Bukit Brown: Don't get carried away by biodiversity

Straits Times Forum 31 Mar 12;

I HOPE Dr Ho Hua Chew of the Nature Society (Singapore) was speaking for himself and his fellow members, and not the public at large ('Consider the impact on biodiversity, says Nature Society'; Thursday).

Even a nature-lover like me finds it hard to swallow Dr Ho's sentiments, crying out against the threat to Bukit Brown's biodiversity posed by plans to develop it.

We should not let romance with biodiversity cloud rational thinking about competing land use in Singapore, which has a total land area of only 778 sq km and a population of more than five million.

Transport and housing for the living should take precedence over conserving valuable flora and fauna - and even cherished cemeteries. For instance, the KK Women's and Children's Hospital now sits on what was once an old cemetery, because the sick and living deserve a place more than the dead.

My late mother was buried at Bidadari Cemetery in 1954, and when the HDB wanted the land, I was asked to remove her ashes to a little niche at the Choa Chu Kang Columbarium.

I knew her 'bungalow' at Bidadari had to make way for the living, and I willingly supported the HDB's decision despite the personal pain and my filial piety.

To prevent more pressure on land use for future generations, I have told my children to bury me at sea after I pass on.

People, like all animals, form cooperative groups to compete for limited resources. The natural tendency of any population is to surge, although this is kept in check by limited food supply.

The bottom line is that while we may cherish historic cemeteries and biodiversity, we should spare a thought for the burgeoning population competing fiercely for the limited land that we have been blessed with.

Heng Cho Choon

Consider cheaper alternative to Bukit Brown road
Straits Times 31 Mar 12;

I AGREE with Mr Lee Chiu San ('Cheaper way to solve congestion in Adam, Lornie roads'; Thursday) that widening existing peak-hour chokepoints along Adam and Lornie roads, rather than constructing a highway through Bukit Brown to the Pan-Island Expressway, is a cheaper and better alternative to solving congestion.

To conservationists, I say it is a matter of time before the dead have to give way to the living. Bishan is a good example.

Graves of historical value can be relocated when it is time to free up prime land.

Tan Peng Boon

Let's live and let die, please...
Straits Times 31 Mar 12;

THE question civil society groups must consider is: Who would want to visit the graves at Bukit Brown Cemetery ('Navigating a new terrain of engagement'; yesterday). How many would do so weekly, or even monthly?

The truth is that the area gives many Singaporeans the spooks; it is eerie, unlike MacRitchie Reservoir.

Young couples need homes, but a minority like the civil society groups want to stop the eventual development of Bukit Brown into a housing zone.

In fact, the Land Transport Authority should scrap the plan to build a bridge across Bukit Brown; taxpayers' money should be used for more critical needs.

The Government should not cave in to the minority simply because they are vocal. I am certain that if it comes to a referendum or vote, an overwhelming majority of citizens would prefer the Government's plan for the area.

The living should come first, not the dead.

Daniel Chia

Preserving heritage is important
Straits Times Forum 3 Apr 12;

MR HENG Cho Choon argues that cemeteries have been cleared before, so why not Bukit Brown ('Don't get carried away by biodiversity'; last Saturday)? He also says preservation in the name of biodiversity is illogical, and that the needs of the living override those of the dead.

But just because KK Women's and Children's Hospital and Bishan New Town sit on cemeteries does not mean that Bukit Brown should go that way too. If this argument were sound, then the shophouses of Chinatown and Little India should be razed for multistorey flats or office buildings.

But we realised that historicity itself and heritage trumped development.

We could have built another hotel on the sites of the old St Joseph's Institution or the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus in Victoria Street. Yet the buildings are still there simply because they are important in their own right and Singapore is the better for it.

Bukit Brown is not an argument about the needs of the living, but one about nationhood within a short span of 200 years. Important people and history are buried there. Their stories need to be kept alive in a tangible form, like the Cenotaph or the Lim Bo Seng Memorial. A website will never do.

All efforts at a national education programme will always be lacking without a collective memory of our forebears with the last resounding phrase, say, in the year 2112: 'And his grave is still there to this day!'

Michael Lo