Source : Straits Times - 27 Feb 2009
I REFER to Mr Vincent Paul Carthigasu’s lament on Tuesday, ‘Where did you go, my Singapore of old?’, about the eradication of ‘almost everything’ in Singapore in the name of ‘change and development’. He believes ‘Singapore has lost much of its soul’ in its ongoing policy of redevelopment.
Allow me to go a little further in asserting that for many, Singapore has indeed lost its soul to ‘progress’ in recent years. To thousands of Singaporeans who have been uprooted from their condominiums and other strata-titled properties, many of which are freehold, their grief at losing their homes against their will via collective sales, and the consequent trauma of relocating to new homes, are unnerving.
Concomitant is the acrimony of court cases and blatant vandalism, which may threaten the ‘kampung spirit’ built up so arduously over the years.
Perhaps the authorities, during this lull in the property market, should revise the rules on future collective sales. One area they should look into is the physical condition of a development, regardless of its age. It is heart-rending to see an ‘old’ development in good condition demolished to make way for a new development.
Han Soon Juan
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