By Singapore Climate Rally
The wave of climate strikes around the globe in the past few years may have made it seem like environmental advocacy has only really gained momentum recently. Singapore itself did only have its first climate rally in 2019, held at Hong Lim Park. However, even as the stridency of climate activists has picked up in response to the worsening impacts of the climate crisis, it would be a mistake to not acknowledge those that came before, as they laid the foundations for others to follow.
In Singapore, one often thinks of civil society as responsible for advocating for greater rights for women (e.g. AWARE), migrant workers (e.g. HOME, TWC2), and other socio-political causes, as these are longstanding issues which grab the headlines. Attention to climate-related issues such as our net-zero carbon emissions target and divestment from fossil fuels has only emerged recently, however, nature groups have been advocating for the conservation of natural spaces and biodiversity for some time. Two prominent examples would be the campaigns advocating for the conservation of Lower Peirce Reservoir, and Bukit Brown cemetery.
Lower Peirce Reservoir: Publicly Pressuring the Government
In 1991, the Nature Society (Singapore) (NSS) learnt of plans by the government to develop the Lower Peirce Reservoir catchment area into two golf courses. They wrote to then-Minister of National Development S. Dhanabalan to advocate for conserving the fauna in the area, and undertook their own Environmental Impact Assessment in 1992. While the National Parks Board (NPB) requested for them not to distribute the EIA publicly so that NPB could lobby the Public Utilities Board (PUB) to drop the project, their patron, Professor Tommy Koh, advised them to publish it publicly and fax it to all MPs and the media, which they did so.
Simultaneously, the NSS also canvassed in public locations and events to gather signatures for a petition opposing the development, garnering around 17,000 signatures, no mean feat in a pre-social media civil society age. Even former deputy prime minister S. Rajaratnam was one of the signatories. The combination of these two public advocacy efforts led to the quiet shelving of the plans to develop the reservoir.
The use of petitions continues to be a popular method of advocacy for environmental advocates. Think of the petition in 2021 to save Dover Forest from development for housing needs which got over 50,000 signatures, which, coupled with pressure from nature groups such as NSS and the wider public, led the Housing Development Board (HDB) to revise their plans to only develop half of the forest, and save the other half for a nature park.
As with other forms of activism, however, even environmental advocates were not spared from the long arm of the government’s security apparatus. Then-NSS president Prof. Wee Yeow Chin was visited by Internal Security Department (ISD) officers at his office after the above events, to enquire about the purpose of the petition. Nevertheless, the efforts of NSS was a milestone in showing how public pressure could lead to government action on environmental issues.
Bukit Brown: Coalitional Energy
Sometimes, nature groups have coordinated with other civil society groups when their goals have aligned as well. In 2011, plans were announced to build an expressway through Bukit Brown Cemetery, a Chinese cemetery containing the graves of hundreds of early Chinese immigrants. Over 5,000 graves would have been exhumed for the development.
The NSS issued a statement saying that the development would affect the habitats of avian wildlife and other forest species, highlighting the biodiversity of the area, and advocating for a thorough EIA to be done. The Singapore Heritage Society also published a paper outlining the cultural and historical importance of the cemetery in connecting Singapore to the region. Several other civil society groups also lent their voices to advocate for the conservation of the cemetery, and these groups organised themselves into the Community for Bukit Brown, a coalition of civil society groups calling for the government to reconsider their plans.
The government subsequently invited them to a closed-door meeting on 19 March 2012, and the Community expected to be consulted on their views, and prepared reports proposing alternative construction sites. However, the meeting turned out to be more of a briefing on the government’s plans instead of a consultation, and on that same day, the government issued a press release saying that they had finalised the alignment of the new road to pass through the cemetery.
The same night of the meeting, the Community issued a joint statement expressing their disappointment at the lack of genuine effort made at consultation by the government, and criticising the meeting as a ‘unilateral dissemination of information by particular agencies’, calling for a moratorium on all work at Bukit Brown until discussions over alternatives were exhausted. Things got testy, with then-Minister for National Development (MND) Tan Chuan Jin saying that the Community had ‘fundamentally mismatched expectations’ of the meeting.
Not to be deterred, the Community held several public events at the cemetery, including over 700 free guided walks for almost 19,000 participants from the public between 2012 and 2017, as well as a mock National Day Parade to commemorate the ‘Nation’s Deceased Pioneers’. Exhibitions showcasing the heritage and biodiversity in the area were held in areas such as The Substation. A petition was also started to collect 100,000 signatures, one for every grave in the cemetery.
