Why is Singapore so clean?

Foreign journalists in Singapore can't find any big scandals involving corruption and other unhealthy trends to report, so they report that Singapore often vigorously promotes this kind of "persuading people to be good." Sports, cynicism, saying that we are a "nanny country". They can laugh at us, but I believe we will have the last laugh ... 1976, when I first went to the Great Hall of the People, there was a spittoon in the meeting room where the host met us, and some China leaders still used it. So, when Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore on 1978, we put a blue and white spittoon next to his seat in the conference room, but it was useless. Maybe he found that Chinese Singaporeans are different from China people, and they don't spit everywhere. 1980 visited Beijing again and found that the spittoon in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing had been taken away. A few years later, I hosted a banquet in Singapore for Gu Mu, State Councilor in charge of economy, and mentioned that people in the Great Hall of the People changed their habits and stopped using spittoons. He said with a smile that the things in the meeting room were taken away and still used in the office, and the old habits could not be changed. Starting from 1960, we launched an anti-spitting campaign. Nevertheless, by the time of 1980, many taxi drivers were still spitting outside the window, and some people were still spitting in Bazaar and the cooked food center. We spread information through schools and the media, and diseases such as lung disease can be spread by spitting. Nowadays, it is rare to see people spitting in public places. We are all immigrants, leaving our homes, but we are ready to get rid of bad habits and stand out in a new country. The success of this campaign prompted me to make persistent efforts to get rid of other bad habits of people. After independence, I tried my best to find a striking way to show the world that Singapore is different from other third world countries. Finally, I decided on a plan to make Singapore a clean and lush city. One of my strategies is to turn Singapore into an oasis in Southeast Asia, reaching the level of the first world, and let businessmen and tourists from developed countries use it as a base for business and tourism activities in the region. It is easier to improve physical infrastructure than to change people's habits. They used to live in shacks, so they had to dig a hole in the ground or go to the wooden bucket in the toilet outside. Now they have moved into a high-rise building with modern sanitary facilities, but their habits have not changed. We try to make people change their bad habits, such as littering, making noise and being rude, and let them know how to put themselves in others' shoes and be polite to others. We started from a very weak foundation. In the 1960 s, ministers and parliamentarians always lined up to meet voters and help them solve problems. Unemployed people come to look for jobs accompanied by their wives and children, or ask for taxi or hawker business licenses, or ask to sell food in the school cafeteria. This is the reality behind the unemployment data. Thousands of people sell cooked food on sidewalks and streets, completely ignoring traffic, hygiene and other problems. As a result, piles of garbage piled up on the streets, causing congestion, rotten food stinking and messy everywhere, and many corners of the city became slums. Many people become drivers of overlord cars, not only without licenses, but also without insurance. Rent old cars to their businessmen and exploit them. The fare of overlord car is higher than that of bus, but much cheaper than that of licensed taxi. It is up to the passengers to decide where to park and let them get on and off, which poses a danger to other highway users. From the initial hundreds to thousands, overlord cars blocked streets and hindered public transport services. Banning unlicensed hawkers and bully drivers We can't ban these unlicensed hawkers and bully drivers to rectify the city. It must wait until 197 1 year before many job opportunities can be provided, laws can be enforced and streets can be rectified. We issue cooked food hawker licenses and move hawkers from sidewalks and roads to nearby cooked food centers with strict construction, water pipes, sewers and garbage disposal systems. By the early 1960s, all the vendors had been relocated. Many of them are first-class chefs and tourists come here. Some of them have become millionaires, opened Marseilles and hired students to be born. It is precisely because of these people with entrepreneurial spirit, courage and talent that Singapore will succeed. As for overlord drivers, they disappeared from the expressway only after we rectified the bus service and provided other employment opportunities. Before we left Malaysia, after the ethnic riots in July and September of 1964, the whole city was in chaos, with low morale and lax discipline. Two things prompted me to take action. 1964 1 1 One morning in June, I looked out of the window from the office of the government building, and my eyes swept across the prairie, and I saw some cows grazing on the grass in the seaside park! A few days later, a lawyer hit a cow while driving through a main road on the edge of the city and died unfortunately. Cattle-raising Indians drove cattle to the city, grazed by the roadside and even took them to seaside parks. I called a meeting of public health officials to work out an action plan to solve this problem immediately. We have set a grace period of 1965 65438+ 10/0/for cattle and sheep owners. After that, such lost livestock will be sent to slaughterhouses, and the slaughtered fresh meat will be sent to various shelters. By 12l, * * * 53 cows were caught and sent to the slaughterhouse. Soon, all the cattle and sheep quickly returned to the shed. In order to highlight our world-class level in this third