13 days left!

That’s what’s left of the window. On 6 August, the feedback channel for Maju Forest closes and whatever has been said by then is what the record will hold.

I’ve been thinking about how strange this fortnight has been. Two weeks ago most of Singapore had never heard the name Maju. Now it’s in the papers, on the airwaves, in group chats, in comment sections, in conversations at dinner tables far from Clementi. Tens of thousands of people have signed for these two forests — Maju and Gillman together — and the debate has become a proper national one about how we choose what to build on.

That’s already worth something. But it isn’t the same as being counted.

The arithmetic nobody adds up

Here’s something that rarely makes it into the conversation. In 2024, about 3.6 hectares of Maju Forest was already cleared — not for housing but for Brookvale Drive, the 1.2km road built to serve a new condominium. It was reasonable on its own terms. Roads are needed. Arborists were engaged. No one marched.

That’s how forests go here. Not in one dramatic stroke, but in careful, defensible instalments, each modest when considered alone. And now the proposal is for about 15 hectares more.

Every project is assessed on its own. The forest only experiences the total. The pangolin doesn’t know which agency drew which line — it only knows the patch got smaller, then smaller again.

What this is, and what it isn’t

So let me be as clear as I can about what this is and isn’t. This is not a campaign against homes. HDB has said the recent Clementi BTO was more than four times oversubscribed — that’s a real number attached to real families and we take it seriously.

One resident put the question well at the session: oversubscription shows a place is popular, but popularity and necessity aren’t the same thing. Someone hoping to live near parents in Bukit Batok is better served by flats near Bukit Batok. Before an untouched forest is cleared, it seems reasonable to ask where the demand is actually coming from, and whether this is the only place it can land.

What we’re asking is narrower and we think it survives disagreement. Before an untouched forest is cleared, show us the alternatives that were studied. Publish the housing yield. Look hard at the land we’ve already spent — including the ageing precinct sitting between this forest and the future MRT station. The MND has itself said that development decisions are subject to rigorous trade-off assessments and studies of alternatives. We’re simply asking to see them for Maju.

You can want more flats built and still want that. Most of the people I’ve spoken to want both.

Which is exactly why the next thirteen days matter more than the last thirteen did.

Not a signature. A sentence in your own words, in the official channel, that says: I understand homes are needed, here is where I think they should go first.

• HDB feedback (closes 6 Aug): Link
• MP letter templates: Link
•  Send this to one person who hasn’t written in yet.
• Head down to Maju Forest this weekend and share your favorite moment: Link

Thirteen days. Two minutes each. That’s the whole ask.

🌳 For the forest,
The Save Maju Forest petition
IG: @SaveMajuForest