While the government went ahead with plans to build the new highway, a slight concession was achieved: part of the highway would be converted into a bridge 5-10 metres above the ground to reduce the impact on the vegetation and biodiversity, and only 3,900 graves were exhumed. The events that the Community organised also had an impact in inspiring many art pieces and public interest in the historical significance of the cemetery. Volunteers from the Community also got seats at the working committee on Bukit Brown chaired by MND, highlighting the success of sustained advocacy in fostering greater state consultation.
SG Climate Rally: Organising For Collective Action
In 2019, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg inspired a wave of global climate strikes led by youth climate activists. Singapore also had its very first physical climate rally (organised by youth climate group SG Climate Rally (SGCR) on 21 September 2019. Over 2,000 participants both young and old gathered at Hong Lim Park to call on the government to recognise the systemic causes of climate change, and take greater climate action. Participants gamely held up creative placards they had made about the climate crisis, listened to speeches about the need for collective action to tackle the crisis, and wrote postcards to their elected Members of Parliament (MP) featuring their thoughts about climate change. At the end of the rally, participants staged a “die-in”, falling to the ground domino-style to mourn the loss of lives and biodiversity caused by the climate crisis.
Several politicians attended the rally including Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee and People’s Action Party MP Louis Ng. Some MPs that rallygoers wrote to responded, including Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. Since then, the government has partially met several of SGCR’s initial calls to action, including a net zero emissions target by 2050, as well as a higher carbon tax.
However, equally as important as the tangible outcomes from the rally has been the symbolic power of the rally. The rally was the first physical collective action carried out by youth climate activists in Singapore, and since then, many other youth groups have emerged to champion climate advocacy. The rally also emphasised the political impetus needed behind greater climate action, and how people can come together to demand this from their representatives. In that spirit, in 2021 before the UN COP26 climate conference, several youth climate groups and individual activists published a joint statement titled ‘An urgent call from Singaporean youths on the environmental crisis’, highlighting several areas where the government needed to accelerate climate action, and detailed several policy recommendations to do so. This was repeated in 2022 before COP27 as well. Driving these initiatives is a belief that the effects of climate crisis will be felt most sharply by the youth, and hence the youth should have a greater say in policies tackling the climate crisis.
Since 2019, SGCR has organised several digital campaigns such as #TakeBack2050, calling for people to share their ideas on what Singapore would look like in 2050, a petition co-organised with delivery riders to advocate for riders to be given a rebate on a petrol tax hike in 2021, and a digital rally called The People In Crisis, featuring speakers from diverse communities such as low-income families, indigenous groups, migrant workers, and even a veteran petrol worker unionist.
Building on The People In Crisis, SG Climate Rally is back on 23 September at Hong Lim Park from 3-7pm, for the first physical climate rally since 2019. The rally will be centred around climate justice, which is about urging the government to adopt equitable policies towards marginalised groups, who will bear the brunt of the climate crisis. Those who have contributed the most should foot the bill, such as pollutive businesses and the wealthy who consume much more than the average Singaporean.
To achieve this, SGCR has co-created a just and inclusive roadmap towards stronger climate action with other climate groups. The roadmap contains policy recommendations aimed at ensuring that Singapore’s target of net-zero emissions is achieved, with three main calls to action: Accelerate the Transition, Protect the Ecosystems, and Empower the People.
Environmental advocacy in Singapore has come a long way, and the response to SGCR’s rallies shows that people are willing to take collective action towards stronger climate policies. However, even as more people join the movement, one must not forget our predecessors who forged the path to make this possible–daring to take on the government and push back against their development plans, organising petitions and events to draw greater awareness to environmental issues, and developing robust policy recommendations to signal to the government that citizens should have a greater say in policymaking.
If you want to join the fight for a more just and inclusive fossil-free future, come for the rally on 23 September, and take your place together with activists young and old, present and past, and make your voice heard. Seas are rising, so are we!
Sources:
Bukit Brown – CAPE (capesingapore.com)
Huang, Jianli. 2014. ‘Resurgent Spirits of Civil Society Activism: Rediscovering the Bukit Brown
Cemetery in Singapore’. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
87 (2): 21–45. https://doi.org/10.1353/ras.2014.0016.
Jamal, Faizah. 2017. ‘Three Lessons for Engagement in Environmental Activism in
Singapore’. In Civil Society and the State in Singapore, by Carol Soon and Gillian
Koh, 31–48. WORLD SCIENTIFIC (EUROPE).
https://doi.org/10.1142/9781786342478_0002.
Francesch-Huidobro, Maria. 2008. Governance, Politics and the Environment: A Singapore
Study. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Ho, Hua Chew, and Shawn Lum. 2017. ‘Protecting Singapore’s Natural Heritage’. In The Art
of Advocacy in Singapore, edited by Constance Singam and Margaret Thomas, 75–96.
Singapore: Ethos Books.
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