world region, we set out to develop Singapore into a tropical garden city, which is clean and green all year round. Whenever the Liaison Office opens, I visit various organizations in the traffic circle or preside over the completion ceremony of the expressway, and I will plant trees as a souvenir. Some kinds of trees are flourishing, but most of them have withered. If I go to another liaison office, the person in charge will replant a tree before I go. My conclusion is that there must be a department to manage the planted trees, so I set up a department in the Ministry of National Development to take charge of this work. After making some progress, I met with senior officials of all departments and statutory bodies and asked them to vigorously promote the greening campaign. I told them that I have been to nearly 150 countries and regions and stayed in almost the same number of government hotels. What makes a good impression is not the scale of the building, but the level of maintenance. I can see from the neglect of buildings that the morale of a country and its administrators is low-the washbasin is broken, the water pipes are leaking, the toilets are broken, the buildings are in total disrepair, and the gardens are deserted. VIPs visiting Singapore will also make this judgment. We planted millions of trees, including palm trees and shrubs, and taught people how to take care of them instead of destroying them. This greening action has improved people's morale and made them proud of their living environment. We didn't distinguish the middle class from the working class. The British used to divide Dongling and the Governor's Office into white areas, and the environment in this area was cleaner, cleaner and greener than the local area. The democratically elected government may pay a heavy political price for this. We are also committed to eliminating flies and mosquitoes and dredging stinking ditches and waterways. In less than a year, people have noticed that public places have obviously become cleaner. People's bad habits have been formed for a long time, such as trampling on plants and grasslands at will, destroying flower beds, sometimes stealing saplings, or leaning bicycles and motorcycles against trees to overwhelm them. It takes persistence to get rid of these bad habits. It's not just the poor who have this problem. A doctor took a fancy to a valuable South American fir tree that had just been planted, removed it from the central causeway and tried to transplant it into his garden. He was caught red-handed. In order to overcome people's indifference to greening at first, we ask children to plant and take care of trees at school and build small gardens, hoping that they can take the greening message home and let their parents know. Nature doesn't love Singapore. Grass in Singapore can't be as lush as in New Zealand or Ireland. At my request, 1978, an Australian plant expert and a New Zealand soil expert came to Singapore to study soil and submitted their reports. I was very excited after reading it and decided to summon them. They told me that Singapore is a part of the equatorial rainforest, with strong sunshine and a lot of rain all year round. After the trees were cut down, the heavy rain washed away the soil surface and nutrients. To grow lush grass, it is necessary to fertilize regularly. It is best to use a mixed fertilizer that is not easy to be washed away, plus lime, because the soil in Singapore is too acidic. According to this opinion, the manager conducted an experiment on the grass of the presidential palace, and the grass turned green as expected. We treat all school playgrounds and other stadiums in the same way, and the result is that the faded lawn and the poor mud next to the football goalposts turn green. The whole city is gradually greening. 1970, a French minister who came to attend the National Day reception happily congratulated me in French. I can't speak French, but I know that the word "verure" means green. The beautiful green city fascinated him. At that time, most Asian countries paid little or no attention to greening, while Singapore, on the other hand, took severe measures to deal with scattered cattle and sheep, which became the news reported by Outlook magazine 1969 in the United States. The director of the Hong Kong Information Office is very interested in this. After the visit, he announced that he would learn from Singapore's experience and proposed to launch a two-year anti-garbage campaign in Hong Kong. * * * The meeting with the Federal Chancellor is scheduled to be held in mid-June 197 1 1. After that, I call on officials to make more efforts to make guests leave a better impression on Singapore. We held a briefing for all employees in the service industry, including shop assistants, taxi drivers, hotel and restaurant staff, and asked them to be as polite and friendly as possible in front of our guests. They responded well to this, as did the visiting president, prime minister and their entourage. Therefore, the Singapore Tourism Promotion Board launched a courtesy service campaign to encourage salespeople and employees in other service industries to provide courteous services to customers. I decided to step in. It would be ridiculous if our service staff were only polite to tourists and not polite to China people. I convened the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Education and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions to serve the people respectively. 500,000 students and hundreds of thousands of workers sent a message: We must be polite as our way of life. Only in this way can Singapore become a happier society for everyone, not just for tourism. The biggest advantage is that ASEAN leaders decided not to let Singapore compete for the United States and launched the urban greening plan. In the AD1970s, Dr. Mahathir, who was not the Prime Minister of Malaysia at that time, once lived in the villa of the Presidential Palace in Singapore. He asked me why the lawn of the presidential palace was so green. After becoming prime minister, he made Kuala Lumpur green. 