Redefining the ‘kampung spirit’ with our youth

Members of the Board of Governors and Polytechnic Councils,

Principals,

Members of the Organising Committee,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Students,

1. A very good morning to all of you and it is very good to join you this morning for your Polytechnic Forum. 
   

2. The theme of this year’s Poly Forum is “Youth as Social Innovators: RE-Defining the Kampung Spirit”. So I thought I will just start by talking about this particular topic, the kampung spirit. And maybe it is appropriate to start by asking how many of you have parents who lived in a kampung? I am sure you would have heard stories about their experiences when they were growing up just as I did. The majority of you would have parents who lived in a kampung and they would have told you what life was like in a kampung. 
   

3. What does it mean to have the kampung spirit? And what does it mean to have the kampung spirit in today’s context? I thought I would share some pictures on what the kampung spirit was like back in the days of the early 70s. Back then, when most homes did not have television, people living in the kampung will come together at the community centres and watch television together. I am sure when you were growing up, you never saw anything like that because by the 1990s, 2000s onwards you would hardly see people coming together to watch television together. But this was very common and that brought people together, it was a bonding experience. 
   

4. But it was not just about coming together for a good time or for recreational purposes. People also came together in the spirit of gotong-royong, a Malay phrase that talks about mutual support. That was the essence of the kampung spirit. For example, in the past, over 100 Singapore Polytechnic students had helped some women from a kampung to pave a road that would benefit the residents. They actually went there to create a road leading to the kampung together. And this of course benefited everyone.
   

5. Besides roads, students from the National University of Singapore were partnering with residents in the area in Kembangan. They were doing a project to clear some of the drains and to fill potholes in the road. And these were common sights in the early 70s. Today, you look at the construction projects and we have workers helping us to do all of these things, but these were common sights in the 60s and 70s when we were literally building Singapore together. The students and residents all came together to do projects like these. That was very much part of the kampung spirit then – people coming together, working together to build a better future for themselves and their children.

6. I think some of you will ask what about today? Is the kampung spirit still relevant when we have HDB flats and we no longer live in big kampungs? With modernisation and urbanisation, do we still have the kampung spirit today? I think the kampung spirit still exists and certainly when I was growing up, I could feel that sense of the kampung spirit. I will share with you two stories when I was growing up when the kampung spirit was felt very strongly. 
   

7. The first story was when I was very young. My dad lost the house keys and when we came home, we could not open the door. We were locked out of the house. We asked our neighbours to help us and before you knew it, there was a whole party gathering outside my house. Twenty people eventually built up to 30 people. So, everybody started to chip in, all trying out different ideas to open the door, trying to open that lock so that we could get in.
   

8. Some neighbours saw my brother and I, young boys then, not having had dinner. They brought us out for dinner and they took care of us while the adults tried to open the door. By the time we got back, the door was opened and we were able to get in. So it was very real to me to see that kind of a sight as a young boy, growing up in that HDB block where the neighbours knew one another. When a person had a problem, everybody chipped in to help.
   

9. The second story happened a few years later. It was an unfortunate incident which happened to my family. We had a break-in. My brother and I were on our own during the school holidays. My parents were working so we were left on our own to buy lunch. As we were going home, two strangers came up to us to ask if they could borrow something from us. Of course, being the good boys that we were, we did not to let strangers into the house. But they barged into the house, held us, threatened us and demanded for valuables in the house. They ransacked the whole place and took all the valuables with them.
   

10. The remarkable thing is, the whole neighbourhood knew about the incident and tried to see how they could help us. Among themselves, residents stepped up surveillance around the neighbourhood after that. We did not find the culprits but the neighbours stepped up on surveillance on their own accord. This was before the days of Citizens on Patrol. Then, quite remarkably, the residents decided to contribute some funds to employ a security guard. I think it must have been the only HDB block with its own security guard in those days. It was not through government funding or Town Council funding. Rather, residents came up with the solution themselves and they found a security guard. So that continued for a year or two because they were concerned about the safety and the welfare of the estate that they decided to find their own solution. That sense of kampung spirit can still exist in modern day Singapore. 
    

