Madam Halimah Yacob will be sworn-in as Singapore’s eighth President later today.
President-elect Halimah Yacob was picked up by a state car from her HDB home in Yishun for a tour around Istana this morning.
She was also given a run-through of what to expect at the swearing-in ceremony tonight (14 Sept) at Istana.
Though she has not officially started work as President of Singapore, she is already thinking of all the things she has to do.
Basically, she wants to start work immediately.
People who know her personally, like her long-time pal, describes her as a person who is focused in what she does.
56-year-old Mr Toh Soon Huat, Chairman of Sian Chay Medical Institution, also speaks positively about Madam Halimah’s enthusiasm.
“I have also worked with her at Marsiling’s Sian Chay branch. During that few months of setting up the clinic at Marsiling, she showed a lot of concern and enthusiasm. She is very quick in doing things.”
Mr Toh said that it was not easy for non-Chinese to accept TCM but because of Madam Halimah’s contributions, there are now many non-Chinese who visit Sian Chay especially at the Marsiling outlet.
While many Singaporeans have not interacted with Madam Halimah before, they might soon get the chance to do so.
During her tour around Istana today, Madam halimah revealed to the media that she was thinking of ways to share the Istana grounds with more Singaporeans, apart from the days where its open to public.
She gave an example of how more Singaporeans can tend to the herb garden and children can enjoy picnics at Istana.
“For instance, we have the herb garden. (I was thinking) whether could we invite some senior volunteers to come once in a while to tend to the garden and also to harvest some of the garden’s fruit, the spices, the chillies,” she said. “I was thinking also – could we have picnics for children, off from the normal periods from when we open the grounds?”
“I understand that we must also preserve the dignity of the Istana, but taking that into consideration, could we make the Istana a little bit more accessible to people? It’s a beautiful place, (it would be nice) to see how we could share it more with Singaporeans.”
The spice garden was a new addition to the Istana grounds and was opened to the public two years ago during Istana Open House on Hari Raya.
There are more than 30 different species of herbs, spices and edible plants like ginger, lemongrass, roselle plants, sweet potato and tapioca.
Hopefully by inviting Singaporeans with green fingers to tend to the herb garden, our garden will look as nice as the White House’s kitchen garden.
President-elect Madam Halimah will be sworn-in as Singapore’s eighth head-of-state later in the day. She will also be the first female President in Singapore.
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