1At the end of 970, President Suharto implemented the same plan in Jakarta, President Marcos did the same in Manila, and Prime Minister Tanin also made Bangkok green. I encouraged them to say that their country has a good climate and many trees to choose from. The greening competition has positive significance. For this area, there is no greater benefit than greening. We compete with our neighbors and strive to make the greening work better and make the flowers grow more luxuriantly. The competition of greening the city has positive significance, which is good for everyone, improves people's morale and is also good for tourism and investors. Competition in many fields is not only harmful, but even fatal. Therefore, instead of competing in other fields, we should strive to become the best and cleanest city in Asia. On the first Sunday of 197 1 1, we began to hold the annual Arbor Day, with the participation of all members of Congress, People's Liaison Office and its leaders. Since then, we have planted trees on Arbor Day every year. 165438+ 10 seedlings planted in October, when the rainy season begins, there is little watering work. Because there are not many varieties of trees, shrubs and creeping plants, I sent researchers to investigate botanical gardens and parks in tropical and subtropical regions, and selected new plant varieties from countries with similar climates in Asia, Africa, Caribbean Islands and Central America, and brought back many new varieties of naturally flowering plants and trees to plant in Singapore's climate and soil. Sometimes we are disappointed. Trees from the Caribbean islands will naturally produce beautiful flowers, but they won't bloom in Singapore because there is no cool winter they need. Trees from India and Myanmar don't bloom very often in Singapore, because it is different from the native land where they grow, and there is no long dry season between different monsoon seasons every year. Botanists in Singapore have collected tree species from all over the world and introduced 8,000 different species, but only more than 2,000 species can thrive in Singapore. They planted these tough varieties all over the island, making our greening more colorful. One of the main figures who carry out our greening policy is Huang Yao, the competent official. The Malaysian who planted trees originally planned to work in rubber plantations and oil palm plantations in Malaysia. He used his professional knowledge to solve various problems for us, including planting trees, shrubs and other flowers on the roadside, setting up parks in the urban area and laying park links. Faced with my endless memos and endless demands, he responded diligently and successfully implemented many of them. His successor, Cai, majored in agronomy, but became a tree expert, doing equally well. Every time I return to the airport after going abroad for a few weeks, I drive into the city along the East Coast Park Avenue and see green trees, palm trees, green grass and flowers. I am full of energy and spirit. Of all the plans I have implemented, the greening plan is the most cost-effective. One of the reasons why we must make Singapore clean is that Singapore must collect 95 inches of rainwater every year as much as possible. I asked Li Yitian, the director of the pollution prevention and control team who is a civil engineer, to make a plan to build dams to intercept all rivers and streams. It took about ten years to implement this plan. He must let all the sewage from families and factories flow into sewers, and only allow clean water to flow into open ditches from roofs, gardens and open spaces, and then into blocked rivers. By 1980, 63 million gallons of water can be collected every day, which is about half of the daily water consumption in Singapore at that time. The most ambitious plan is to clean up the Singapore River and the cooling basin and bring fish back to these two rivers. When I first publicly put forward this proposal in February, 1977, many people, especially industrialists, asked, "Why clean it up? The Cao Wu Waterway (flowing into the Jialing River) and the Singapore River have always been dirty, which is part of Singapore's tradition! " I can never accept such a view. The two waterways give off a pungent stench. There is a blind telephone operator in the lawyer building in Chicago. Every time he comes to Singapore River by bus, he will smell the peculiar stench of the river and know where he is. Half of the waterway pollution problems in Singapore are caused by industrial wastewater. We must ensure that every stream, sewer and river is free from pollution. Zhangyuan Zheng, then director of the Housing and Construction Bureau, joked: "It costs much less to buy fish in the river every week." Li tianyi didn't flinch because he was splashed with cold water. He worked closely with me and knew it could be done, because I would support him to remove all obstacles. Cleaning the Singapore River and cooling basin is a large-scale project, which means that underground waterways must be laid for the whole island of Singapore. In urban areas, this is especially difficult because of the dense buildings. We must move about 3,000 small family-owned industries to formal industrial areas with equipment to control oil pollution and other wastes. Since the opening of Singapore in 18 19, barges and boats have been flowing on the Singapore River, and the crew on board live, cook and bathe on the river. We must move them to Banjean, Brazil on the west coast, and the small shipyards on both sides of Garang River will move to the banks of Taz River and Yu Lang River. In addition, 5,000 street cooked food vendors will move into well-designed, clean and tidy cooked food centers. Vendors are used to doing business by the roadside, so they don't have to pay rent for the