to lead similar "Bye Bye Blue Bins" initiatives in their own estates. Other have asked when can they introduce PB in their estates as well.

It is my hope and belief that some of these pilots we are conducting here can be scaled up to other parts of Singapore.

But let me share some early reflections on the role of the Government, citizens and the Member of Parliament in making the transition.

First, the Government. I want to acknowledge the significant effort and investments by the Government in developing a suite of funds to spear and support community-led initiatives. These include the $50 million SG Partnerships Fund under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment's (MSE's) $50 million SG Eco Fund to support community-driven sustainability projects, and the Lively Places Fund co-run by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Housing and Development Board (HDB).

In fact, another of my residents, Ms Diana Lau, from Boon Tiong estate applied herself for the Lively Places Fund and led the painting of a beautiful community street mural at Eng Hoon Street, turning what was a relatively underutilised pedestrianised street into a vibrant community hub and Instagrammable location.

I strongly support these funds. They help meaningful ground-up initiatives. However, my sense is that these initiatives are positioned to run alongside the Government's infrastructure and planning approach. They are "good to have" micro-activations of public spaces which otherwise do not interact with or influence the core of the Government's plans and policies.

But to build a democracy of deeds, I believe we should go much further and deeper, to place citizenship engagement right at the heart of our infrastructure and planning approach, in shaping our communities and our neighbourhoods.

I will make three specific recommendations.

First, how we manage state properties. Currently, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) tenders out such properties using the price-quality system when they want the properties to be managed in ways that address other objectives, such as heritage rejuvenation. This has led to high-quality lifestyle hubs, such as New Bahru and Kada, which require professionalised operations and commercial viability to run.

I would like to advocate for an alternative model as well. One where the Government invites ground-up proposals for state properties – proposals which produce social impact. It can be a community hub for youths or a heritage living space, perhaps, even a creative arts museum, like what my resident Warren envisaged for the Tiong Bahru Air Raid Shelter. They can become community regeneration stations.

Instead of selecting a proposal based on rental bid, the Government chooses proposals based on the proposal's potential social impact. The selected proposals are awarded the use of the property or site for a given tenure free of charge. Under this model, we may see more social enterprises and ground-up collectives being awarded the use of such properties.

Sir, we have over 2,600 state properties in Singapore: former schools, community centres, camps, many of some heritage significance, many located within residential estates. Imagine the energy that will be brought to our neighbourhoods if just a segment of them are converted to such community regeneration stations.

Second, how we conduct Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP). I am very glad that HDB agreed to partner us for the PB in Spottiswoode Park. I see this as the first step in seeing how we can potentially incorporate such a process into NRP.

We scheduled the PB pilot to run alongside the NRP process in Spottiswoode Park, so that all the implementing agencies, as well as our residents can experience how these can work side by side, and the difference in their level of engagement and their appetite for each of them.

With the findings from the Spottiswoode Park NRP+PB, I hope HDB can consider enhancing NRP to also include a segment for PB – so that residents across Singapore have the base layer of NRP improvements, as well as a PB component where they dream, propose and vote for their own ideas.

Third, how we conduct recycling and other sustainability initiatives. I am similarly heartened that NEA and CORA, the recycling operator, also agreed to partner us for our "Bye Bye Blue Bins" pilot.  This boldness to try out something different is refreshing and invigorating for residents who are prepared to step up.

Instead of a one-size fits all approach, where waste is centrally collected and recycling contamination relatively high, a localised recycling approach may be much more effective in Singapore.

Mr Speaker, developing community regeneration stations, incorporating PB as a component under NRP, facilitating localised sustainability models – these are all concrete steps to build Singapore as a democracy of deeds. I am sure there are several other areas. Many, if not all of our Government agencies have a key role to play. However, for it to happen, I believe we need MCCY to lead the whole-of-Government charge in three key areas.

First, ambition. We need to set out a clear ambition – to go beyond funding, to deeply involved partnerships, where the agencies work closely with residents to design and activate their neighbourhoods.

Second, we need coordination. We need strong coordination to ensure that the ambition permeates the whole-of-Government to develop a coherent agenda and programme which residents can refer to and see where they want to contribute.

Third, skills. We need public officers skilled at facilitating such partnerships with citizens. MCCY has been building this up through the SG Partnerships Office (SGPO), but we will need much more investment. MCCY can also work with partners, such as IPS to build a wider pool of skilled, not-for-profit, community-based facilitators.

