Is Singapore clean or cleaned city?

By : Vong Serey Vatanak / Date: 31, October, 2018

What is the difference between a clean place, and a cleaned place. To help each understand this in English , I can say, being clean, and being cleaned has a little bit different. For example, a clean place is a place that is not dirty while a cleaned place covers an idea that the place is being cleaned by people.

Maybe it is not clear yet. To me, I understand that a cleaned place involves people cleaning the area so that the place is clean. I have learned this two different terms from an article written by Tim McDonald from BBC , the Economics of Change. I have tried to read and understand the English version because my English reading comprehension is still limited. I hope I won’t miss or be confused by any points. If I do, you guys can make some comments. You really want to see Tim McDonald ‘s article , you may click here

In his article with the title “The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean”, released on October 29, 2018, he attributed the clean/cleaned city of Singapore to some factors that we community changers can learn from and see how we can best transfer the ideas to transform our community.

He listed a few factors which led the city of Singapore to be a squeaky clean city.

“Keep Singapore Clean” campaign by the first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew
Clean and Green policy
Law enforcement , Fine City
Education

I guess one of the reasons that encouraged me to write this article is because the phrase of the first prime minister of Singapore , Lee Kuan Yew. He said that “The aim wasn’t just to make the city more pleasant. A cleaner city, Lee Kuan Yew reasoned, would create a stronger economy. It made me think about how being clean contribute to economic growth.

Well, it is not complicated thing to understand that a clean area attract tourists , and more tourists, more national revenue into a country. To me, whenever it comes to economic growth, I feel like I want to do something to bring about economic growth whether in my own community or in my country. During my academic year in college, I learned that my city Phnom Penh once was the cleanest city in South East Asia back in 1950s under the leadership of my former King. I have to be honest that I don’t do much research. I just believed it. I further learned that the prime minister of Singapore paid a visit and impressed to see how clean the city of Phnom Penh was, and pledged that he would bring back some ideas of developing Singapore to be clean. I was not born at that time, but I believe that the beginning of the nation of Singapore was not from a very clean city, in fact it might have been just a small island.

he obsession with hygiene and cleanliness began with a leader who believed that a clean city creates a stronger economy. Now, again, I don’t read much , yet, I did a bit of reading about Lee’s early life, he studied law at Fitzwilliam College, in Cambridge, UK before he became the first prime minister of Singapore. It seems that he had seen the development of England, the clean infrastructure of the London and how it was important that being clean was a significant factor to economic growth.

His campaign called “Keep Singapore Clean” might be still upheld so far. To Singaporeans , they inherits the legacy , and still trust what their first leader believed, the clean city can create a stronger economy.

Mr. Lee also said “These standards will keep morale high, sickness rate low, and so create the necessary social conditions for higher economic growth in industry and in tourism. This will contribute to the public good, and in the end to everyone’s personal benefit,”

After a few years of his leadership, Mr. Lee still had the ambition to do more to bring Singapore to a higher level of hygiene and cleanliness. His government ‘s policies “Clean and Green” were to contribute to public health laws. He said “We have built, we have progressed. But no other hallmark of success will be more distinctive than that of achieving our position as the cleanest and greenest city in South Asia,”

I may not have understood that much, but at least, I still believe that he still had the ambition to achieve the position to bring Singapore to be the cleanest and greenest city in South Asian.

From the soft rule to strict rules

You might have heard of fine city. Donald wrote in his article , he said that Singapore implemented an enforcement , fining people who litter public places. I have heard that you can get fined if you drop your used chewing gum on the street in Singapore. I think the enforcement might have chosen to adapt to the later mondernization of the society. People started to have more choices, to own more items, which could make them litter their city without their conscience. The law truly prevent littering , and deteriorating the public enviroment. I have noticed the similar approach used by my government to find people driving without helmets. The laws actually serve the interest of the people once they obey. They will be safer if they wear their helmets when driving.

The advocacy of clean and green spread to educational institutions For the last 50 years, Singaporeans have learned that it is illegal to litter their city. The advocacy of clean and green city was also seen in schools. The younger generations started to learn to love their clean city, how to prevent their areas from being dirty

I have noticed that some adults are unlikely to engage to clean the city as much as the younger generations. I am not putting blame on anybody. I am aware that my government together with other civil groups have been joining to bring the city to a higher level of standards of hygiene and cleanliness. I believe that part of the issues that people still litter the public streets are :

1. The lack of feeling of ownership when it comes to public place.

2. Education.

3. Ignorance

Whenever it comes to public, some folks view it that it doesn’t belong to me. I don’t have to take care of it. No wonder, whenever you pay a visit public restrooms , you will see that people take less care of it unless it is paid to use it. I have noticed that people litter , throw trash from their vehicles ‘ windows to the street. I wonder if they do the same in their home. Probably not, it could be because they view public place is someone ‘s house, not theirs. I am not talking about all , but some public restrooms in hospitals, schools, markets are less taken care of.

Education can play an important role in the push to keep the city clean. The government can spend $$$ millions of dollars to tackle the issues with adult’s behaviors when it can save more bucks if investing in the education more. I am not saying that there is no education about hygiene or cleanliness in schools, I am just trying to say if improvement of the enforcement can make it more effective , then we should embrace that. My point here is that preventing the issues by educating the younger generations, and once they get older they will understand it automatically. They also have to understand that they are the ones who build their society , and their society can also affect them. It works in Singapore, the life expectancy started to be longer from 60 –87 now when their city became more clean.

I am pretty sure the we can join together to make our city clean. Thanks to the government ‘s pushing the reduction of plastic bags in shopping centers. People have to learn why they need to make their city clean and how they can make their city clean and why they need their city to be clean. Can it affect their family’s economy ? what if they got sick from being unclean? Does it cost them? Can the issues cost the government if the city is unclean? To be honest, if I were one of the leaders, I would educate street vendors to understand why keeping everything clean is important in their daily business. More importantly, I am not on the position to judge. In my life, I also have things I have to clean up as well. So, cleaning from ourselves, from our family is also crucial before we can care about cleaning public places. For example, they can show people that you really care about hygiene and cleanliness in public places, but if your house is unclean , your life is unclean, I guess it won’t make much different .