Showing posts with label Bukit Brown Cemetery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bukit Brown Cemetery. Show all posts
Thursday, June 09, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Land-starved Singapore exhumes its cemeteries to build roads and malls
I found this article sometime ago. Almost forgot about it... this should go into the Bukit Brown Index... so I archive here first. Yes, we are starving for roads and malls. WTF!
The tiny city-state has dug up hundreds of thousands of graves to pave the way for roads, houses and shopping centres. As Singapore celebrates 50 years of independence, conservationists argue heritage need not be sacrificed to progress
Overgrown and littered with dead leaves, Bukit Brown cemetery does not feature in many tourist guides to Singapore. But its 200 hectares are one of the island’s few green spaces, home to a quarter of the bird species - and the final resting place for more than 100,000 people. Yet its days might be numbered. Over 3,700 of those 100,000 graves have now been exhumed, to make way for an eight-lane highway that will cut the cemetery in half.
This gruesome business is nothing new. In Singapore, hundreds of thousands of bodies have already been hauled up from the ground to pave the way for malls, roads and apartment blocks. The entire city-state of Singapore covers a mere 71,830 hectares, less than half the size of Greater London, so land is always at a premium here - and the needs of the dead generally give way to that of the living.
As the country marks 50 years since independence with a weekend of golden jubilee celebrations, however, questions are finally asked about how to preserve what little heritage Singapore has left. In a city where many buildings are brand-new, cemeteries are a rare link to the past. What’s more, as the exhumations continue, the custom of visiting and worshipping at an ancestor’s tomb – once so integral to Chinese culture – is starting to become unfamiliar to Singapore’s Chinese population.
Authorities say digging up Bukit Brown for the road will ease congestion from the Pan-Island Expressway, the first step towards further development of the area: the Ministry of National Development (MND) is considering converting all of Bukit Brown into housing by 2030. The exhumed remains are either reinterred in smaller plots, or cremated, according to the National Environment Agency (NEA). Relatives can then visit their ancestors at the shared plots or at various columbaria.
Only one cemetery is still open for burial at all: for between S$315 to S$940 (£146 to £435) per adult, you can be buried at Chua Chu Kang cemetery, in a less developed part of western Singapore. But, as with most things in the city-state, there’s an expiry date. Under the New Burial Policy of 1998, you can lease a plot only for a maximum of 15 years. (In Hong Kong, another similarly sized city, the problem is even worse: urns filled with ashes often sit in funeral parlours for months while waiting for the next available spot at a public columbarium, and the maximum burial period is just six years.)
Next to be exhumed in Chua Chu Kang is part of the Chinese section, with graves buried between 1947 to 1975. Relatives have been asked to claim the remains of family members before the end of July next year. The NEA said they did not know about any future plans for the area.
The country’s political leaders have often cited the challenge of balancing competing urban interests. In a statement, an MND spokesperson said: “The government needs to prioritise the use of our land for various needs such as housing, green spaces, utilities, transportation, ports and airports and amenities to support the functions of a nation. ... The bulk of Bukit Brown Cemetery will only be developed in the longer term.”
In 1978, there were 213 burial grounds on 2,146 hectares in Singapore, or about 3.7% of the island. Many were already facing clearance even then. Minister EW Barker told parliament that “over the next few years, all private cemeteries… which have been closed for burials, will be acquired as and when required for development.”
Since then, dozens of cemeteries have been lost. Prime among them was Bidadari cemetery, which served Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sinhalese communities. Many notable people were buried there, including Augustine Podmore Williams, an English mariner on the SS Jeddah, whose story inspired Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim.
Bidadari Cemetery was cleared between 2001 and 2006, in an operation that exhumed 58,000 Christian and 68,000 Muslim graves. In its place, the government is building a new town, complete with an underground, air-conditioned bus interchange and the city’s first underground service reservoir. The first public housing flats will go on sale this September.