convenience of customers. They refused to go to the covered hawker center because business might not be good and they had to pay rent and utilities. We help them move, subsidize the rent and never relax. Nevertheless, some suppliers cannot continue to operate. We phased out 8,000 pig farms and more than 900,000 pigs, because pig manure polluted rivers. Except for the Agricultural Science and Technology Park 14 fish pond and more than three fishing grounds, all other fish ponds are closed. Now, the shallow-water cages in the Johor Strait and the deep-sea floating cage fish farms in the southern islands produce fresh fish. We set up a resettlement agency to deal with disputes and bargaining in the resettlement process. No matter vendors, farmers or domestic workers, they never like to move or change careers. This is a politically risky task, so we must proceed with caution. We must solve the problem of bullying, or we will lose a lot of votes in the next election. We set up a committee composed of officials and members of the affected constituencies to control the situation and reduce the political adverse effects. Resettlement of farmers is the most difficult. We set the compensation rate according to the area of farm buildings, the area of open space covered with concrete in the farm, the number of fruit trees in the orchard and the number of fish ponds. With the prosperity of the national economy, we have increased the amount of compensation. But even the most generous compensation is not good enough. Older farmers don't know what to do and won't use compensation. They have to live in an apartment and miss the pigs, ducks, chickens, fruit trees and Ledi who used to provide them with free food. Even after 15 to 20 years, many people voted against the Action Party. They think that the Action Party government has destroyed their way of life. 1October, 1987, 165438+, and gladly presided over the memorial ceremony of the Chilled Basin and the Qinghe River in Singapore. These two waterways have always been natural sewers in downtown Singapore. I awarded gold medals to the officials who carried out the plan and praised their achievements. After that, we built eight new ports, some of which were used for boating and fishing. The amount of drinking water that can be collected every day soared to 65.438+0.2 billion gallons. Every successful project is commanded by a competent and dedicated official, who comes from relevant majors and knows how to apply what they have learned when dealing with Singapore's unique problems. Without Li, Singapore could not have become so clean and green. I outlined the conceptual goal, and he must work out a feasible solution. Later, he was promoted to the head of civil servants. 1993, Wen Simin went fishing in Singapore River and really caught one. The river has become clean, and people's quality of life has also changed. Land prices have risen sharply throughout the island, especially in urban areas and areas near rivers and waterways. We bought sand from Indonesia to cover the soil along the cooling basin. Now people can sunbathe and water ski in the cold water pool. By the river, tubular apartments have replaced ugly small shipyards. Sidewalks have been laid on both sides of the Singapore River, and old shops and warehouses along the river have been transformed into restaurants, cafes, shops and hotels. People eat and drink by the river, and the traditional barges in China dock by the river at night, which has also become a place for outdoor dining. For those who remember that the Singapore River is a sewer, all these changes are like a dream. Plants in a city can tell its pollution level. Cars, buses and diesel that have been in disrepair for a long time spew out excessive exhaust gas, and shrubs will wither when covered with black soot particles. /kloc-in the autumn of 0/970, I was surprised to see a long queue of vehicles in Boston heading for the gas station. The driver told me that it was the last day for the vehicle to be replaced next year. To renew the license, you must go to the authorized gas station to check the vehicle to see if it is suitable for driving on the road. After that, I decided to set up a pollution prevention team in the Prime Minister's office. We installed monitoring instruments on both sides of the busy expressway to measure the concentration of dust, lampblack and sulfur dioxide emitted by vehicles. In other cities, people with better economic conditions can move to clean and green suburbs and stay away from the polluted areas of the city. However, Singapore's land area forces us to work, rest and live in the same small place. Therefore, whether rich or poor, we must protect the environment for them and keep them clean and elegant. 197 1 year, we opened a bird park in the center of Jurong town, surrounded by hundreds of factories. At the beginning, if strict pollution control standards were not adhered to and maintained, birds from all over the world would not be able to breed and grow in Jurong. We also afforested Jurong Industrial Zone, asking them to beautify the factory and plant trees before issuing a certificate to allow the factory to start construction. Although Singapore has solved the main air pollution problem in China, forest fires broke out in Sumatra and Borneo in 1994 and 1997, and thick smoke enveloped the whole of Singapore and its surrounding areas. The fire was caused by the plantation company cutting down precious wood in order to clean up the land and grow oil palm and other crops and then setting fire to other trees. In the dry season, the fire will last for several months. 