Speech by PA Deputy Chairman, Mr Edwin Tong at the Braddell Heights Community Club Reopening

SPEECH BY PA DEPUTY CHAIRMAN, MR EDWIN TONG
BRADDELL HEIGHTS COMMUNITY CLUB OFFICIAL REOPENING
2 NOVEMBER 2025 AT BRADDELL HEIGHTS COMMUNITY CLUB

Welcome Greetings
Grassroots Adviser Speaker Seah Kian Peng,
Distinguished guests,
and our dear residents of Braddell Heights

1.            Good morning and a very warm welcome to the grand opening of the upgraded Braddell Heights Community Club.

2.            Braddell Heights has been a stronghold of community bonding since 1976 – nearly five decades of shared memories, friendships, social cohesion and purpose.
(a)  Today, after 3 years of upgrading, we are now re-opened.

3.            A big thank you to all grassroots leaders, volunteers, sponsors and partners who have made this possible

4.            Thanks to many dedicated individuals:
a.    Mr Lee Tee Loon, BBM (Chairman, Braddell Heights CCC)
b.    Mr Raymond Chan, PBM (Chairman, Braddell Heights CCMC)
c.    Mr Loo Chin Nong, BBM (Honorary Chairman, Braddell Heights CCMC)
d.    Mdm Chris Chu, PBM (Organising Chairman, BHCC Official Reopening)
e.    And GRA and Speaker of Parliament Mr Seah Kian Peng.

5.            Together with the grassroots team and PA staff, your leadership has been instrumental in making this vision a reality.

6.            And we look forward to Braddell Heights CC, doing more to serve its residents again.
(a)         With events and many programmes, but more importantly as a space for us to meet, work and simply to do things together.
(b)         Making friends, helping one another, this is how we build that special Singaporean community.

Community Clubs: Pillars of Singapore's Social Fabric

7.            Indeed, our CC spaces have been central to the building of Singapore's social landscape for over 70 years.
(a)       CC spaces were first established in the 1950s to foster social cohesion and nation-building. This is even before PA was formally set up.
(b)           In the early days, at home, there was no TV, no newspaper and no ping pong table.
(c)            So, you had to come to the CC for TV, read the papers and have some sporting and social interaction.
(d)           Today, it’s very different. We don’t see the CC in the same way.
(e)           Most people don’t come to the CCs for TV – maybe except when there is World Cup!
(f)             So, the fundamental paradigm has changed very much.
(g)           It is therefore important for PA to continually adapt and innovate, refresh our space, evolve our space to the needs of the new population and society, and also to meet new challenges.

Community Clubs Today: Evolving to Meet Changing Needs

8.            And we will continue to do so.
(a)           Our CCs must always remain a space for all of us.
(b)           All of us must see relevance in this space.
(c)           A place to connect Government to people; people to people, bringing residents together, building social cohesion, sharing a “We-First” community.
(d)           Our CCs must continue to be the centre of gravity for major community events and activities.

9.            And to cater to a growing and diverse needs of our residents,
(a)         PA has also expanded our range of community facilities, and we now adopt different models of CCs that take into account the local needs.
(b)         We have standalone CCs, integrated CCs and we have those that are co-located with commercial properties.

10.        Today, we have a network of
(a)         110 community clubs,
(b)          4 integrated community hubs; One Punggol, Our Tampines Hub, Wisma Geylang Serai and Heartbeat@Bedok),
(c)          7 PAssion Wave outlets and
(d)          754 Residents’ Network Centres (RN Centres).
(e)          Today, we also have RN Centres all over in the different precincts and these RN centres serve our micro-communities.

