Demolition should not be an option for 38 Oxley Road bungalow

SINGAPORE – As the Government works on converting 38 Oxley Road into a public space, it must address a delicate question: What should it do with a place that is clearly of historical importance but whose previous owner, Singapore’s first prime minister, wanted shielded from public glare to protect his family’s privacy?

The pre-war bungalow, which is on a site that was formally recognised as

a national monument on Dec 12

, was where Mr Lee Kuan Yew lived from the mid-1940s until his death in 2015. It played host to key discussions among Singapore’s founding leaders in the 1950s in the lead-up to the then colony’s transition towards self-government. Specifically, it was in the bungalow’s basement dining room that many of these discussions were held.