Spirit of good neighbourliness is fast fading

I was visiting my former neighbours with my mother at my childhood estate in Ghim Moh Road recently for Hari Raya where we reminisced about the good old days and talked at great length about the kampung spirit.

The kampung spirit or the act of "bergotong-royong" is a Malay term that refers to the spirit of neighbourliness found in Malay villages where everyone looks after each other's property to ensure no untoward harm comes upon them.

It also refers to being good and considerate neighbours.

Now, the Ghim Moh Road estate is one of the rare few public flats in Singapore where this spirit is still alive and kicking.

To this day, my former neighbours still call each other by their first names and would keep each other's keys whenever any one of them were to be away for a period of time.

They would even volunteer to water the plants, feed the pets, clean up each other's homes and baby-sit - a tough act that is indeed difficult to follow.

Considering that I left the estate 24 years ago, I am still amazed how my former neighbours are able to preserve this fast-eroding spirit in other newer estates.

Now, our ambitious drive for progress and economic growth over the past decades are something that is laudable and has reaped dividends.

Despite our lack of natural resources, the entire country worked together to build Singapore into a developed country.

Singapore is one of the richest in the world today.

According to the World Bank report in 2009, Singapore has a GDP per capita of US$50,705 ­ - the fourth highest in the world.

The Global Property Guide has also cited our property market this year as being the hottest real estate market in the world outstripping Hong Kong and even Shanghai.

But at what price?

If you, like me, live in a relatively new estate, you would realise that despite having a clean estate with modern facilities and fancy communal areas, we hardly open our doors, let alone talk to our neighbours next door, as we are too busy trying to make ends meet.

Then there are also horror stories of neighbours from hell.

For the past ten years or so, I have had to put up with an unruly neighbour who would discharge water from the fish tank into the common corridor, impede our right of way, burn hell paper with the ashes flying into my home and even pushing my mother until she fell.

Although no official data on neighbourly disputes is available, I am sure the cases in the heartlands have raised enough alarm bells prompting the Housing Development Board (HDB) to launch the Good Neighbour Award last year.

This award, organised by the HDB and the People's Association (PA), with the support of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM), aims to recognise those who have contributed to a better neighbourhood through acts of consideration and kindness.

This year, the award has earned 530 nominations, with 217 residents selected as constituency recipients and five outstanding residents chosen as national award recipients.

Although I laud the authorities' move, I wish they would do more to help other distressed residents like myself.

Until today, despite exhausting all my avenues at the Meet-the-MP session, the Town Council, Police Force, People's Association and Community Mediation Centre, nothing has been done except for several rounds of warnings to my neighbour by the Town Council.

It would be tragic if the authorities were to act only when a fatal incident were to happen because they've taken the "follow-by-the-book" approach and failed to recognise a resident's cry for help.

In the meantime, I am doing some soul-searching and asking if the Singapore today is better than that simpler one I knew when I was growing up in Ghim Moh.