Henry Kwek might not be the first name that comes to mind when one mentions Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency.

And so when it was reported that Kebun Baru ward has been sectioned off from Nee Soon GRC to become its own SMC, and Kwek will be moving over to contest there, the question on people's minds might have been: Who is Henry Kwek?

Kwek, who has been an MP in Nee Soon GRC for a term, acknowledges this with a shy smile.

"I fall into the category of a reluctant politician," he says without a trace of irony. "I never expected to be doing this."

However, after speaking to Kwek and covering him on a walkabout in Kebun Baru, I noticed that far from being an unknown politician, here is a man who has been actively engaging his ward over the last five years, and building a community among its very diverse residents.

He might be quite an unknown outside Kebun Baru, but on the inside, he's a familiar face.

During the walkabout, many residents called out to him by name; one auntie at the Mayflower Food Centre even remarked on the side, "He is very handsome."

Kwek had spent his earlier years travelling the world and visited over 400 cities "before [he] stopped counting".

He then decided to come back and contribute to building the community back home.

"It made me realise there are core values in Singapore that we need to preserve or protect, but yet there are many beautiful things from the rest of the world that I would love to bring back to Singapore."

Thriving community spirit in Kebun Baru

One of these is community spirit — of people coming together to proactively contribute to their community and taking charge of their destiny.

Community spirit is not in short supply in Kebun Baru.

Ever since he took charge of the Kebun Baru ward after GE2015, Kwek's team of volunteers — both grassroots and social work volunteers — have doubled from 400 to 800. These 800 volunteers serve around 1,200 families in Kebun Baru.

"That's a pretty good ratio," says Kwek.

Of course, he would love to see more volunteers, but this current level of ground-up participation has allowed Kwek and his team to carry out more ground up initiatives for the betterment of the Kebun Baru community, which in turn, encourages more residents to come out and have a stake in the way they want their community to grow.

It's not difficult to spot the fruits of the community spirit in Kebun Baru, especially in the areas of social welfare.

A church, Salem Chapel, which caters to a private estate in Kebun Baru regularly helps to distribute essentials like rice, noodles, oil, and instant cereal to needy Kebun Baru residents through an initiative called Project Starfish.

During the Circuit Breaker earlier this year, a temple owner mobilised his family's restaurant to cook and deliver meals daily to elderly residents who weren't mobile.

Over at Block 113 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, the Onesimus Cafe was borne out of Kwek's desire to have a "social work space where all our various groups can sit down and collaborate and also meet and serve residents".

Run by Pastor Ban from Salem Chapel, the cosy space was launched in January 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

The cafe boasts a professional espresso machine (donated by a supporter, by the way) — which serves atas Western and more traditional Nanyang kopi to residents for free.

This cafe has another purpose: To reach out to residents from a cluster of 12 blocks in Kebun Baru, and engage them via casual meet ups and workshops like coffee-brewing and e-commerce training.

Behind the cafe, a small vegetable garden thrives with vegetables like rocket leaves and sweet potato leaves. These are grown without pesticides. Residents who want the vegetables need only to ask, says Ban.

The cafe and garden are 100 per cent community-funded, surviving without government funding. "Pastor Ban and I go around asking different people to donate different things," says Kwek.

There's a reason for this: Being funded entirely by the community helps to foster a sense of ownership among the Kebun Baru residents.

"The whole thing we're looking at is really to form a community," says Ban, adding that he hopes that residents can develop that kampong spirit and take ownership of their community and then contribute back to it.

Fostering community spirit takes time and perseverance

Fostering this community spirit is not an easy thing, Kwek admits.

"It is easy to give speeches about inclusiveness about togetherness about spirit. But before people are willing to step forward, they will observe you, what you do. Is it something that you intend to roll out and put a press release and be done? Or is this something you're prepared to work whole night and day? Because what happens when there are no cameras, no spotlight.

