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SINGAPORE: Alcohol could be sold and consumed by interest groups at Community Clubs (CCs) if June's World Cup gets televised here.
Future CCs could be reconfigured to optimise land use and ensure better usage of their facilities. High society - like those who read The Tatler or The Peak - will not be left out either as more will be tapped on to participate or volunteer.
The People's Association (PA) - which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year - intends to surpass current parameters and reinvigorate its mission of social cohesion. The association celebrates another milestone when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong officially opens PA's new building in Jalan Besar tomorrow.
Over the next five years, the PA will focus on five key priority areas, said chief executive director Tan Boon Huat. They are: Building a community of volunteers; engaging youth; bringing residents of different backgrounds together; getting those in the virtual world into the real world and getting more partners onboard.
Mr Tan likens PA's transformation and widening range of activities to how grocery retailers have evolved here - provision stores offering a few products in the 1960s first evolved into supermarkets, and are now turning into "mega-malls" to cater to the various interests of a more sophisticated society.
"In those days, Singapore society was narrower in range," Mr Tan told MediaCorp. "Now, it's a wider range and many more segments. We still need to reach out to a significant cross-section."
In the 1960s, PA offered basic amenities such as black-and-white televisions, free newspapers and a table-tennis table. Now, its range of programmes include salsa dance lessons, a wine-tasting tour to France and yoga lessons, among others. All places for the wine-tasting tour to France have been fully taken, revealed Mr Tan.
Going forward, the PA intends to bring residents together, regardless of whether they live - be it in public or private housing.
Such initiatives have started - for example, Siglap Lucky Valley Residents' Committee and Siglap Lucky Heights Neighbourhood Committee organise regular local tours for residents. There will be opportunities for resident committees to conduct joint projects, said Mr Tan.
Grassroots activities will also focus more on the quality of interaction, instead of the number who turn up.
"After a while, we organise an event for the sake of an event," explained Mr Tan when speaking on past activities. "We do not see who comes to the block party, for example."
More corporate partners will be brought in. Other than ministries and government agencies, PA intends to deepen and widen its working relationship with civic groups, non-government, voluntary and religious organisations to reach out to and involve different segments of the community.
While the working class will remain the bulk of PA's main clientele, Mr Tan said promoting social cohesion means the affluent need to come on board too.
"We also want to reach the readers of The Tatler and The Peak. I will not pretend to say I will be able to attract them to come and take part in many of our programmes. But I want PA's presence to be among them too, so that they know PA, know what PA is about, understand they can give back through us," he said.
Future CCs, once the focal points for residents in an estate, could also be transformed to allow greater social integration. Currently, CCs are co-located with sports facilities, police stations and libraries, but PA is mulling the "next evolution".
For example, Mr Tan observed a municipal recreation facility in Japan was used by school children in the morning, non-working adults in the afternoon and working adults in the evening.
"In some ways, it is very good. It serves economic land use planning and utilisation is very good," said Mr Tan.
"Frankly speaking, a CC is not fully utilised. Everyone wants to use it during peak periods and during weekends. Is that the next round of evolution for us, not just physical integration but programme ownership too?"
So PA will spend the next "two to three years" to study how future CCs could be.
Meanwhile, being a facilitator for interest groups - such as reading, mahjong and boating clubs - will remain one of PA's key priorities. Instead of sitting at home to watch football on television, Mr Tan wondered if residents could form interest groups to watch games at CCs.
"During the World Cup, why not get together to watch? Maybe in the past we were a bit strict about alcohol sale and consumption. Now, we say can, provided you behave," he said.
"My simple rule is if it is not illegal, not indecent, we can try, we can do."
- TODAY/sc
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