Even the city’s main shopping belt, Orchard Road, is built on a former graveyard that was dug up. Ngee Ann City, a looming brown building that’s home to a major department store and up-market boutiques, marks the location of what used to be the largest Teochew community cemetery on the island. Now the gleaming mall generates revenue for Ngee Ann Kongsi, a charitable organisation for the Chinese Teochew community, allowing them to fund programmes in education.
Just a little down the road, Orchard Residences – a fancy private condominium built above the ION Orchard mall – is also built on what used to be Teochew grave sites. Four-bedroom, three-bathroom units in Orchard go for up to S$11m (£5m).
Conservationists are hoping to save Bukit Brown from going down this path. They say the cemetery should remain a free, public space, not be converted into an exclusive zone for the rich.
Norman Cho’s great-uncle Tan Kay Tiang occupies one of the graves that will be exhumed in Bukit Brown. Tan died in 1938, many years before his grandchildren – who are now in their 60s – were born. The grandchildren “were not particularly enthusiastic about the exhumation,” Cho said. So he stepped in to claim his great-uncle’s remains and cremate them.
“I did so with his great-granchildren in mind,” he said. “In a way, I try to preserve the memory of the man for his descendants.”
Khoo Ee Hoon, who volunteers to contact the descendants of people buried in Chua Chu Kang cemetery in the hopes that they will claim the remains upon exhumation, says many are not interested. “They no longer feel the anguish or the pain” associated with ancestors from three or four generations back, she said. Although many Chinese Singaporean families continue to visit cemeteries and columbaria during the Qingming festival, many others no longer follow such traditions.
“The whole cemetery culture is already gone,” says Darren Koh, a volunteer guide with All Things Bukit Brown, a group who organise guided walks through the cemetery. “The idea of worshipping or honouring the Earth deity first before you go to the grave, it’s gone. How many people on our tour had actually visited a cemetery before?”
This ever-growing estrangement from the “culture” of cemeteries has led to burial being seen as a waste of space in Singapore. Moreover, now that remains are almost certain to be exhumed eventually, more people are opting for cremation in the first place. In 2011, 80% of those who died chose cremation – almost everyone, in other words, except for people whose religions specifically dictate burial, such as Muslims, Baha’i and Parsees.
The activists of All Things Bukit Brown (they call themselves Brownies) hope to increase awareness of the cemetery’s ecological diversity and historical wealth, so Singaporeans can better decide if the space is worth conserving when it faces being dug up even further. The history contained in places like Bukit Brown is what gives Singaporeans a sense of belonging, Koh says.
“The difference between a home and a luxury suite at the W Hotel are the memories,” he said. “If you keep digging up all the memories that remain in a particular location, it may be the most beautiful place in the world but it will become a hotel room.”
It’s easy to see what Koh means about memories about Bukit Brown: the graves, which date back to 1833 and are arranged following Chinese beliefs in feng shuirather than in strict rows, are home to businessmen, manual labourers, industrialists and revolutionaries. “So much history is left uncovered here. If we lose all of this, will we ever get it back again?” Koh said.
Conservationists argue that Singaporeans shouldn’t always be required to choose between preserving cemeteries and the country’s development. Citing the example of how cemeteries in other cities such as Kuala Lumpur have been converted to heritage parks, Koh says alternative solutions can always be found, allowing Singapore to continue advancing while also preserving its history.
As we walk towards the old gates of Bukit Brown, now ringed by a construction site, Koh gestures with his walking stick towards the remaining tombs. “Romantically put, until the last grave is dug out I think we’ll still guide, because there’s a lot of history that we want to make sure we can save.”
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Bukit Brown Tomb Keeper featured
A video on the tomb keeper of Bukit Brown Bukit. For Bukit Brown Index.
I think this gentleman have told me a ghost story in Bukit Brown before.
Monday, November 02, 2015
Princess in Bukit Brown
The day that I brought little Princess to have a walk in Bukit Brown. She and I tagged along one of the tours.
Although she was particularly shy dog. She was warm to my nature conservationist friend, Hang Chong.
