As of 17 July 2017 an expected 80,000 graves will be exhumed at Choa Chu Kang Cemetery in order to expand Tengah Air Base. While some call the joint statement made by the Ministry of National Development (MND), National Environment Agency (NEA) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) on Tuesday a surprise, this is actually phase five of the Chua Chu Kang cemetery exhumation.
According to NEA’s official website, phase one of the exhumation has actually ended in September 2009 with all unclaimed ashes scattered in the sea. Some of the graves to be exhumed were buried are as recent as only three years ago, with families now facing the need to dig up and rebury their loved ones into a shared burial plot with another deceased relative.
Chua Chu Kang MP Yee Chia Hsing was quoted as saying, “That is why those who accept it will have their loved ones cremated, while those who bury their relatives know full well it cannot be for forever.”
Does this mean that in the future Singaporeans should only consider cremation and not burial? It seems to be the smarter choice as the years tick by with almost all of Singapore’s cemeteries having faced exhumation over the years for further expansion. Chua Chu Kang Cemetery is Singapore’s largest and last remaining active cemetery where families can bury their loved ones (for only a maximum of 15 years per plot).
With an ever increasing population and the scarcity of land it comes to no surprise that most of Singapore has been a cemetery at one point or another. Our prime shopping district Orchard was once upon a time part of cemetery grounds. Ngee Ann City, big and gleaming with its luxury shops, marks what used to be the largest teochew cemetery in Singapore years back. Activists argue that cemeteries hold heritage and a link with our past especially in the fast urbanizing Singapore. One must consider however, that the tradition of grave visitations has fast been dying out. If the point of a cemetery is to give loved ones a place to visit the deceased, but rarely do people go for such visitations anymore, then does that not make cemeteries a waste of space in our land scarce Singapore?
A growing number of families contacted about the exhumation of the graves are not even interested in retrieving the remains of ancestors from many generations ago. The anguish of loss does not plague them and with the loss of the tradition for grave visitations, not many feel much of a connection with the ancestors from many generations long past. Other than those bound by religious text perhaps it is time for people to simply come to accept that cremation is the logical choice when our land is so scarce that graves have to be dug up for a school to be built.
According to reports a growing number of families contacted about the exhumation of the graves are not even interested in retrieving the remains of ancestors from many generations ago. The anguish of loss does not plague them and with the loss of the tradition for grave visitations, not many feel much of a connection with the ancestors from many generations long past. Other than those bound by religious text perhaps it is time for people to simply come to accept that cremation is the logical choice when our land is so scarce that graves have to be dug up for a school to be built.