11.        We continually upgrade them.
(a)           At any given point in time, we have about 40 of these facilities either being upgraded, developed or going through cyclical maintenance.
(b)           And we have different models – the latest CC model is CC co-located with a mall.
(c)           Like what we see at Bidadari CC and Buangkok CC.
(d)           Where the CC is integrated within a shopping mall, this allows us to bring the community spaces closer to where people work, live and play.
(e)           We also have a few new CCs coming up – Mountbatten CC and Tengah CC. The latter, opened a few months ago – to cater to a growing population in a new town.

12.        At the same time, CCs must also be well maintained – and that’s why we continue to upgrade our CCs, continue to redevelop, refresh our CCs for our residents.
(a)           We have upgraded many existing CCs like Tampines North CC and the CC we are at now – Braddell Heights CC.
(b)           In addition, we have to take advantage of technology.
(c)           By end 2026, all 754 RN centres will be retrofitted with smart devices – e.g. Smart door access for residents to enter conveniently to use the community spaces to study, work or to organise local events for the local community
(d)           We will also have digital display panels installed outside all smart RN centres - residents will be able to see the latest, up to date community news and activities in the neighbourhood! 

Managing Facilities to Drive Social Cohesion

13.        We must also grow our offerings at the CC, to meet residents’ interests, in the sports they want to take part in, the activities we have now are newer.

14.         When popular interests such as water sports, sustainability programmes and more recently, drone flying are identified as part of a growing trend, we introduced them at our CCs.

Putting Users First, Reconfiguring Spaces for More Flexibility

15.        Recently, we launched “Sparks” - to allow CCs to have free spaces, dedicated to collaborative projects for residents, volunteers and partners to brainstorm and propose ideas that can address the local community needs.
(a)          We have 10 CCMCs to step forward to think about this as a pilot to look at flexible spaces, fit for user needs and not the other way round.

16.        Sometimes we think of our CCs as a space – a dance studio, a cooking studio, there might be a badminton hall but these are only spaces that we designed them to be so, if we do not have much of imagination.
(a)          But what if we thought about it the other way round?
(b)          Start with the users and users’ needs, which should come first, then we think how we can reconfigure the spaces to meet those needs.

17.        So, this initiative – “Sparks” is to think about the flexibility and innovation behind spaces. Allow us to work with the community, volunteers and community partners to think of ideas to benefit our community even more.

Transforming Braddell Heights CC

18.        At Braddell Heights CC, we have expanded the space to over 6,000 square metres.
(a)          A bigger multi-purpose hall, a sheltered outdoor fitness area, as well as dedicated rooms for music, dance, karaoke and the arts.
(b)          Something for everyone.

19.        But beyond physical spaces, the CC is also a place to build networks and heartware.

20.        At Braddell Heights, the youths are organising their own micro-communities.
(a)          They’ve formed a cheerleading team known as Braddell Heights Team Xtreme Cheerleading.
(b)          But they’re not just involved in cheerleading - they use this also as a platform to gather and to spillover into broader community work.
(c)          Members like Austin Yue are familiar sights, helping out regularly at Braddell Heights events.
(d)          The cheerleading group also helped to clean and declutter seniors’ homes in Braddell Heights.
(e)          We hope more youths like Austin can step forward, take part in events at the CC but use the platform to build stronger networks and plug into the rest of the community and serve the rest of the community.  

Conclusion

21.        The upgraded Braddell Heights CC is more than a new building.
(a)         It is a gathering point, a place for bonding.
(b)         A place for building relationships.
(c)          It’s a place for bridging the young and old.
(d)         And across different divides, races, religion and background.
(e)         This is our common space. This is a space for all of you.
(f)           So, I hope that you will use this space not just as place for hosting facilities but a space for building, enhancing and improving our social connections and social cohesion in Singapore. 

22.        PM had mentioned – to build a “We First” society, where each of us must continue to do our part to care, to contribute and to look out for one another to strengthen our Singapore spirit, and we have to do more to encourage Singaporeans to step forward.  

23.        Once again, congratulations to the local grassroots leaders and community for building a strong and inclusive community here. Let this opening be the start of even more beautiful memories together!