Although she was particularly shy dog. She was warm to my nature conservationist friend, Hang Chong.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Setting up OutPost 39: M.E.L.T.ING Project
https://postmuseum.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/setting-up-outpost-39-m-e-l-t-ing-project/
Outpost 89: blog entry about M.E.L.T.ING project
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Standing against the destruction of everything
Stop in the name of love....Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Stop! In the name of love ...
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
The story of 6 golf clubs...
Previously, I joked that we have so many golf clubs and we have not yet created a Golfing star. What a waste of land.
After we kept complaining about too many golf courses in Singapore and why sacrifice Bukit Brown and not Golf Clubs as they are not sustainable and not ECO?
Hence, is this article (below) the URA's response? It shows that maybe they are listening? I am really not sure about that.
I think it is a good thing to re-think land use. However, the argument is not golf over nature or nature over golf. It is too many golf courses on our island. For the case of Bukit Brown, we are asking to consider developing on Golf Courses instead of Bukit Brown.
Master Plan 2013 or this article seem to suggest to me that Bukit Brown will be gone, but golf courses are not spared as well in the new plan.
I believe that the Bukit Brown event is an issue of land contestation which is a recurring issue. I think land-contestation in Singapore is about the struggle of the Singapore 'Soul'. The various stake-holders speak of their vision of Singapore and through that discourse, we find a deeper meaning of how the people make connections with the land.
For example, I would think with nature spaces like woodlands cannot be replaced by gardens. I am not saying that man-made gardens are not nice. I am saying why remove woodlands or forests to make gardens? They are not 'greener'. This is not value-adding. This is like paying money to do some extra work when the work is not really needed in the first place.
We need to re-think the value of our land. We have to re-think how we should make decisions on our land. Some things just can't be reversed. Too bad. We lost Biddari, Old National Library etc. It shouldn't happen again under our watch.
Six golf clubs on land slated for other use
By Rachel Scully
The Straits Times
Published on Nov 21, 2013
In the latest Draft Master Plan 2013, Keppel Club’s greens (right) have been zoned for residential purposes and are ''subject to detailed planning'', while part or all of the land occupied by five other clubs have been labelled ''reserve sites'' - meaning it has not been determined what the specific uses will be. -- ST FILE PHOTO
The six affected clubs are Keppel Club, Tanah Merah Country Club, Orchid Country Club, Warren Golf and Country Club, Jurong Country Club and the National Service Resort and Country Club (NSRCC) in Changi.
Some have leases that expire in 10 years or less, while others still have many years to go, but that may not save them from the axe eventually.
Golf courses typically occupy land zoned for sports and recreation, but this can change.
The master plan, which provides a guide on land use for the next 10 to 15 years, is revised every five years.
In the 2008 plan, the six clubs were on land designated for sports and recreation, but this was changed in the latest draft released yesterday.
The Keppel Club's greens have now been zoned for residential purposes and are "subject to detailed planning".
Part or all of the land occupied by the five other clubs have been labelled "reserve sites" - meaning the specific uses have yet to be determined.
The authorities can allow interim use of the land for purposes that are "compatible with the uses in the locality", according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority zoning interpretation.
The Garden Course at Tanah Merah Country Club, which is bound by the East Coast Parkway and Changi Coast Road, is on land marked as a reserve site. The land used by its other course remains zoned for sports and recreation.
Parts of the NSRCC's nearby Changi course have also been designated as a reserve site.
The other three clubs slated for redevelopment - Warren, Jurong and Orchid - are near housing estates.
The change in land use comes as golf club members await more details of lease extensions early next year. Many tip the clubs with the shortest leases as the ones likely to lose their land, but it seems that those with longer leases may not be spared the axe once their tenure is up.
For example, Jurong Country Club's lease will run out in 22 years, while Warren Golf and Country Club has 15 years left on its lease, with the option to renew it for a further 30 years.
The new Draft Master Plan affirms the Government's move to ensure that land is better utilised.
