<above pic: the spot where I want to hold my mum's funeral>
Dear The Real Singapore,
I want to share with you an experience that I had with West Coast Town council and the double standard that they clearly hold.
My mother passed away on the 6th of February and I had planned to hold her funeral wake at the void deck below my HDB block. In order to 'reserve' the void deck for this, I called the towncouncil's 24hour hotline and they informed me that all I had to do was go down to one of the West Coast TC branches to make payment for the use of the void deck for the funeral.
So the next day at 8:30am, I went down to the Jurong West branch to make payment but was told by the Malay lady on duty that it is actually illegal to hold any event at the void deck nearest my flat as there was a preschool nearby. She said that if we did hold the event there, we could get arrested.
She instead told us that we should hold the funeral at another venue about 6 blocks away. I was frustrated when I heard this as my mother had just passed away and I was being given conflicting information from the lady at the branch and the person I spoke to on the phone the night before.
In the end, after some arguing about the misinformation that I had received, the towncouncil manager organised for the nearby multi-purpose hall closer to my flat to be freed up to that we could hold my mother's wake there. Originally, there was some RC event on at the multi-purpose hall so we weren't able to do it there.
It was ok in the end and I didnt argue with the towncouncil any further as I was able to hold my mother's wake closer to my flat.
However, what really pissed me off is that earlier this week, there was a Malay wedding being held at the void deck that I was told I could not use in February. Why is there such a double standard?
I was told that it was illegal to hold ANY event at that particular void deck due to the presence of the pre-school and the lack of space, we were even told we could get arrested if we held any event there. So why is a Malay Wedding allowed to be held in the exact same void deck?
Why is a Taoist funeral wake rejected, and we were told that it is illegal while now, a Malay wedding seems to have no problem. I never saw anyone get arrested at the Malay wedding! Why did they tell us we could get arrested if we held the funeral there?
I am rather piss of by the double standard of the town council!
TRS reader