Singapore Heritage Society’s position

The Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) understands the need to provide public housing and relieve traffic congestion. However, it does not believe that enough effort has been invested in the search for a solution that would also allow Singaporeans to hold on to this valuable piece of our history. Ultimately, the Singapore Heritage Society believes that the decision we as a society make about the future of Bukit Brown will reflect the value we place on our roots, our collective identity and the sense of belonging we wish to inculcate in future generations of an increasingly globalised Singapore.

In his National Day Rally 2011 speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had said:

“We are Singaporeans together on a small island. We are anchored by our emotional links with family and friends and by our shared sense of our history and our common destiny. We are not just here, materialised out of nowhere, appeared out of a Transformers movie maybe. We came here somewhere, sometime there was a history to it and it is crucial to remember where we came from, how we got here.”

The Singapore Heritage Society believes that a thorough public consultation process regarding the future of Bukit Brown Cemetery is valuable to the nation-building project outlined by PM Lee in his National Day Rally speech. Crucially, such a consultation should take as a starting point the fundamental question of whether a road through Bukit Brown Cemetery is needed in the first place. It would demonstrate the Government’s sincerity in forging the shared sense of history and destiny the Prime Minister has correctly pointed out that all Singaporeans should treasure.

The SHS position paper is available for download here. For more, click here.

For more on SHS and how to join as a member, visit here