If residents know that we persevere.... the word will spread. And that's when people will realise we're serious."

Over the years, watching his residents on the ground organising community initiatives, Kwek has learned something special: People transform when they do more social, ground up community work.

"People, instead of living in their own bubbles in life, they come to a common space. They realise that we all own this kampong, we all own this community. And the more good we do, we become, hopefully, better people."

An advocate for senior issues

Aside from mobilising the community, much of Kwek's term as MP of the Kebun Baru ward was spent on advocating for seniors.

According to him, 20 per cent of his Kebun Baru residents are from the Merdeka generation while another 20 per cent are from the Pioneer generation.

"Our job is to advocate for the needs of the people, and so people's needs are my starting point and what I champion for," he says.

In 2018, Kwek tabled a motion on behalf of the PAP Seniors Group to give each Singaporean four days of leave a year if they have to look after parents older than 70 and have less than 14 days of annual leave.

This was part of two debates in Parliament which were held to discuss issues that affect seniors and how they can be moved forward.

The debate involved consulting stakeholders like the elderly, voluntary welfare organisations, healthcare experts and thought leaders to get ideas that can be turned into policy

But outside the walls of Parliament House, the work in Kebun Baru for its senior residents is extremely evident, or in this case, very eye-catching.

Several blocks in Kebun Baru have been embellished with murals of kueh kueh, satay, a tingkat and more. These are part of a dementia wayfinding project done by the Alzheimer's Disease Association (ADA) in collaboration with Kwek and in consultation with caregivers of patients with dementia.

The ADA approached Kwek in March 2018 with the pitch to launch this wayfinding project in the mature estate of Kebun Baru, because one of the biggest challenges for people living with dementia is finding their way around.

Everything — from the size of the murals (big, so residents can spot them from afar) to the mural subjects (traditional because these resonate with those living with dementia) to even the locations of the mural (just one or two at strategic locations instead of painting every other wall) — was done in consultation with people who were living with early onset dementia, so as to remain sensitive to the needs of this group of residents.

This pilot project was recently launched and it still remains to be seen if it is effective in helping Kebun Baru residents who are living with dementia.

However, if it is successful, it will bring the new SMC one step closer to Kwek's vision of the most senior-dementia-friendly community in Singapore.

Tackling the concerns of younger residents in Kebun Baru

Kwek also plans to focus on another group of residents, albeit a smaller one, in the next term — the youths.

During his house visits, many brought up their concerns about finding not just jobs, but meaningful ones that tie in with their life aspirations.

"Many youths like to work in startups because they want to be in the driver's seat of the economy... they want to be part of the process of inventing the future," says Kwek.

To do this, Kwek has been conducting professional talks for his residents. He intends to continue doing so as part of his three-year plan, if elected, and make use of this community spirit to help Kebun Baru residents forge ahead with their career aspirations.

"I want to network our people together with other business leaders and professionals. And I want to bring them together so they can share knowledge, share relationships. They must be each other's lobang."

Another issue that Kwek is championing from his chats with younger residents is the environment, specifically the possibility of a cleaner energy source (clean hydrogen, for example), reducing carbon emissions (by transforming carbon emissions into sand), and eliminating the scourge that is fast fashion (educating consumers about its harm to the environment).

As we come to the end of our chat, I ask Kwek for an assessment of his GE2020 opponent, Kumaran Pillai, from the Progress Singapore Party.

Kwek smiles and answers, rather diplomatically, "It doesn't matter what I think."

He then ends with this:

"What matters is whether or not our residents think — has this person consistently moved the ball forward? And it doesn't matter which candidate. This is for all candidates. I think that's how Singaporeans think. Can this person move the community and the country forward?

The best outcome I can ask as a citizen in a representative democracy is that I have somebody who understands my values and fights for my values, is competent, and have a track record of delivering."

Perhaps something for all Singaporean voters to consider before the country heads to the polls.

Top image credit: Henry Kwek/Facebook.