11. So that was in the 80s. You might say that today is different from the 80s. But I think the kampung spirit is still real today. You can see many such examples of the kampung spirit in modern day Singapore and I will share with you some examples. 
    

12. In Nee Soon, the Residents’ Committee and the SpringLeaf NC came together to provide meals to people who were from less-advantaged background. They started it in 2007. At that time they had 20 volunteers and 40 beneficiaries. Today, this project has 240 volunteers and 800 beneficiaries. So many more people are benefitting from this project. What do they do? The residents come together and they pay for meals for needy residents in the area. That helps to bring the community together. Residents worked with caterers and community partners to make this happen. They provide meals on a regular basis for the needy residents in the estate. 
    

13. Another example is community gardening. This is where residents come together to do an activity of common interest.  It brings together residents from all backgrounds – young and old, different races, difference religions. Even though in modern day urban Singapore, there are no farms but we have community gardens. This is run in Woodlands, where they grow numerous types of plants such as lettuce, kangkong, eggplant, curry and pandan. Gardeners share their produce with residents or sell them at a farmers’ market nearby. 

14. There are also many acts that individuals themselves engage in. Earlier, I shared examples of the kampung spirit among groups. But there are also many examples where the individual himself/herself initiate something. One example is the story of Mdm Leong Chee Peng, who is wheelchair-bound, is in her 60s and a resident of Toa Payoh. The left side of her body has been weakened by stroke some years ago. She needs to go for physiotherapy sessions weekly to rebuild her strength. Her husband is at work most of the time so she relies on her neighbour, Mr Chiu Chee, an 81-year-old retiree.
    

15. She affectionately calls him “Ah Suk”, and says that “rain or shine, Ah Suk will be the engine of my wheelchair”. This is because “Ah Suk” helps to bring her to the void deck each week where a bus will take her to the physiotherapy session. This is an example of that kind of neighbourliness and kampung spirit that is still in Singapore today. He does not only help Mdm Leong, but also delivers meals and provisions to other house-bound and needy neighbours within his estate.
    

16. I have described some examples of the kampung spirit in the past and also in modern day Singapore. As you can see, these are examples happening all around us. We may not hear about them very often but they are happening and there are many unsung heroes in our midst helping to keep the kampung spirit alive. 
    

17. There are many young people like yourselves too who are engaging in this sort of projects and I will share some examples of youth initiatives that help to promote and uphold the kampung spirit.
    

18. This is an event that is initiated by Republic Polytechnic previously and now it has become a poly-wide event. So it is co-organised by all five Polytechnics. It is called One Heart and what they do is that students come together and go supermarket shopping with the elderly. They will bring the elderly residents out to the supermarket and help them with grocery shopping. It is also another good way to promote intergenerational bonding between the elderly and youths.
    

19. Besides grocery shopping, the students and elderly bond over other activities such as dancing, karaoke sessions, origami and, of course, nowadays they take selfies with one another, as a way of bonding. This is a wonderful project. Some of you may have heard about it because it is a poly-wide project. Some of you may have already taken part in it and I will encourage you to continue to do more of such projects or to participate in them or grow this project, because it is a very meaningful and worthwhile thing to do.
    

20. So this is something that is happening now even among the polytechnics, among your peers in the polytechnics. There are other opportunities to build the kampung spirit even beyond the polytechnic. There are many other platforms to do so.
    

21. One thing that we have started is Youth Corps Singapore. It is a programme for youths like you to participate. It is a one-year programme which involves training and exposure. It is open to post-secondary students. We welcome everyone from all backgrounds. We bring all of you in for training at the Outward Bound Singapore, you will go overseas to do a community project and when you return, you will be attached to a community organisation to do something to benefit people in Singapore.
    