Law Minister K. Shanmugam noted on his Facebook page last Friday: "In the past, many golf courses were built over land which could not be developed for high-intensity use. We are now able to make better use of some of this land... (and) in the coming years, some golf course land will be redeveloped, to (be) put to higher-intensity use, to meet Singapore's land use needs."
rjscully@sph.com.sg
Copyright © 2013 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Earth Hour at the Singapore Art Museum
I was browsing on Facebook the other day and this advert came up. It featured a review by Huang Li Jie of Unearthed Exhibition @ Singapore Art Museum.Post-Museum is showing a new work called The Bukit Brown Index in this exhibition.
So according to Huang:
Bukit Brown Index with Ho Tzu Nyen's Earth is 'fertile'-ly paired - to show even more 'deeply' the irony of the earth as a source of eternal repose for man and a victim of man's destruction...
I need to go back to see this fertile pairing. Anyway, that's nice that we got a mention. I seem to remember our installation is not complete when Huang visited.
There is also an phone interview not sure if anything came out of it. Anyone saw anything? Let me know thanks.
http://stcommunities.straitstimes.com/show/2014/04/24/earth-hour-singapore-art-museum
BY HUANG LIJIE
Review: Art
UNEARTHED
Singapore Art Museum/Till July 6
The Singapore Art Museum, in its inaugural exhibition as an independent visual arts institution, goes for what is primal - Earth, and man's uneasy relationship with the natural world.
And it is an auspicious start.
The show comprises 30 works by artists based in Singapore and it spans various mediums and practices including psychogeography, the effect of the geographical environment on an individual's emotions, and the art world's current fascination with assemblages by artists as wannabe archivists and anthropologists.
It also includes a complementary exhibition at its annexe in Queen Street, featuring six contemporary art projects from the art residency programme at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, an institute at the Nanyang Technological University which conducts research on geohazards in and around South-east Asia.
The timing of the show, tackling an evergreen theme, proves fortuitous when 10 days after its launch last month, the United Nations' panel on climate change released a hot-button report on the devasting impact and risks of worsening climate worldwide.
Yet the opportune display is not without a potential pitfall; revisiting a time-worn subject could make a public already weary from platitudes about man and nature jaded.
And there are such moments in the exhibition where pieces hew so close to life, they fail to bring art into the picture through a rethinking of substance, form, idea or expression.
Isabelle Desjeux's mixed-media installation, 1,000 Rubber Seeds And One Mutant (2014), is a textbook model of the museum's new direction.
The introductory wall text of the exhibition states this as showing art which intersects with other disciplines as well as different modes of expression and experience.
Desjeux's work, in the second-floor lobby of the museum, make-believes an old-fashioned research laboratory. Wooden shelves stacked against a wall are lined with specimens of rubber seeds while a mutant fruit that failed to explode and disperse its seeds is displayed prominently in a transparent box.
To the left and right of the shelves, tables are set up to invite viewers to scrutinise and make drawings of seeds, and match photographs of them to a corresponding set on display.
The work is about simple theories on life, science and art - mistakes and anomalies sow learning; science and art are like two peas in a pod, rooted in the practice of observation; science as a study of the material world is borne of man and linked to life - but it plays so closely by the book, it ends up flat.
Better are the installations All The Way Down (2014) and Nanyang Meadows (2014) by Lucy Davis, inspired by the stuffing of taxidermic specimens in the collection of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.
In Nanyang Meadows, wheat straw used in 1887 to stuff a 4.5m-long crocodile caught in Singapore is artfully laid out behind a transparent case, while All The Way Down brings to light newspaper clippings from the early 1900s that filled the belly of a taxidermic tortoise. The yellowed pages, carrying reports on the landmark mutiny in 1905 on the Russian battleship Potemkin and the 1907 Swatow Rebellion in China, are suspended in a vertical column above a photograph of the specimen.
The display, in a darkened room akin to a natural history gallery with its ghostly picture of the tortoise and metal plate facsimiles of the newspaper clippings that are legible only by torchlight, is milked unnecessarily for drama. But the works point to a new affinity between man and nature, and a fresh way of thinking about their relationship - as reliquaries and embodiments of each other's histories.
Other works in the show similarly deliver on the promise of its title to bring obscurity into view.
