[SIAO!] Tear down Country Club instead of Bukit Brown??

[Ah_Zai]

Siao! This is what the article is suggesting! I want my greens!

 

http://publichouse.sg/categories/topstory/...parents-had-won?

 

What would S'pore be like if our grandparents had won?

 

Written by Andrew Loh

 

 

 

Cemeteries now occupy less than 0.95% of land - do our grandchildren really need this?

 

"Do you want me to look after our dead grandparents or do you want me to look after your grandchildren?" asked then-Cabinet Minister Lim Kim San in the 1960s, and Minister of State Tan Chuan-Jin in 2012.

 

What would Singapore be like if our grandparents had won?

 

For one, we wouldn't have the clear, grassy slopes of Fort Canning Park for WOMAD and Ballet Under the Stars. No, in its place, we'd have a messy Fort Canning Cemetery crowded with 19th-century graves of governors, administrators, sailors, traders, teachers, many young women and children - some even buried two to a grave.

 

Instead of Bishan housing estate, home to 91,298 people at last count, the Cantonese Kwong Wai Siew Association might still have their Peck San Theng (Jade Hill Pavilion) built in 1870 - the largest cemetery in Singapore, with 75,234 graves eventually exhumed. Likewise parts of Tiong Bahru, Henderson, Redhill, Serangoon, Jalan Bukit Merah would still have cemeteries where public housing now stands.

 

A Jewish cemetery dating from 1838 or 1841 would stand in place of Orchard MRT station, its small plot housing 160 graves. And instead of the shops at Velocity, Novena Square, Phoenix Park, we might see Jewish tombs designed by the famous Italian sculptor Cavalieri Rodolfo Nolli in the Thomson Road Jewish Cemetery, in use from 1904 onwards.

 

Instead of KK Women's and Children's Hospital, on the land between Bukit Timah, Kampong Java, Halifax and Hooper Road, we'd have a flood-prone Bukit Timah Cemetery packed with Catholic and Protestant graves from 1865.

 

Neither would we have Ngee Ann City, Mandarin Hotel, Cathay Cineleisure and Wisma Atria. Instead, in the heart of Orchard Road would sit a 28-hectare burial ground Tai Shan Ting, managed by the Teochew Ngee Ann Kongsi.

 

And of course, we wouldn't have those clear, flat fields along Upper Serangoon Road, a space now emptying itself out in preparation for new condominiums and residential towns. In its place, we might still have the 10.5-hectare early 20th-century Bidadari Cemetary, with its delicate marble sculptures and tombstones etched with different languages in the Christian, Muslim and Hindu sections.

 

One might conclude that the 1960s generation did the right thing. They were self-sacrificial enough (or, were forced) to forgo their ancestors' graves so that their grandchildren could have the space for housing, shopping, infrastructure, all these modern amenities we now enjoy.

 

Especially for those of us living and working in Orchard, Novena, Tiong Bahru, Henderson, Redhill, Serangoon, Jalan Bukit Merah, this giving up of graveyard space for modern development seems good and necessary.

 

Burial grounds now occupy less than 0.95% of Singapore's land area

 

But the fact is, back in 1967, burial grounds only made up 1.1% (619 hectares) of land area on Singapore Island, and by 1982, after the clearing of Bukit Timah Cemetery, Peck San Theng (Bishan) etc, it was down to 534 hectares (approx 0.95% of Singapore's land area).

 

Furthermore, this 0.95% figure doesn't even include the Thomson Road Jewish Cemetery (cleared by 1985), 10.5 hectare Bidadari Cemetery (cleared by 2006), and 7-hectare Kwong Hou Sua in Woodlands (cleared by 2009).

 

Is it really necessary to wipe clean these remaining precious spaces that take up less than 0.95% of Singapore's land area?

 

And if Singapore desperately needs more land, why aren't we first using the land area currently occupied by Orchid Country Club, Raffles Country Club, Singapore Island Country Club, Warren Golf & Country Club, and the golf and country clubs in Changi, Jurong, Keppel, Marina Bay, Kranji, Selatar Base, Sembawang, Tanah Merah?

 

Perhaps in the past, it was deemed necessary for our grandparents to relinquish their burial grounds for public housing and the development of the shopping belt in Orchard and Novena.