1In the middle of 1997, dense and poisonous smog enveloped Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, which led to the closure of airports and thousands of people fell ill. In the past, Singapore also suffered from noise pollution from vehicles and loudspeakers, televisions and radios, such as piling on construction sites and outdoor entertainment activities. We gradually implement the new regulations step by step, urging people to keep the volume up. The most dangerous and noisy thing is the custom of setting off firecrackers in China during the New Year. People suffer from severe burns and other injuries, especially children. Wooden houses often catch fire, and even the whole illegal wooden house village is reduced to ashes. 1970 On the last day of the Lunar New Year in China, a huge fire broke out, killing five people and injuring many others. I decided to explicitly stipulate that setting off firecrackers is illegal, and banned this long-standing traditional festival custom in China. Two years later, two unarmed policemen tried to stop a group of people from setting off firecrackers, but they were brutally beaten. So I totally ban the import of firecrackers. When we live in a 20-story building with 10 floor, all kinds of traditional customs that are not suitable for the high-rise lifestyle must stop. From 65438 to 0960, the pace of urban transformation was accelerated. We are committed to rebuilding the old city, and history is constantly being erased. By the end of 1970, we were deeply disturbed by this practice, so in the second year, we set up the Antiquities Preservation Bureau, which was responsible for identifying and preserving buildings of great significance to Singapore's history in terms of history, tradition, archaeology, architectural design and art, including administrative, cultural and commercial buildings. These buildings include ancient temples in China, Indian temples, Islamic churches, Anglican and Catholic churches, synagogues, traditional buildings in China in the19th century and former colonial government office buildings in the old administrative center. The Governor's Mansion, where the British Governor worked in colonial times, is the place where the current President and Prime Minister worked, and has now been renamed the Presidential Palace. We try our best to keep Singapore's unique characteristics, so that Singaporeans can drink water and think of their source. Fortunately, we didn't demolish the historic areas of Chinatown, Little India and Gambangnan, which are former Sultan's palaces. The ancient buildings along the Singapore River have also been preserved. As early as the 1970 s, Singapore began to ban all cigarette advertisements, with the main purpose of preventing young people from getting into dangerous and annoying cigarette addiction. We gradually banned smoking in all public places-elevators, buses, subway cars and subway stations, and finally all air-conditioned offices and restaurants. I will follow the example of Canadians, because they are pioneers in this field. Americans are far behind because their cigarette manufacturing industry is too strong. We also hold a "Smoke-Free Week" every year. When "Smoke-Free Week" started, I recalled my personal experience on TV. I used to smoke about 20 cigarettes a day. I took part in the city Council election for three weeks from 65438 to 0957, and my voice was hoarse. I couldn't even express my gratitude to the voters when the election results were announced. Since I couldn't control my addiction, I decided to quit. The first two weeks were hard. In the 1960 s, I was highly sensitive to cigarettes, and people were forbidden to smoke in my air-conditioned office and cabinet meeting room. A few years later, most ministers gave up smoking. Rajaratnam and Barker never quit smoking. When the cabinet meets, they always sneak away 10 minutes or so and go to the outdoor corridor for a cigarette addiction. We are constantly fighting against cigarettes. American tobacco companies are rich in financial resources and advertising funds, which has become a strong resistance to the anti-smoking movement. Although the number of smokers in the older generation has decreased, young people, including girls, are still addicted to the bad habit of smoking. We can't lose this struggle. A ban ridiculed by the United States is to ban chewing gum. As early as 1983, the minister of national development suggested that chewing gum should be prohibited, because people put chewing gum into the keyhole of the gate and mailbox, or stick it on the elevator button, and some people spit on the floor and corridor at will, which increased the cleaning cost and damaged the cleaning equipment. At first, I thought the ban was too strict. However, afterwards, the saboteur put chewing gum into the sensor of the underground gate, and the subway service was disturbed. At that time, I was no longer the prime minister, and Premier Wu and other colleagues decided to ban it in June 1992. A number of cabinet ministers studying in American universities said that after someone ate chewing gum, they stuck it under the seat of the university lecture hall, and it could not be removed, making the seat extremely dirty. The situation has been greatly improved since chewing gum was banned. After the inventory in the store was cleared, the problem of chewing gum in subway stations and subway cars was negligible. Foreign journalists in Singapore can't find any big scandals involving corruption and other unhealthy trends to report, so they report that Singapore often vigorously promotes this kind of "persuading people to be good" movement and cynically says that we are a "nanny country". They can laugh at us, but I believe we will have the last laugh. Without these efforts to persuade people to change their bad habits, Singapore's society will be more uncivilized, rude and uneducated. Singapore was not a civilized society in the past. We are prepared to strive to achieve this goal in the shortest possible time, and we are not ashamed of it. We should educate and persuade the people first, and punish the rebellious minority through legislation when most people accept it. The living environment in Singapore is more trusting. If this is the so-called "nanny state", I should be proud of promoting its formation.