SINGAPORE – The site of key discussions between Singapore’s founding leaders at 38 Oxley Road has been gazetted as a national monument, said the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and National Heritage Board on Dec 12.
The gazette takes effect on Dec 13.
The site houses a one-storey pre-war bungalow which was founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s family home, where he lived in from the mid-1940s until his death in 2015.
It was in the bungalow’s basement dining room that the founding members of the People’s Action Party began meeting in the 1950s to consider the feasibility of forming a political party.
Besides Mr Lee, these individuals – of whom many went on to be coming key leaders of independent Singapore in the 1960s – included Dr Goh Keng Swee, Dr Toh Chin Chye, Mr S. Rajaratnam, and Mr K. M. Byrne.
This is the latest update following the National Heritage Board (NHB)’s Nov 3 announcement that the Government intends to gazette the site to preserve it as a national monument, after an advisory board assessed that it has historic significance and national importance.
From that date, the site’s owner – Mr Lee’s younger son Mr Lee Hsien Yang – had two weeks, or until Nov 17, to submit any objections.
An NHB spokesperson said on Nov 17 that the agency had received written objections from Mr Lee Hsien Yang, who had also posted his objections on Facebook on the same day.
In his objections, Mr Lee said 38 Oxley Road “will be a monument to the PAP’s dishonour of Lee Kuan Yew”, citing his father’s wish for the home to be demolished.
Under the law, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo would consider all objections, but could still decide to make a preservation order on the site thereafter.
Mr Neo told Parliament on Nov 6 that if the site is preserved as a national monument, all options will be considered, including those proposed by a ministerial committee on 38 Oxley Road in 2018.
The committee, led by then Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, had set out three suggestions for 38 Oxley Road site and the bungalow: retain the entire building, retain only the basement dining room or demolish the bungalow fully for redevelopment – either for residential use or for alternative uses like a park or heritage centre.
Mr Neo said the site needs to be retained because of its historical significance, adding that it bore witness to pivotal events in the 1950s that marked Singapore’s transition from a colony to an independent nation.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction
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