In Twardzik Ching Chor Leng's Real Estate (2014), an almost square plot of land on the front lawn of the museum, abutted by its signboard, is excavated, walled with glass and placed indoors for a privileged view of what lies under the arts institution; the soil is fine, largely homogenous and an oxygen-rich brown.
Yet the gesture of cutting 2.4m-deep into the museum ground, leaving cold-blooded edges and a hollow pit, points to man's dispassionate, disquieting treatment of land and raises questions as to who holds the right to disturb the earth and carve it up at will.
The medium may induce a gag reflex in most viewers but it is more than a cheap trick.
It spells the inescapable principle of survival of the fittest, which applies to both nature and man, and brings loss and renewal, the latter sometimes at the expense of another species.
The exhibition, sporting a studied air, also cultivates fertile pairings such as the one between The Bukit Brown Index (2014), a mixed-media installation by independent arts platform PostMuseum, and Ho Tzu Nyen's video, Earth (2009).
The Bukit Brown Index presents an archive of information concerning the cemetery where graves have been exhumed to make way for redevelopment plans.
The video, on the other hand, paints with deep variations of light and shadow in the style of Western masters to capture the sublime horror of still-warm bodies in suspended death, a few breaths away from becoming grey corpses in a post-apocalyptic world.
Seen together, the irony of the earth as a source of eternal repose for man and a victim of man's destruction resonates deeper.
Unearthed, thereupon, lays a sound bedrock for future shows at the museum, being on time, mostly on message, and largely right on the money of its mission.
Unearthed, thereupon, lays a sound bedrock for future shows at the museum, being on time, mostly on message, and largely right on the money of its mission.
Thursday, April 03, 2014
Supernatural Map of Bukit Brown
Post-Museum is showing the latest work, Bukit Brown Index.
We had a lot of fun making the work. I look forward to mapping the supernatural occurrences in Bukit Brown.
Of course, we couldn't put every thing we collected on the map. We are still collecting stories and so if you got a story about Bukit Brown, please share with us.
Transmission out, Tien.
Monday, April 08, 2013
The nomination of the Singapore Botanic Gardens for UNESCO World Heritage Site status should be just the start
http://www.todayonline.com/commentary/bukit-timah-forests-sit-flats-worthy-world-heritage-status-too - from this link.
The Singapore Heritage Society welcomes and supports the Government’s intention to nominate the Singapore Botanic Gardens for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Indeed, the Society had mooted this back in 2009.
It is also pleased that the Government finally ratified the 1972 World Heritage Convention in June last year.
The 154 year-old Botanic Gardens is a worthy site. It was established in 1859 by the Agri-Horticultural Society on gambier plantation land formerly owned by Whampoa Hoo Ah Kay. Besides collection and experimentation of trees and plant species, additional land was committed for an ‘economic garden’ in 1879 to aid the establishment of plantation lands and plots in the region.
As stated in the justification provided to UNESCO, it stands as a testimony to the history of the economic, social and scientific development in Malaya. The Botanic Gardens saw pioneering work on rubber cultivation techniques carried out in the late 19th century which helped pave the way for its mass manufacturing in the early 20th century.
The Botanic Gardens also had an important hand in the distribution of rubber seeds to plantation owners in Malaya, persuading them switch to rubber from other crops. This move ensured Malaya’s early economic growth by giving a sizeable foothold in trading markets around the world.
Furthermore, while the Botanic Gardens is an undeniable symbol of the colonial empire’s power and reach, we should never forget the crucial risk-taking of local entrepreneurs who embarked on the rubber industry and the contribution of the numerous workers to the economic development of Malaya. Such is the interwoven nature of history.
THE NOMINATION PROCESS
With heritage education as part of its mandate, the Society would like to take this opportunity to explain the nomination process for UNESCO World Heritage status.
In order to achieve World Heritage status, a government must first prepare an inventory, known as the ‘tentative list’, of the country’s significant cultural and natural sites, or ‘properties’.
In the case of the Botanic Gardens, overseas consultants were hired by the Government in 2010 to conduct a feasibility study of possible sites that could be included in this tentative list. The Government has submitted the Botanic Gardens as the sole item on the tentative list, and is currently preparing a formal application for World Heritage status.
