Aileen Lau Tan (ed.)
Singapore: Suntree, 2014
ISBN: 9789810787189
This book examines the first-hand experience of those involved in shaping the horticultural development of Singapore, from the 1970s to the 1990s. They are Mr Wong Yew Kwan, Dr Chua Sian Eng, Professor Lee Sing Kong, Mr Choo Thiam Siew and Mrs Pamelia Lee, whose work enabled them to make far-reaching contributions on greening policies and activities in Singapore.
The driving force and main personage behind this decades-long process of transformational greening of Singapore has been Lee Kuan Yew, who took the lead in his capacity as then Prime Minister, to steer and beautify Singapore, to serve his people and also investors and tourists. Determined and dedicated, the authors saw to the setting up of a variety of services tasked at different levels and specialties to green and beautify the island. They often had to interpret, innovate and contemplate the needs of the far future, starting as they had to, with all the limitations of a newly independent and developing Singapore. It took expert knowledge, scientific training, imagination, and the resolve to execute the vision for a truly gardened city. They worked closely with Singapore's oft-dubbed master gardener, Lee Kuan Yew.
This was an exercise that shaped the Republic's physical and horticultural attributes so exemplary and admired around the world today. Once the environment improved from the 1960s, tourism, business deve opment and investments followed in natural succession. Today, the visual evidence of Lee Kuan Yew's legacy is clear to see and enjoy, leaving no corner of Singapore untended to, dovetailing from one need to another, for pleasure or recreation and to promote tourism and business. The book celebrates the efforts of the authors and Lee Kuan Yew's early vision of a Garden City.
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