Discussion about social enterprise hawker centres ‘useful’ to Singapore’s Unesco nomination for hawker culture

SINGAPORE — Weighing in on the controversy over hawker centres run by social enterprises, an official from the National Heritage Board (NHB) said it was “useful” that the public debate took place before Singapore nominates its hawker culture for inclusion in Unesco's intangible cultural heritage list.

Mr Alvin Tan, NHB's assistant chief executive of policy and community, said that the remedial actions and lessons learnt from an ongoing review of the management model will be incorporated into the country's Unesco submission. He was speaking to reporters on Thursday (Oct 25) at the unveiling of a travelling exhibition on Singapore's hawker culture, held at Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre.

Singapore has to submit the nomination bid to Unesco by March next year, with the results expected to be announced at the end of 2020.

One of the five criteria that nominees have to fulfil for inclusion in the Unesco Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity is an encouragement of public dialogue, Mr Tan said.

“The current discussion about operating models and all that are good examples of dialogue that’s been generated through the raising of public awareness of the Unesco listing.”

In recent weeks, the social enterprise-run hawker centre model has come under fire for some alleged heavy-handed practices, including high rental charges and various fees that hawkers have to pay the operators.

Last week, Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, announced that the National Environment Agency (NEA) will be doing a stock-take of the model, and has asked the agency to quickly iron out problems that have surfaced.

On Thursday, Mr Tan pointed out that another Unesco criterion specifies that safeguarding measures must be put in place to protect and promote hawker culture.

“When dialogues like these take place and eventually (the relevant agencies) come up with solutions, this will reinforce... how are we safeguarding hawker culture for the future,” he said.

“We will eventually incorporate all the solutions that the relevant agencies, such as NEA, announce into the nomination dossier,” he added.

With the recent controversy, Mr Tan called on Singaporeans to focus on coming together to fulfil the objective of successfully inscribing the nation’s hawker culture on the Unesco list.

The decision to nominate the country's hawker culture to be on the coveted Unesco list was first announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally this year, where he spoke about hawker centres being a unique part of Singapore's society, heritage and identity.

A 14-member committee — co-chaired by the chiefs of NHB, NEA and the Federation of Merchants' Association, Singapore (FMAS) — has been appointed to oversee and guide Singapore’s nominate process.

The Our SG Hawker Culture exhibition at Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre is part of the public outreach outreach efforts by the committee. It will travel to 13 locations over the next three months, including Our Tampines Hub, Toa Payoh Hub, and Central Public Library.

The FMAS will be organising engagement sessions with hawkers’ associations and hawkers to gather feedback and support from hawkers.

In a statement on Thursday, the Singapore Business Federation said that it is calling on its 26,000 members to support the Unesco bid.

Its chariman SS Teo said: “While socio-economic factors exert pressure on the long-term viability of the hawker trade, it is nonetheless a much-cherished part of Singapore’s cultural heritage, and therefore something that we ought to protect for as long as possible.

“Unesco's recognition will represent an affirmative step towards preserving this legacy for future generations.”