Let me move on to the role of the citizen. As each of the initiatives I have highlighted show, the citizens have a very involved, time and effort intensive. It is not days, but weeks and months of effort. It is not raising suggestions, but detailing solutions, assessing trade-offs, convincing fellow citizens. It is not "I" versus the Government, or "I" versus my neighbour, but "we" – all together.

For every resident in Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru who has participated in each of the initiatives, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for stepping up, leading the way and showing us all how it can be done.

Finally, the role of the Member of Parliament. Sir, for each of these initiatives I have championed, I have been under no illusions. It does not matter if the proposal came from my resident. The buck stops with me.

When the residents came to me about removing the blue bins, a dozen scenarios of how it could go wrong crossed my mind. Residents complaining about being inconvenienced. Littering bins overflowing. Original blue bin locations becoming littering slots. Low participation rate during the collection events. Volunteers getting disillusioned and abandoning the pilot.

The same for the PB pilot. With a great number of residents involved, much more could have gone. What expectations would they have? Would a vocal minority dominate the room? Would they be able to agree on the process to find a way forward?

I thought about each and every one of these concerns and decided to proceed. Not because I had all the answers. But because I trusted my residents. I trusted that they would recognise the heart and efforts of their fellow residents, our community partners and the Government agencies; that they would see that this is something special we are creating in Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru and be prepared to give it a chance as we adjust and improve along the way till we get it.

And that, Mr Speaker, is what building a democracy of deeds is all about. It starts with trust and ends with action. [Applause.]

Senior Parliamentary Secretary Goh Hanyan.

Mr Speaker, Mr Foo has spoken passionately about a democracy of deeds and I want to start by crediting that work.

Democracy of deeds is a simple yet powerful idea – that a thriving society is built not just by its government, but by everyone who lives in it through acts of participation. This is precisely what we in government believe Singapore needs more of.

A strong Singapore requires both sides to show up. We need a society that sees shaping our shared future as something worth giving time and effort to. And we need a government that meets that energy with equal seriousness, building structures and a culture to make genuine partnership possible.

People are already showing up – as we have seen from Mr Foo's examples – and we want to encourage them. We are on a journey to learn how to step back so that citizens step forward to issues that matter to them.

To shift the question from "What can the Government do for you?" to "How might we partner together?"

This shift – from government for the people, to the government with the people – is something we are actively leaning into, across three fronts: deepening citizen participation in plans and policies; expanding volunteerism; and enabling citizen-led initiatives.

The first is how citizens participate in shaping Government's plans and policies. This calls for openness from Government to share trade-offs and welcome diverse perspectives to shape outcomes. When people are trusted with real questions and agency, we believe the proposals that emerge are stronger, and so is the relationship between citizen and state.

While the Government has traditionally led in these areas, this has started to change in recent years. PUB's Our Coastal Conversations is an example where the public discussed how we can protect our land against rising sea levels. At a session for City-East Coast, we listened to participants, whose views shaped our recommendations for Changi Beach Park.

We also agree with Mr Foo that citizen engagement should be at the heart of infrastructure planning and are learning from ground-up trials.

Today, HBD and Town Councils already engage residents on neighbourhood upgrades. To take this further, MCCY, Ministry of National Development and HDB are piloting different ways to deepen this engagement as part of NRP in Boon Lay and Canberra. We will learn from these pilots to improve citizen involvement in the NRP consultation process.

Likewise, we are open to resident-led efforts that strengthen our recycling ecosystem. For example, MSE is partnering Zero Waste SG's trial of dedicated recycling bins for clean stream recyclables in Pioneer.

We are encouraged that Mr Foo's residents have seen early success with their own collection drives and are looking forward to learning from their efforts.

Mr Foo also suggested an approach centred on social impact and ground-up proposals for state properties. We share this vision. Social and community value are already key considerations in how state properties are allocated. SLA will continue to engage social startups and non-government organisations to understand their needs, and work with agencies to unlock more state properties with social impact.

Beyond these areas, the spirit of collaboration is just as vital, if not more so, for the next generation. When you give young people a real responsibility, they rise to meet it.

In 2023, the National Youth Council introduced the Youth Panels for young Singaporeans to be co-authors of national initiatives and policies they are passionate about. We will launch the next run of Youth Panels later this year for more youths to step forward and contribute.

The goal here is not consultation for its own sake. It is a government and its people thinking through hard problems side by side and arriving at better answers. That is the ideal we are holding ourselves to and will continue creating opportunities to do so.

