NEO CHAI CHIN Today Online 26 May 15;
SINGAPORE — The recent clearance of items from State land near Tanglin Halt by the authorities has upset some community activists, who have been trying to revive its use for farming and as a hangout spot.
The plot of land, about the size of a basketball court, is near to the vacated Block 76 and a disused carpark along Commonwealth Drive.
Ten to 20 years ago, the spot — marked by a bamboo grove — became a hangout for drivers of trucks and lorries as the carpark allowed for heavy-vehicle parking, according to residents and Mr Kwek Li Yong, president of civic group My Community. A Taoist shrine was later set up, complete with statues of deities and floor tiles, but the unauthorised shrine was relocated in 2011 by the Singapore Land Authority, together with the then-Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports, to the Taoist Federation in accordance with rituals, an SLA spokesperson said. The removal was necessary to prevent further unauthorised use of State land, the spokesperson added.
Last month, the SLA put up a notice alerting users of the land of unlawful trespass via the placing of chairs, tables, plants and other items there, and requested the removal of items by April 23. Some items were then removed but it is unclear who did it. An informal community group, which has set up a Facebook page called Tree Shrine Sessions at Tanglin Halt, then organised sessions to clear litter from the area and has been encouraging the nearby community to return to the space, said the group’s spokesman Joseph Nair, who lives at Stirling Road.
On Saturday (May 23), they found that the remaining items in the area, as well as the crown of the bamboo grove, had been removed by the authorities. “We were shocked at the brutality when they cut the tree. It was a small beautiful space, the small community that enjoyed the area shouldn’t need to abandon it just because SLA said so,” said Mr Nair.
When contacted, the SLA said it had put up advisories in the area since April 9 informing parties to remove the items by April 23. “As we did not receive any call or feedback then, we proceeded to clear the items on 22 May 2015 as there were potential mosquito breeding concerns from the rubbish and the discarded containers,” said the spokesperson.
Its latest notice put up last Thursday informs parties to remove cultivation in the area by June 4. “Cultivation of land should be done in designated areas in order not to cause disamenity to others,” the spokesperson said.
The SLA also said it received a request from one of the community activists, Ms Lucy Davis, on Saturday for the space to be regenerated as an informal hangout. It will be working with the area’s grassroots advisor, Dr Chia Shi-Lu, to look into Ms Davis’ feedback and “explore a suitable arrangement for the community to continue using the site”.
A Commonwealth Drive resident who only wanted to be known as Mr Tan, 72, told TODAY he has previously tried to grow sugarcane, papaya and banana on the land but found the plants chopped away a few months ago. Mr Tan, who passes the site frequently for walks along the Rail Corridor, would also take fruits to the area to feed squirrels. Asked about the removal of items and the crown of the bamboo grove, he felt it was a pity but acknowledged that the land belonged to the State. “We have no demands, we are just retirees and are not very sure about the rules,” he said.
The group, which has about five active members, want to help Mr Tan and his friend to seek permission for a community farm in the area. They were also planning to submit a proposal for the site, in response to the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s recent call for creative ideas for forgotten public spaces. The group hopes for the bamboo grove to be allowed to regenerate, Mr Nair said.
Ms Davis said the Taoist shrine has come up often in interviews with shopkeepers in the community carried out by her students at the Nanyang Technological University, where she is an assistant professor. Such shrines are unique to the syncretic culture of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, she said.
She added that the active users of the bamboo grove have kept the place clean and tidy, and the litter come from people who use the adjacent pathway to get to their workplaces and those who picnic there on weekends.
However, My Community’s Mr Kwek, whose group has extensively documented the heritage of Queenstown, felt the site “may not be representative of the Tanglin Halt community”. Users of the site would burn incense or firewood and did not have a good relationship with residents, he said. “Nonetheless, community spaces are constantly altered or removed in fast-developing neighbourhoods like Tanglin Halt. The authorities should consider providing alternative space in other parts of the estate for these (heavy-vehicle) drivers and elderly residents to gather,” he said.
The area around the site will soon see further changes, with Blocks 74 to 80 to be torn down under the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme. New homes will be built and demolition works are expected to start later this year, said the Housing and Development Board.
Tanglin Halt makeshift garden set to be cleared
Melody Zaccheus The Straits Times AsiaOne 27 May 15;
Residents said the overhang of a large bamboo tree that they often rest under, near Block 76, Commonwealth Drive, some sugarcane plants, as well as banana, papaya and mango trees that they cultivated, some in the 1990s, were severely pruned back last Friday by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA).
State Lands Encroachment advisories were placed across the site on April 9 and May 21, stating that it is "an offence to unlawfully trespass" on state land by depositing items including refuse there.
An SLA spokesman said an April 23 deadline for residents to remove their personal items, such as furniture, from the site came and went, so the authority proceeded last Friday to clear the items, which it said posed as potential mosquito breeding sites.
A second deadline, looming on June 4, requires them to remove personally cultivated plants from the site.
Retired car repairman Tan Nam Siong, 72, one of about five "regulars" who are there nearly every day, said he was sad to lose the hangout.
"We come here to get out of the house and have some fresh air. It is our idea of happy hour," he said in Mandarin.
Residents said the space started out as an informal rest stop for drivers of heavy-duty vehicles who parked at the open-space carpark next to the block. It also drew taxi drivers on a break.
Over time, a tree shrine housing several deities sprang up.
That block and six others around it have gradually been vacated since 2013 under the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme.
Tanglin Halt as a whole will eventually be redeveloped under the scheme.
A group of five artists, including photographer Joseph Nair, 29, and visual artist Lucy Davis, 45, came together after the first notice was posted last month, in the hope of preventing the site's destruction.
They started a Facebook community page, Tree Shrine Sessions at Tanglin Halt, and made plans to clean up the site and propose it as an attraction and rest stop along the Rail Corridor, which runs close to it.
Ms Davis, who is a Tanglin Halt resident, said: "The garden is part of the area's heritage, culture and character and we were hoping to develop it into an inter-generational shared space, where the young can interact with the old."
The group has arranged to meet Dr Chia Shi-Lu, an MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, on June 4.
The SLA spokesman said the authority had received Ms Davis' request for the space to be "regenerated" into an informal hangout and will work with Dr Chia "to look into her feedback and to explore a suitable arrangement for the community to continue using the site".
