Leaders pay tribute to Singapore's first parks commissioner Wong Yew Kwan

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday (Dec 10) paid tribute to Singapore's first Commissioner of Parks and Recreation Wong Yew Kwan.

Mr Wong died at the age of 89 on Wednesday, according to an obituary published in the Straits Times.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described Mr Wong as one of Singapore's pioneer leaders and a key person in efforts to transform Singapore into a "Garden City".

"Much of the greenery around us today can be credited to Yew Kwan and his team. They planned for gaps in the middle of flyovers, to allow sunlight and rain to come through so that greenery could flourish below," said Mr Lee.

"Along roadsides, they planted trees with large canopies, like rain trees and angsanas, to provide shade. As the Garden City concept took off, his team introduced plants with colourful flowers, and greened the highways. This continues today."

Born in Ipoh in 1932, Mr Wong majored in botany at the University of Malaya.

"I had always been interested in the trees and nature areas which were abundant in Ipoh where I grew up," he said in an interview published in a 2016 newsletter by the Ministry of National Development.

Moving to Singapore with his family in 1970, Mr Wong joined the Parks and Recreation Division in 1974.

When this became a full-fledged department in 1976, he was appointed Singapore's first Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, and served in that post until 1982.

In the interview, Mr Wong described working closely with then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to green the city.

"The late Mr Wong Chooi Sen (then Cabinet Secretary) often rang me up with specific instructions from Mr Lee (Kuan Yew) about an area where he wanted trees planted, or if he noticed that a tree was not doing well, and so on," said Mr Wong.

"It was quite a lot of pressure!"

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee said that Mr Wong and his team worked assiduously to carry out the Garden City vision.

"He had a deep interest in tropical forest ecology, and contributed to our knowledge of forest trees in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve even after he had left (the Parks and Recreation Department)," said the minister.

He added that Mr Wong also served as a member of the Heritage Tree Panel, where his experience was "invaluable" in evaluating nominations for Heritage Trees.

Citing a Chinese idiom that means "the predecessors plant the trees, and their descendants enjoy the shade", the Prime Minister said this was "literally true" in Mr Wong's case.

"Yew Kwan left a lasting mark on the country," said Mr Lee. "He will be deeply missed, and my thoughts are with his family in this time of grief."

Mr Wong's wake is being held at Block 37 Sin Ming Drive until Saturday, according to his obituary.

He will be cremated at Mandai Crematorium on Sunday afternoon.