It is a place where children can run from one house to another and where one can take temporary shelter when caught in a sudden downpour.

Can you duplicate this openness and fraternity in large, multi-storey private housing estates like Gillman Heights and Bayshore Park where closed doors, grilled gates and windows with drawn curtains are the norm? Obviously not.

The kampung era is long gone. The world has moved on. An en bloc development allows old estates to be redeveloped and not degenerate into slums like in many other countries.

It is a better alternative than the compulsory acquisitions during those kampung days, when compensations were a pittance.

Also, one should move out of this kampung mentality and learn to make new friends while keeping the old.

This sense of kampung being eroded by en bloc sales is being overplayed by a dissenting few. The fact that the majority are willing to sell says much - that many are no longer enamoured of this kampung sentiment.

Lau Chee Kian