When the application is formally submitted, it will be evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites or International Union for Conservation of Nature which assesses cultural and natural sites, respectively. After which, the evaluation is submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee for its decision.
Though the Botanic Gardens meets many of the criteria or ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ to qualify as a World Heritage Site, it should be remembered that it is already gazetted as a ‘National Park’ under the Park and Trees Act. It is thus safe from destruction or encroachment, regardless of World Heritage status. Indeed, government protection is required before a site may be considered for World Heritage status.
VITAL TO CONSULT AND ENGAGE
Moving forward, the Society believes that two things are vital to the nomination process.
The first is consultation with local experts. This consultation process is crucial under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and its Operational Guidelines.
These rules oblige governments to embark on consultation processes over the identification, nomination and protection of possible sites with a wide variety of stakeholders including the local community, academics and experts, and non-governmental organisations. This ensures that local knowledge and experience are taken into account throughout the application process, and not just as an afterthought.
It also encourages the government to be more communicative when it comes to its decision-making process. This will go a long way in enhancing long term interest in the site as the local community would have contributed to the process and feel that it has a stake in it.
The second is public engagement. What does achieving UNESCO World Heritage status mean for ordinary Singaporeans?
The Society strongly believes that the real value of winning World Heritage status lies not in global recognition or prestige. Rather, it lies in the opportunity to educate and raise awareness both locally and overseas, that contrary to popular belief, Singapore is a place rich with heritage.
More importantly, Singaporeans will be made to think deeply about what is meaningful us, why it is meaningful and, in the process, gain knowledge about a history that shapes our identity. The Society believes that all the accolades in the world will come to naught if citizens are not excited or engaged.
A BUDGET TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC
To achieve this, the Society would like to make several suggestions.
With respect to the Botanic Gardens, create a budget dedicated to raising public awareness of the historical significance of the Botanic Gardens and the establishment of research grants for scholars, local and overseas, to excavate stories, information and documents in order to enhance our understanding of the Botanic Gardens.
Educate the public about the importance of conservation and the significance of Outstanding Universal Values, by commissioning local studies and public forums on the other prospective sites in Singapore that may be considered for tentative listing.
Indeed there are other sites that might have Outstanding Universal Value, but without legislative protection by the Government, they will be unable to receive the UNESCO stamp of approval.
Some possible sites include Bukit Brown, a beautiful swathe of tranquil greenery full of historically important graves that tell a tale of our ancestors’ journeys and connection to the region.
There are also the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Central Catchment Nature Reserve, with tropical rainforests that are reportedly home to as many species of plants as the entire North America, and where a Belgium scientist discovered 150 new species of flies and where Alfred Wallace collected about 700 species of beetles in just two months about a century ago.
And then there are the Singapore Improvement Trust flats in Tiong Bahru, early examples of public housing development; and perhaps even our ubiquitous Housing and Development Board’s slab block flats that embodied modernist ideas that Le Corbusier tried to demonstrate in his Unitéd’Habitation.
In an era where the international community values sustainable development, the preservation of such sites in what is essentially one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and their successful listing as World Heritage, will be an ultimate tribute to the foresight and creative genius of our leaders and urban planners.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Terence Chong, Yeo Kang Shua and Tan Wee Cheng are Executive Committee members of the Singapore Heritage Society.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Protecting our Commons
Posted by theonlinecitizen on November 16, 2011
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/11/protecting-our-commons/
~by: William S.W. Lim and Faith Wong~
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/11/protecting-our-commons/
~by: William S.W. Lim and Faith Wong~
 |
| Bukit Brown's sparrow. Photo by Suki Singh |
The impassioned public response to the LTA’s announcement that a road will be built through Bukit Brown cemetery can be viewed through the prism of the larger issue of Singapore’s dwindling pockets of active public space – the accessible, shared spaces for citizens traditionally known as the Commons. (This does not refer to the pseudo public realms of shopping malls, theme parks and golf greens, which are highly regulated and monitored.)
