The following letter was emailed around in August 2001 by Tan Choon Ming. It is an appeal for public support to preserve Pulau Ubin's Tanjong Chek Jawa. Tan Choon Ming also spent many weekends there handing out leaflets. Reproduced below is is one of the emails I received. I took the liberty of making the urls mentioned active. No other changes were made. Copies of the letter can be seen at Sivasothi's Nabitat News, Nature Singapore and Singaporeans for Democracy.
Dear Friends,
CHEK JAWA AND PULAU UBIN, WHAT DOES YOUR HEART TELL YOU?
First, please pardon me for barging into your e-mail space.
This e-mail is an appeal to help SEND OUT a conservation message. It
regards Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin. You must have already heard about Chek
Jawa from the media. Chek Jawa is a nationally threatened intertidal mud
and sand flat
ecosystem located on the eastern coast of Pulau Ubin. What makes Chek
Jawa so special is not only because of its rich marine biological diversity
but also the impressive wide expanse of its mud and sand flat.
This precious place will be lost to land reclamation in Nov 2001, together with the entire southeastern coastline of Pulau Ubin.
I spent the last fortnight posting Chek Jawa conservation messages on
various on-line forums and webpages. I appealed to
readers to help raise public awareness on Chek Jawa and the impending
crisis. And now, I sincerely hope that you may be able to help.
My objective is to inform as many people as I possibly can regarding
Chek Jawa's fate. If they decide that Chek Jawa is worth
conserving, I hope that they will empower themselves to protect it:
voice their thoughts and feelings in newspaper forums, discuss the issue,
create Chek Jawa homepages, bring friends to Ubin etc.
I sincerely hope that Singaporeans can stand up for what they believe
is right for us and our environment, especially our
natural heritage. Don't stop at awareness; do something to protect
and conserve.
Once you lose a place, you can never see it again. Destruction of wildlife
habitats is nothing less than a crime against nature.
See, hear, smell, feel and experience Chek Jawa for yourself.
Please help to SEND OUT this conservation message to people you know (and don't know). If you can, express in your own words, write with your heart.
Whether or not reclamation works will proceed, it does not matter. What matters are that Singaporeans know what they will be losing, and what will soon be lost to our children.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
(via e-mail)
Tan Choon Ming
(Student of Environmental Science, Salford University, U.K.)
--------------------
Public appeal letter:
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/news/chekjawa/literature/tcm6aug2001.html
http://www.sfdonline.org/Link%20Pages/Link%20Folders/01Ds/070801.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nature-singapore/message/1395
(an open letter without an audience is a useless letter)
Chek Jawa photo galleries:
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/news/chekjawa/joelai/text/01a.htm (by Lai)
www.naturia.per.sg/chekjawa/ (by Ria)
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/news/chekjawa/ (by Siva)
More background information:
www.reforest.org/chekjawa (by Beng Chiak)
Newspapers:
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/home (please search for "Chek Jawa")
http://home4.pacific.net.sg/~choonming_tan/ubin_jawa_today_150801.jpg
(TODAY, MediaCorp Press, 15th Aug 2001)
Map showing east Pulau Ubin, including Chek Jawa intertidal flat:
http://home4.pacific.net.sg/~choonming_tan/ubin_jawa_map.jpg
Fate of Pulau Ubin:
www.ura.gov.sg/index.html
(go to Concept Plan 2001)
www.ura.gov.sg/conceptplan2001/homepageBig.html
Chek Jawa Information Leaflet:
http://home4.pacific.net.sg/~choonming_tan/ubin_jawa_leaflet_colour.gif
Channel NewsAsia Singapore Forum:
http://cna.mediacorpnews.com/your_say/sporeforum/index.htm
(look for Chek Jawa postings)
