To the Marsiling-Yew Tee Town Council
I would like highlight an incident that happened on 9th April 2018 around 8.30am, regarding the booking for my grandfather’s funeral wake.
My father went to your town council to make a booking for my grandfather’s funeral wake. However, we were told that despite the fact that my grandfather stayed at block 3 Marsiling Road for so many years, we were not allowed to book there as none of the family members stayed at the same block . My father was also instructed to go around and asked people staying in that block to help us make the booking.
Secondly, he was told that the multi-purpose hall next to the block cannot be used for funeral wakes and no reason was given, just a straight ‘No’ from the officer.
Under Blk 3, there were so many alternate rubbish chutes and the smell was really bad. The multi-purpose Hall was just next to the block and more importantly, away from the rubbish chutes.
Thirdly, the officer claimed that Blk 3 Marsiling Road was not under the Marsiling-Yew Tee Town council jurisdiction and told my father to go to another town council to book. When my father asked for more information on which town council, the officer conveniently told him to search the internet. By then, my father was really upset and tired. He told the officer that he does not know how to access the internet. With much unwillingness, the officer then checked and said it is under Admiralty town council and asked my father to go there. And all this while, the funeral services people were waiting down the block for approval to do the set up.
When my father finally reached Admiralty town council, he was slapped with another rejection! The officer told him that Blk 3 is not under their jurisdiction, and was puzzled as to why my father was directed there.
I would like to commend the officer at the admiralty town council who attended to my dad for being very understanding, knowing he was grieving, helped him call the Marsiling- Yew Tew town council, and talked to the officer there and even helped to book the funeral for him even though it is not under their jurisdiction.
I do not understand why family members are not allowed to book for the funeral wake under the block where the deceased stayed in. This is where the deceased hold their memories the most with their neighbors and friends, a place dear to them.
I also do not understand why the multi-purpose hall could not be used for funeral wakes. During the 3 days of wake, we had to endure the stench of the rubbish chute with the guests, with them covering their noses all the time, and we family members had to spray water at the rubbish chute area to clear the smell constantly.
To make matters worse, on the 2nd night of the wake, the rubbish chute was being cleared at 7:30pm, and that was when the number of guests at the wake was the greatest. The stench was so unbearable that we felt so sorry for the guests and embarrassed too. In what way is this a dignified funeral for the deceased? I still can’t believe that one could not hold a decent funeral in Singapore to protect the dignity the deceased!
Lastly, Marsiling area is an old estate with lots of elderlies who do not know how to use the computer, is the town council also going to push them around like fools and leave them to look for information on their own? Ridiculously the town council officers themselves are unclear of the areas under their jurisdiction, yet they demand that the members of the public to have the knowledge?
During this period our family is grieving and we have so many to things to handle, yet we have to deal with such unnecessary inconvenience and unprofessional attitude. This is totally disappointing and unacceptable. I hope this feedback will serve as a wake up reminder to Marsiling-Yew Tee town council that their purpose is to help the residents, especially the grieving ones, to run matters through more smoothly, and not just work according to their own convenience.
I sincerely hope that in future, no one will have to encounter this type of frustrating experience that my father had gone through.