22. We already have one batch of the Youth Corps join us. We are taking in the second batch at the end of the year. Every year, we will be recruiting youth corps members. We already have many projects by the first batch of Youth Corps members. For example, some of them are looking at helping the intellectually-disabled. There is one group that is looking at developing a workshop to help bridge the gap between the elderly and young people. They are trying to do the workshop in Hokkien so they all learning how to speak Hokkien better. There is also a group that is helping to improve relationships between psychiatric patients and their families. Another group is looking to reach out to at-risk youth. That is just from the first batch of Youth Corps, which has about 100 young people. We welcome all of you, if you are interested, to sign up for the Youth Corps. 
    

23. There are other schemes such as the Young ChangeMakers (YCM) grant. This is a platform where we provide you with some resources for young people to make a difference. We give you some funding if you have an idea that will benefit the community. Share your ideas with us and we will help you with the resources to implement your idea. There are many young people who have signed up and made used of this scheme to implement projects.
    

24. One example is The Box Project which the Young ChangeMakers grant is funding. The project is a partnership between youths from Nee Soon South CC Youth Executive Committee and North View Primary School. They came together to do this project. What is it about? Essentially, they found that the Primary 6 students were facing a lot of stress as they approached PSLE and they needed encouragement. So the youths came together with North View Primary to encourage the Primary Four students to prepare gift boxes which they will present to their seniors before the PSLE. What is in the gift box? It contained things like a Milo snack bar and correction tape, as well as items for relaxation, such as cards and a ticket to a movie screening at the nearby community centre.
    

25. This is a simple idea and it does not cost a lot of money but it is heartfelt and very meaningful for the Primary 6 students, particularly as they are preparing for their examinations. Every box contains a personally handwritten letter written by youths in the Nee Soon South YEC. Feedback has been tremendous. The students who received the note were encouraged and they felt that it was a reminder that whatever they are going through, they were not doing it alone. Others have gone before them and they could do it too. Beyond this project at North View Primary School, The Box Project will partner members of the community, corporate and social institutions to reach out to other beneficiary groups, such as the elderly living in 1-room rental flats and youth-at-risk.
    

26. Next year is a milestone year for us because we celebrate our nation’s 50th birthday, what we call SG50. We are providing resources and platforms for Singaporeans to come up with ideas because we do not want SG50 to be just about the national day parade. We want SG50 to be a whole year worth of celebration with ideas put up by Singaporeans themselves. We have a Celebration Fund and this is open for anyone to apply. You can apply for it if you have an idea that you wish to celebrate our nation’s 50th birthday together with the community. Not for having a party but really to benefit the community. If you have any ideas, the Fund is there to provide you with resources and it is capped at $50,000 per project.
    

27. There were many ideas and one of them is called “The Kampung Spirit” project. This organised by Citycare, a volunteer organisation, together with the Cerebral Palsy Association of Singapore (CPAS). They hope to raise awareness of and celebrate racial harmony among those with cerebral palsy. CityCare brought together volunteers and the event was attended by beneficiaries at the Cerebral Palsy Centre in Pasir Ris. They did fun activities such as making greeting cards for the different ethnic festivals. They also tried their hand at traditional games and sampled cuisines from different races and cultures. This is a very meaningful event and there are many others like them. I encourage all of you to think about ways we can celebrate our nation’s 50th birthday together.

28. In closing, let me just share briefly that I think we are entering an important time in our nation’s history. It is 50 years. We are not that young any more but we are also not old. If you look at how we have evolved and how far we have come as a nation, if you look at the stories of the kampung spirit in the past and today, I think our forefathers, our parents, our grandparents were truly social innovators, they helped, not only to build modern Singapore but they help to build a Singapore with a strong sense of social cohesion. They helped to build a Singapore with a strong kampung spirit.

29. So the theme that you have today is a very timely one because all of you are the social innovators of your generation. You have many opportunities to pursue your dreams, your passion, to go as far as you can but at the same time I will encourage all of you to think about how you can innovate socially and give back to the community, redefine and uphold the kampung spirit in modern day Singapore. And if you do that, I am sure we can look forward to an even brighter and better future for Singapore and for all Singaporeans.

30. With that, I wish all of you a very fruitful Poly Forum. Thank you very much.