Voices of dissent to recent development plans have been increasing in volume. This is partly due to the fact that social media has provided an effective platform for mobilising public sentiment and partly due to growing demand among Singaporeans for open engagement and participation in policy-making. Examples are the campaigns to save the Bukit Brown Cemetery, the Rail Corridor, the Old School at Mount Sophia and numerous other instances involving national issues of land scarcity and urban transport.
Case 1: Bukit Brown Cemetery (BBC)
There is no need to further espouse the historical value of the cemetery to the nation’s culture and identity and its importance for collective memories. These issues have been highlighted by the Heritage Society and Nature Society, as well as in myriad letters from the public. One only wonders whether this is enough to rouse the nation from its familiar apathy towards the government’s pro-developmental strategies that often throw the nation’s heritage under the bus.
The eventual development of the cemetery land may have been publicised in the 1991 Concept Plan but one should recognise that concept plans only serve as a guide. If present conditions make some developments unsuitable, it makes no sense to carry them through. Plans regarding the physical environment should not be cast in stone but should be a flexible incomplete urban framework that is able to adapt to unforeseen changes and accept new conceptual ideas in the contingent urban environment. Also, in the race to beat the 2013 deadline, the frenzy of calling for volunteers to document the graves has conveniently blanketed the fact that this decision was thrust upon us. Open active public discourse would facilitate a transparent participatory process that will build trust in governance.
The recent proposal to digitise the cemetery involves a dystopian concept where real urban experiences are simulated in hyper-reality. This future where history and urban space is a matter of a click of the mouse is a horrific thought. We really are in trouble if this becomes the preferred solution to our urban contestations. We support the letter to Today by Mr Liew Kai Khiun, ‘Golf courses, not history, should make way’. A golf course is about 80-100 hectares, easily the size of a BBC (86 hectares) or Singapore Botanic Gardens (74 hectares). It is a spatial injustice when so many golf courses take up a large amount of land while servicing only the privileged few.
Case 2: Vibrant Rail Corridor
In contrast, the government’s ready engagement of the public regarding the fate of the KTM railway land should be applauded. The various design schemes and ideas proffered in the consultative process provide a clear directive towards any potential development, that is, to keep the 26km tract as a public green to be defended from acquisition for commercial use. The Rail Corridor is an unprecedented historical opportunity to provide wonderful experiences to all income and age groups, whether as a leisure and recreation site or a venue for art and cultural activities. A vibrant people-oriented corridor will generate a strong and unique image of our physical identity. It can become an iconic place with a long and complex history that all Singaporeans can be proud of.
The Myths of Land Scarcity and Urban Transport
‘Land scarcity’ and ‘transport needs’ are often used as the rationale for development. We require more imaginative solutions to these needs, for the day will arrive when we will have finally run out of land. We need to stabilise our population between 5 and 5.5 million, minimise our carbon footprint and work towards achieving environmentally sustainable lifestyles. It is critical that we change this singular mindset of “destroy-and-rebuild” that the nation has perfected into a treacherous art form.
How many roads do we need to achieve maximum flow of vehicular traffic? Infinite! New and/or bigger roads would only induce demand for more roads, a common illusion with automobile-oriented cities. In an age concerned with the carbon footprint, this car obsession is a great obstacle to achieving a sustainable city. Public transport remains the most effective, affordable and reliable way to move people for long distances. Cycling and walking are important complementary alternatives that are seriously under-explored here. There must be a “reset” in urban design towards a people-oriented integrated transportation network capable of meeting the needs of the majority of citizens.
The Save Old School (SOS) campaign began as an effort to save an alma mater but really concerns the land use and development of the Mount Sophia site, an area that is in the process of being transformed into a high-end residential district. This is yet another contestation that foreshadows the insidious losing of our Commons. It is not about deciding which buildings are more deserving of conservation but whether any building should be torn down for redevelopment at all, versus say refurbishment and retrofitting. For BBC, it is not how the graves should be researched or archived, but whether the site should be preserved and improved as a memorable public space. These urban contestations form part of the fight to protect the Commons. One should not mistake these efforts as reserved only for sentimental conservation buffs and idealistic dreamers; they are matters that concern us all.