The second front is volunteerism. Volunteerism is citizenship in action and that instinct is alive and well. Many Singaporeans want to give their time and their skills to causes they believe in.

Here, our role is to strengthen the conditions to help it to flourish. We have learned that to sustain it, people need clear pathways to match their causes to their strengths and the assurance that their contributions make a difference. We have been working hard to strengthen the volunteering ecosystem to make it more easy for Singaporeans to step forward and more meaningful for them to stay on. Our island-wide network of 24 SG Cares Volunteer Centres works with community partners to identify town-level needs, such as senior befriending, and reaches out to interested citizens in areas to meet those needs.

For our youths, Youth Corps Singapore has been championing youth volunteerism by bringing together youths to do good – and many of them are already doing so. In 2025, more than 10,000 Youth Corps Leaders and volunteers contributed over 75,000 hours of service, impacting some 6,500 beneficiaries.

Regardless of age, a giving society is one where people feel connected to something that is larger than themselves. We want every Singaporean who steps forward to find exactly that.

The third front is when Singaporeans take it upon themselves to build what their communities need, ahead of any policies or programmes. For these efforts to thrive, Government plays the role of enabler and partner. That means providing funding that is accessible, processes that are responsive and a willingness to hold space and follow the lead of citizens who are closest to the opportunity.

The residents of Tanjong Pagar group representative constituency are a great example of this – no one understands the community better than the very people who live in it.

There are many other inspiring examples. Through the National Heritage Board's Heritage Activation Nodes, community partners and residents in Katong-Joo Chiat, Clementi and Punggol have been creating heritage programmes, mobilising 460 volunteers and forging close to 120 partnerships since 2024. We will be expanding these nodes to more neighbourhoods this year, including Tiong Bahru and Telok Blangah. We are excited about the possibilities.

Our young people are perhaps most willing to simply start; to see something their community needs and build it. What they need from us is access to resources and a system that backs them. This is exactly what we are doing through the National Youth Council's Young ChangeMakers Grant, where youths themselves are empowered to evaluate and approve Government funding for projects by fellow Singaporeans.

Earlier this year, I also announced that we will launch the Somerset Belt Youth CoLab. A team of 15 youth leaders will be given dedicated spaces and funding to activate these spaces at *SCAPE and the Somerset Belt. They are now working with youth communities to plan for the upcoming Youth Month in July.

All that I have shared are proof of what is possible when Singaporeans step forward. We want to make it easier for more of this to happen. For starters, we formed the SGPO as the first stop for any citizen who wants to partner the Government. Anyone can submit your ideas through the Partners Portal. SGPO will open doors to the right partners – providing support from venues to volunteers and publicity – to bring your ideas to life. If your idea is not fully formed, SGPO's Citizens' Circles will offer a safe space for you to refine your ideas with agencies and fellow citizens.

Finally, as Mr Foo pointed out, we launched the $50 million SG Partnerships Fund this year to support citizens and ground-ups at any stage – from starting up to scaling up. Ultimately, the most enduring community efforts are those that belong to people who built them. We want to give those efforts the best possible start and will refine our measures to keep barriers low and support relevant.

Finally, undergirding all three fronts is a commitment that we are making to ourselves. That partnering citizens well is a capability the Government must build with intention. We are investing in structures, skills and the culture to engage citizens meaningfully.

The formation of the SGPO I mentioned earlier is a signal of that commitment. MCCY has been facilitating the building of engagement capabilities across Government, and at all levels. We are training our officers and our leaders, sharing best practices, and providing more opportunities for ground learning.

Our goal is to rally agencies to step forward and work closely with our citizens across all three fronts that I spoke about today.

We will continue pressing on to build a Public Service that is ready to partner citizens sincerely and wholeheartedly – and become better partners that our citizens can count on.

I thank Mr Foo again for sharing what his residents have accomplished. He has reminded us that when Government and people lean in jointly, the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. That instinct and belief that we are stronger together is one of Singapore's greatest strengths, and it is one we must never take for granted. A democracy of deeds is something we build iteratively – learning as we go and always searching for a deeper partnership with our people. That is the work ahead and we take it on with conviction.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved, "That Parliament do now adjourn."

Pursuant to Standing Order 2(3)(a), I wish to inform hon Members that the Sitting tomorrow will commence at 11.00 am. Order. Order.

Adjourned accordingly at 9.30 pm.