Relatives claim 1,000 graves at Bukit Brown

It is about a quarter of the total number slated for exhumation
Tessa Wong Straits Times 13 Jul 12;

ABOUT a quarter of the Bukit Brown graves that must go to make way for an expressway have been claimed in the last four months by relatives.

This works out to 1,005 graves, of which most will be exhumed by a contractor hired by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), said its spokesman yesterday. The Government will pay for this public exhumation.

Only 178 of the applications sent to the LTA between March - when the Government said it would go ahead with the highway - and the start of this month wanted a private exhumation, which allows relatives to pick the date and time.

So far, 93 have been exhumed privately, while the public exhumation will start in January. An LTA spokesman said that as a tender has yet to be called, it cannot say how much this will cost.

A total of 3,746 graves will be exhumed and relatives have until Dec 31 to claim the graves.

Dr Hui Yew-Foong, an anthropologist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, expects half of the graves to be claimed for a cemetery of Bukit Brown's age, which is about 90 years.

'The older the cemetery, the lower the claim rate, as ancestors are usually remembered for only two to three generations,' he said.

Unclaimed remains will be individually cremated, and the Government will keep them for three years. If still unclaimed, the ashes will be scattered at sea.

The decision to build a road through part of the historical burial ground to ease congestion on Lornie Road has sparked intense debate on preserving Singapore's heritage.

Though the exhumed graves form only a tiny proportion of the 100,000 graves at Bukit Brown, the entire 86 ha site is earmarked for a housing estate - a fact which, though not new, was raised again amid debate.

Various groups have swung into action to petition for preservation and to conduct tours of one of Singapore's last historical burial sites.

Dr Hui's team has documented about 90 per cent of the affected graves. They will also document the exhumations, he said.

Last month, his team documented the first private exhumation - that of Mr Ong Seah Say, who died in 1942.

Mr Ong was a member of the Singapore branch of Tongmenghui in the 1900s, the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance started by Dr Sun Yat Sen, who founded the Republic of China.

The Nature Society, with groups from the Singapore universities and the Government, is carrying out wildlife surveys. Society president Shawn Lum said he hopes the groups can eventually create a map with detailed information on, among other things, the wildlife clusters, and flora and fauna of the entire cemetery.

'As the Government intends to build a housing estate on the land eventually, this survey will help planners designate green spaces and decide which parts to preserve,' said Dr Lum.

Groups formed to preserve Bukit Brown's history say weekly public tours are packed.

And the number of private tours carried out for organisations has risen from an average of five a month before March to around eight a month now, said Ms Catherine Lim, co-founder of All Things Bukit Brown.

Students also ask the Singapore Heritage Society for help on Bukit Brown school projects.

Mr Woon Tien Wei of SOS Bukit Brown said his group is carrying out street surveys on people's sentiment about preserving the cemetery and collecting petition letters.

It plans to submit a report to the Government by year-end.

Academic Terence Chong, an executive committee member of the Heritage Society, is not surprised at the strong interest.

'There is an especially greater yearning among younger Singaporeans to get in touch with their roots because we became global and cosmopolitan so fast. So it is natural that there is a desire to look back into the past for authenticity and comfort,' he said.