–
WILLIAM S.W. LIM is an independent writer and urban theorist.
FAITH WONG majors in architecture, and is currently Lim’s researcher.
WILLIAM S.W. LIM is an independent writer and urban theorist.
FAITH WONG majors in architecture, and is currently Lim’s researcher.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Spooky logic!
A video of New Immigrants visiting Bukit Brown. They wondered what is the logic to destroy an important site like Bukit Brown? Yes, the illogical destruction of Bukit Brown is really what is so spooky about the whole thing.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Another poser on Bukit Brown
This one letter from
http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120119-0000039/Another-poser-on-Bukit-Brown#.TxdvDQbNpw0.facebook
Another poser on Bukit Brown
Will work affect surface run-off and cause floods?
04:45 AM Jan 19, 2012
I read with great interest reports about how green cover and rooftop gardens could reduce the impact of surface run-offs that have caused severe flooding in the past two years.
The construction of new malls and condominiums in the vicinity of Orchard Road, Grange Road, River Valley Road and Upper Bukit Timah Road have removed significant green cover in these areas and might have been the cause of the flooding.
I am happy that the authorities are now considering the construction of detention ponds as well as other measures in order to alleviate the situation.
However, I am particularly concerned about the impact of planned development in Bukit Brown, which is a major green space on high ground.
Would the transformation of this area into concrete and steel surfaces lead to similar surface run-offs?
If this is so, we might see significant flooding in the surrounding lower areas such as Bukit Timah, Thomson and Toa Payoh, which would not only result in great inconvenience but also dampen property values.
As a long-time resident and property owner in this area, I hope the authorities would carefully study the environmental impact of such development and disclose the findings to residents in these areas.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Spaces for the Living – Bukit Brown Symposium (19 Nov 2011)
I have edited and uploaded the audio footage for the symposium so that people can listen to the presenters and hopefully continue the dialogue from the symposium. The info on the symposium is below and the audio clips (youtube) are below.
On 19 November there was a Symposium held at the Asian Civilisations Museum on Bukit Brown, with speakers discussing Bukit Brown from many different perspectives. Listening to their speeches which imagined alternative futures for Bukit Brown, I wanted to document it so that others who could not be at the symposium might also be able to imagine these alternatives for the many old heritage spots in Singapore that are all at risk of demolition, to be “sacrificed on the altar of development”.
This is a compilation of the information shared, as well as the salient suggestions and ideas raised at this Symposium.
Event Description:
Chew Boon Lay, Gan Eng Seng, Cheang Hong Lim, and Teh Ho Swee – these are names of our roads and MRT stations. They invest these places – and our everyday life – with a deep historical meaning.Our sense of who we are is continually tested by the tension between heritage and development. On 13 September, the Land Transport Authority announced that part of Bukit Brown Cemetery will be redeveloped to ease traffic congestion. This will affect 5,000 graves, both of well-known pioneers mentioned above and unsung immigrants who began the task of building Singapore in the 19th century.Bukit Brown highlights the genuine value of our shared history and its relevance to our future. The resting places of the dead underline our ties as members of a living community.We invite concerned members of the public to a discussion of the past, present and future of Bukit Brown. A panel of experts will speak on the rich cultural heritage of Bukit Brown and the need to conserve it.
Programme Speakers:
- Mr Raymond Goh, co-founder of Asia Paranormal Investigators and heritage guide
- Dr Irving Chan-Johnson, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS), who launched an online petition for the conservation of Bukit Brown
- Dr Hui Yew-Foong, Research Fellow, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, who led the documentation of Kwong Hou Sua Teochew Cemetery
- Dr Ho Hua Chew, Exco member of Nature Society (Singapore), who has been at the forefront of conservation projects like Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and the Green Corridor
- Mr Chew Kheng Chuan, great-grandson of Chew Boon Lay and co-author of Chew Boon Lay: A Family Traces its History
- Dr Lai Chee Kien (Chair), Department of Architecture, NUS
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