Toa Payoh East Emergency Preparedness Day on 12 Nov 2006
12 November 2006
At the Toa Payoh East Emergency Preparedness Day, DPM and Minister for Home Affairs, and Member of Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, Mr Wong Kan Seng, spoke to the media present:
"This exercise has been planned and executed by the grassroots. We have what is called the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) involving all the constituencies. The idea is to have an emergency team on the ground so that in the event of any emergency, they can be the first responders before the SCDF and the Police turn up. We know that in any emergency, those who were there first, would be the ones who would be able to do more for the people who were affected or were hurt.
To ingrain the attitude we should help one another, and to make it work, we need dedicated groups within the constituency. They will work together with the various grassroots networks to implement it.
Another thing which PA has done is to publish an emergency response guidebook. This is to help the grassroots leaders know what steps are to be taken to plan and lead an exercise, and what is to be done in an emergency.
These are among the tools and resources that we are preparing so that leaders at various levels can draw up comprehensive plans and play their part.
We need a gradual build-up of this, and to encourage more ownership. Some residents feel that that is not their job. But if everybody takes the same attitude, who will be around to help you? So we want to ingrain in the people that really they must take emergency preparedness seriously, because they'll never know when an emergency can come about, or when a terrorist incident happens. In the light of today's security climate, we must never take anything for granted.
The Government alone cannot deal with all the problems. The people have to be involved. This has been the model the Government has been using to engage our people, to be concerned about what goes on in the community, and to work with one another, to help one another, at the same time, maintain our social cohesion.
So the Government has been encouraging the people and businesses to participate in emergency preparedness and community engagement activities so that they can help themselves and the people around them in a crisis."
