SINGAPORE – The site of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s house at 38 Oxley Road could be preserved as a national monument, after the National Heritage Board (NHB) announced on Oct 24 that it will assess if the site “has national historical, heritage and architectural significance as to be worthy of preservation”.

       This kick-starts the process for the site’s potential gazetting as a national monument – a legal designation which restricts the changes that can be made to it and makes provisions for its maintenance.

       The site contains the late Mr Lee’s one-storey pre-war bungalow, which he lived in from the mid-1940s until his death in 2015.

       Its current owner, Mr Lee Hsien Yang, has applied for permission to demolish the house – an application that the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) deferred evaluating as NHB plans to study the site.

       The Straits Times looks at how a site is gazetted, what the process is like and what it means for the fate of the house at 38 Oxley Road.

       As part of an established process for potential national monuments, sites are researched by the NHB, and its findings are presented to the Preservation of Sites and Monuments (PSM) advisory board – comprising experts from various sectors – for its assessment.

       NHB previously conducted thorough research on 38 Oxley Road for a 2018 ministerial committee report, which set out recommendations on what should be done with the house after Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s death.

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       It said the PSM advisory board will use this report to “deliberate on the technical merits of the site’s national, historical and architectural significance, before putting up its assessment to NHB”.

       The PSM is a division under NHB responsible for identifying, researching and recommending nationally significant sites or structures for preservation as national monuments. It also advises the Government on matters relating to national monuments.

       Members of the PSM advisory board are appointed to three-year terms, which can be renewed.

       NHB said public officers on the advisory board will recuse themselves from the assessment process, to ensure the board provides independent assessment of the suitability of 38 Oxley Road for preservation.

       Dr Kevin Tan, president of the International Council on Monuments and Sites Singapore, said the whole process was precipitated by Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s application to URA for a permit to demolish the house.

       “If URA did not send the case over to PSM, they would only have two options – to allow demolition or not to allow demolition,” he said.

       If URA allows the demolition, then the whole building goes, added Dr Tan, an adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore and a constitutional and administrative law expert. “There is no other option to save any particular part of the building or otherwise.”

       Heritage experts have previously said that allowing NHB to study the site is a chance for due process to be carried out, notwithstanding the wishes of its owner.

       A 31-page report by NHB for the 2018 ministerial committee found that the house has historical and architectural value.

       The report states that the individuals who gathered in 38 Oxley Road became key players in the politics of that era, noting that the house has been described as “where modern Singapore’s destiny was made”.

       Among them were the nascent People’s Action Party’s (PAP) founding chairman Toh Chin Chye and Singapore’s first foreign minister S. Rajaratnam. The house was also the PAP’s de-facto headquarters when it won its first election in 1959.

       Of particular significance is the basement dining room, where many of these meetings were held. “No. 38 Oxley Road was the only meeting place for discussions that led to PAP’s formation in 1954,” the report states.

       The report also details the architectural significance of the house as a pre-war bungalow mixing British, local and other Asian architectural features. It is also one of a few remaining houses built in this style that have been preserved.

       The ministerial committee led by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean set out options for the building and for the 38 Oxley Road site: retaining the entire building, retaining only the basement dining room or demolishing the building fully for redevelopment – either for residential use or for alternative uses like a park or heritage centre.

       The report also concluded that while Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s preference was for the building to be demolished, he was prepared to accept options other than demolition. This was provided suitable arrangements were made to protect the family’s privacy and ensure the building was refurbished and kept in a habitable state.

       National monuments are “an integral part of Singapore’s built heritage” and given the highest level of protection in Singapore, NHB’s website says.

       It is an offence to “deface, damage or otherwise interfere with” sites or buildings that are designated as proposed national monuments, or gazetted as such.

       The owner of a property that is a national monument has to take all reasonable measures to ensure it is properly maintained at all times in accordance with NHB-issued guidelines, said Singapore Management University Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan.

       Monuments are each issued a set of preservation guidelines that spell out exact features of the property which must be preserved. A property owner can apply for government grants to maintain a national monument.

       Laws that govern how monuments should be preserved and protected are set out in the Preservation of Monuments Act 2009.

       NHB said the PSM advisory board’s study is expected to take several weeks.

       Thereafter, NHB – having considered the advisory board’s assessment – will submit a recommendation to the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth on whether 38 Oxley Road should be a national monument.

       If the minister decides the site is worthy of preservation, the NHB will first issue a written notice of intention to its owner. This will make 38 Oxley Road a proposed national monument.

       Proposed national monuments have the same legal protections as gazetted national monuments.

       The notice of intention will include a “reasonable period” for the owner of the site to submit their objections, if any.

       After the notice is served, NHB will publish information on the proposed national monument on its Roots.gov.sg heritage resource portal.

       Should the minister decide to gazette the site as a national monument, he will make a preservation order, which is required by law to be published.

       NHB said that if 38 Oxley Road is made a national monument, “all options for the site will continue to remain open to the current and future governments, because a preservation order can be amended or revoked as the government of the day considers appropriate”.

       Immediate demolition will rule out a proper and full consideration of the above options, NHB added.

       Yes. In addition, the Preservation of Monuments Act has a provision specifically for dwelling houses, like 38 Oxley Road.

       The law states that if a preservation order has been made for a privately owned home “that appears to the (National Heritage) Board to be occupied as a dwelling house”, the Government has one year from the date of the order to acquire the property under the Land Acquisition Act. If it is not acquired, the order will cease – meaning the home’s monument status will no longer be valid.

       The Straits Times has asked NHB if – in the event that a preservation order is made for 38 Oxley Road – the order will lapse after a year if the Government does not acquire the property.

       Dr Kevin Tan said this provision is intended to protect owners of homes “from the onerous cost of preserving and maintaining a national monument”.

       Should a preservation order be made for 38 Oxley Road, he said, its owner can appeal only to the minister, whose decision is final.

       “If the appeal fails, the state must acquire the property under the Land Acquisition Act 1966 within 12 months, failing which the order will lapse,” he added.

       There is no legal requirement that a monument must be preserved in its entirety, meaning that it is an option for a part or parts of 38 Oxley Road to be preserved, said Prof Eugene Tan.

       This would be in line with the ministerial committee’s option of retaining the basement dining room and tearing down the rest of the property.

       Prof Tan added: “In this case, the basement dining room, if it be separated from the rest of the house without affecting its integrity, can be preserved in its own right.”

       He added that as Mr Lee Hsien Yang has applied to demolish the house, preserving the basement dining room at another site – for instance, at the upcoming Founders’ Memorial – could be another way forward.

       Two other former homes are national monuments – the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, and the House of Tan Yeok Nee. However, neither functioned as a home at the point at which it was gazetted.

       Built in 1902, the former Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Villa was used as a memorial hall by the then Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce from 1940, after it was donated to the chamber. It was in the villa that Chinese revolutionary leader Sun planned three uprisings.

       The villa was gazetted as a national monument in 1994, and has since 2009 been managed by the NHB, under appointment by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

       The House of Tan Yeok Nee, completed in 1885, was built by the Teochew businessman and subsequently acquired by the British colonial administration after Tan’s family vacated it.

       When it was gazetted in 1974, the house was the headquarters of the Salvation Army.