Sinkies evicted to make way for FT

Families bid farewell to College Green
Tenants vacate Dunearn Road estate to make way for NUS students
By Debbie Yong

The Yaps will say goodbye to their College Green home today. The family of five, and another six remaining families, have to vacate the estate off Dunearn Road by the end of this month to make way for new tenants. Petitions by residents to stay on, and meetings with the relevant authorities over the past year, have been unsuccessful.

The 35,000 sq m estate contains 63 pre-war terrace homes which are owned by the Singapore Land Authority and managed by United Premas. Come July, they will be leased to the National University of Singapore.

The units will be converted into hostels for about 240 overseas graduate students of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

'It's a great place for children to grow up in. They can roam about freely in nature, as children should,' said market researcher Yap Miew Leng, 32, who has lived there for two years.

About 60 per cent of the estate's residents are Singaporeans, while the rest come from countries such as Australia, the United States and Japan.

...Each unit will house about four students, according to a spokesman for the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

The units, sports facilities and multi-purpose hall will be refurbished at an estimated cost of more than $3.5 million.

It is no longer just about building a hostel for foreign workers in the middle of a housing estate; That's Serangoon Gardens and that's in the past.

Now, it is simply evicting Singaporeans from their home to make way for foreigners!

No, I correct myself. It's not that simple. After evicting the Singaporeans, we still have to spend a few millions to refurbush the place, so that it is fit for our esteemed FT to live!

Heh Heh Heh! I wonder when you peasants are going to wake up.