Following a brutal, dark past that involved pirates, mass executions, a prisoner of war camp and malaria, the island formerly known as Pulau Blakang Mati or ‘the island behind which lies death’ almost became an Esso oil refinery. Sentosa Island, the luxurious tourist destination just off Singapore almost never happened.
The government had already agreed with the oil company when certain individuals proposed the idea of turning it into a popular tourist destination similar to Disneyland. This is how it got to be the way it is today.
Sentosa is a 500-hectare island located about a mile off Singapore, shaped like the end of a tobacco pipe. It looks like a beach-lined Disneyland that is bordered by a forest. During the 19th century, certain experts believe that its name refers to an area where they buried their dead, while it was a regular hiding spot for pirates. Around this time, the island’s small population was also decimated by what was considered to be malaria. In 1942, they fought the Japanese from these forts and when the British lost, the fort was converted by the Japanese into a prisoner-of-war camp for British and Australian soldiers. The Japanese also executed thousands of Chinese men in mass executions on one of Sentosa’s beaches that was converted into the Serapong Golf Course. While the other forts fell into disrepair, one is presently used by hikers as a lookout spot while another, according to CNN, is popular with fans of ‘ruin porn’.
Singapore was granted independence in 1965. Its new government agreed to let Esso construct an oil refinery on the island, the plan being to expand it into a petrochemical tank farm. Some people were resistant to the idea of converting the lush island into a refinery. Alan Choe, a housing and development architect wrote a paper in 1967, that convinced authorities that the island could be converted into a tourist destination and needed to remain a ‘green lung’, and Choe’s inspiration of Disneyland was born.
The government agreed to move the refinery to another island and planned in 1969 to create a ‘South Sea Island Paradise’ in its place. The island was renamed Sentosa which means ‘peace and tranquillity’ in 1972, being the winning entry in a public competition that was held to rename the island.
The island unveiled its largest Merlion in 1995, which is half fish and half lion, which is a mythological guardian of the city. It is 121 feet high, and the cost to build it was $8 million. It was built very tall, so people could take a lift up to the top, and its eyes were made like radar lights, with its sound roaring and with smoke coming out.
The Singaporean government invested $3 billion in 2002 into the island to rejuvenate it, including an investment of $20 million to refurbish Fort Siloso and upgrade Palawan Beach. Sentosa Cove based at the tip of the island, which is one of the key developments of the islands was launched in 2003, and is where some of the richest citizens in Singapore live. An aerial link is provided by the Singapore Cable Car from Mount Faber on the main island of Singapore to the resort island of Sentosa across the Keppel Harbour. Even though people often assume that Sentosa is man-made, it is not so.
According to Time, Sentosa reached the peak of its evolution in 2010 when Resorts World Sentosa opened and this was the first Universal Studios theme park in Southeast Asia.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Singapore has one foot in fantasyland and one foot in a future in which the island embraces Southern California with a yacht marina and a gated community of luxury homes.
