Estate Upgrading

PM Lee spoke of private estates who would be getting some upgrading in his National Day Rally speech. Barely a week after that, the grassroots leader rang our bell, passing us a letter inviting us to a neighbourhood gathering where the MP would make this important announcement.

So on Saturday evening, at 5.30pm, we made our way to the neighbourhood playground. A tent was set up, buffet tables at the ready and a sound system that works (we know because Celine Dion had been wailing away since 3pm earlier). We saw our neighbours, said hi, chatted here and there. The kids queued up for balloons, burst them and promptly queued up again.

Finally at 5.45pm, there was a flurry of activity. Two buses pulled up, the path into the playground was flanked by yellow-shirted grassroots activists and helpers. The speakers whined and someone announced the arrival of Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development, then Lim Hwee Hua, MOS for Finance... and finally our MP! I murmured to KH: That's why the press is here - they've brought out the big guns...

The powers-that-be wended their way through the crowd, shaking hands along the way. And for some unknown reason, went to the back of the playground where everyone seemed to be pointing at and discussing the tiny long-kang! Then a whine of the speakers again as the entourage made their way back to the main space and our MP started to speak.

He spoke for about 10min but I believe the gist of what he said could be summed up in one line: We are getting estate upgrading.

Whoopie. For this I interruped a game of Granny??

No details about what was to be done, when work was commencing, when it was targetted to end, no storyboards, no models, no artists' impressions of the finished product etc. It was supposed to cost about $5million I think.

We looked around the estate - what kind of upgrading could they do? There was talk about sealing the drains - but I prefer my drains left uncovered thank you very much! The stonework is pretty and the gleam of green-gold everytime the sun hits the mossy banks of the drains is really lovely. I guess they could replace the lamp-posts, but these looked and functioned well, so why? Maybe they could upgrade the playground? Add a wading pool?? Put up a tall net next to the Nasty Aunty's wall so that kids can play a round or two of football in peace? Now that would be money well-spent!

Finally, as at all good Singaporean events, the ministers gave their sound-bites surrounded by tape recorders and the scribes, flanked by an outer ring of solemn, perpetually nodding grassroots leaders. The rest of us just headed for the buffet table. Well, we just got a drink or two of the usual sweet punch and then headed home.

Later that night, we caught the event on the news and had a lot of fun pointing out to each other - hey, that's uncle! hey mom I think I saw me on tv!! Ooh there's Jack from across the road! Is that Isaac right there?? There! That flash in green. You didn't catch it? alamak, over so fast!

So since the ministers and the MP did not tell us what we really really wanted to know, we just have to wait for the letter to arrive in the post, the story to be unveiled on page 1 of The Straits Times or for the workmen to arrive. Or all of the above.