 

But how much is enough, and what is the optimum point between preserving tangible heritage and history, and allowing the land to be taken over by even more modern amenities, condominiums and wider roads? This concerns all of us and future generations, and we need proper, genuine discussion before bulldozers irreversibly destroy these old spaces.

 

Minister of State Tan Chuan-Jin's argument hinges on Mr Lim Kim San's question, but asking Singaporeans to choose between our dead grandparents and our grandchildren is a severe misrepresentation of the issue.

 

I strongly suspect our grandchildren will not live in misery for want of that extra 0.95% of land. In fact, I hope our grandchildren will be more creative in their urban design, with efficient use of land and infrastructure, without resorting to the destruction of the few cemeteries left.

 

And if current public sentiment is anything to judge the future by, I suspect our grandchildren will enjoy walking in a protected, conserved Bukit Brown, seeing and touching history in tangible forms, and will one day ask, what would Singapore be like if our grandparents had won? That is, if we don't win today.

 

By Lisa Li

 

Lisa Li is a member of SOS Bukit Brown. The Community of Bukit Brown calls for a moratorium on all plans for Bukit Brown, until there is clarity over long-term plans for the area and discussions over alternatives have been exhausted.

 

References:

 

Tan, K. YL, 'Introduction: The Death of Cemeteries in Singapore' from Spaces of the Dead: A Case from the Living, (Singapore: Ethos Books, 2011.

 

Tan, B.H. & Yeoh, B. SA, 'The Remains of the Dead: Spatial Politics of Nation-Building in Post-war Singapore' from Spaces of the Dead: A Case from the Living, (Singapore: Ethos Books, 2011).

Edited March 23, 2012 by Ah_Zai

[Watwheels]

I have no love for golf or country club. Tear tear lor.

[Pokyman]

go jaybee or batam play lor ...

[Iwant]

i personally feel that there are too many country clubs in Singapore.. .

 

really hate it when they chopped down all the trees in Fort Road ..there goes my favorite heli pad.. :angry:

[Maxus-MIFA9]

I have no love for golf or country club. Tear tear lor.

They can play in JB or Batam......

 

So those lands should be reclaimed for housing ...

[Tarzan666]

Me 2..need so many golf courses for wat sia..

 

 

[Ender]

They are sacred cow leh. Especially the one at macritchie. Beyond touch, even it's for the benefit for the majority.

[Mustank]

i dont care whether they close down country club or cemetry. ont thing they cannot anyhow do is to chop down trees. no tree, no rain. no rain, no water. no water, we pay more to get new water or desalinate sea water.

 

this is serious matter. die die those trees around reserviours cannot anyhow chop one.

 

mangroves along seashores also cannot ahow chop. they form a free barrier to rising sea levels.

 

 

[Tjkbeluga]

Golf club is a fcuking waste of space which do not benefit the public....

[WTF]

I still rem many years ago Woody said more golf courses should be built..........and he's a fan of golf of course......

[Happily1986]

They are sacred cow leh. Especially the one at macritchie. Beyond touch, even it's for the benefit for the majority.

 

you are right especially when you consider the people who actually goes to SICC. and they have two locations somemore.

 

i am in favour of clearing golf courses. the needs of so few has to be subservient to the needs of the too many at large.

[Alim]

House in underground HDB for the dead. New business for HDB.

[Mockngbrd]

Yes pls tear down golf clubs... build a racetrack

[Count-Bracula]

I still rem many years ago Woody said more golf courses should be built..........and he's a fan of golf of course......

 

That's the Swiss standard of living lor

[Jman888]

I have no love for golf or country club. Tear tear lor.

 

 

then where you want our Tigerwood to practice his golf?

[Count-Bracula]

then where you want our Tigerwood to practice his golf?

 

At home like the rest of us? Hole in one all the time.

[Scion]

golf courses are wasteful and benefit only a bunch of rich people, so yes, please demolish some of them

[1fast1]

Yes pls tear down golf clubs... build a racetrack

 

Me gusta.

 

Golf is MIW and blardy old man past time. So tear that sh*t down. Real men race, anyway.

 

In any case, this gahmen is damn two-faced. On the one hand keep claiming land area scarce, to the point of appropriating private land at a pittance. On the other, build large wasteful golf courses.

Edited March 23, 2012 by Turboflat4