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Monday with
the Editor: Has the National Library got
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to go? (cont'd) |
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to FrontPage
of article

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True, the
National Library today is only 41 years old - too young an
age to be earmarked as a historical monument. But, if you
use our independence in 1965 as a yardstick against which
the age of the building is compared, then you will find that
the building has actually acquired an icon status as it is
an indelible part of our independence history. The building,
for one thing, was built by the Public Works Department just
after the People's Action Party (PAP) won the 1959
elections. So in fact it was one of our earliest state
projects after independence.
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The
National Library is "not of great architectural
merit" - to quote unnamed sources in agreement with URA
in its 1988 CCD Master Plan professional dialogue. But years
from now, generations of Singaporeans - the fruits of
Singapore's master plan to turn into a global city for the
arts - will thirst to relive the memories of those who have
sprinkled in their poems and literary works the fascination
of a red-brick building, once around, called the National
Library. But these generations of Singaporeans can only
relive such experiences as they read the books. They can't
come to Stamford Road and touch history.
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Is that
what we want to take away from posterity? Do we, in the name
of progress, decimate what we hold so dear to us?
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I, for
one, am glad I have the privilege to be around when the
National Theatre was around. Nobody can take away my
memories of the place. I am certainly glad that today I can
hop over to the National Library anytime and even when the
place is gone, I'll still have my precious memories. But,
how can I or the history books or literary works convey to
the future generations that passionate experience that we
today know as the National Library building?
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In case
you do not know it already - the new National Library will
be built in a vacant 11,352 sq m site in Victoria Street,
next to the Bras Basah Complex. In the middle of the site, a
street used to run parallel to Bain Street all the way from
the Purvis Street/North Bridge Road junction, opening into
Victoria Street just opposite St Joseph's Church. Two rows
of pre-war shophouses used to line the street in the
pre-1980's before they too were demolished. I should know -
I was born in that street named Holloway
Lane at No. 10. It hurts to know that my birthplace is
no longer standing upright; it hurts even more to know that
the road where the building I was born in stood has
disappeared too. But, then that is the price of progress.
That my birthplace along with the street where it stood is
gone is only a small matter compared to the soon-to-happen
disappearance into history of an icon of post-Independence
Singapore.
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This
red-brick building belongs to all Singaporeans - first
generation and every generation thereafter. Whatever
memories it holds in the first generation of Singaporeans
will pass on to other generations of Singaporeans through
the literary works of the first generation where it is
mentioned in patches here and there. But, why can't this
generation of Singaporeans also pass on the brick-and-mortar
building? It is a question I can't answer - but we all have
a collective responsibility in having to answer to the
future generations long after the building is gone. Why?
Because we have stood by and let the whole thing happen through
our nonchalance.
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The End
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Read Also: Look
for the real value before the heritage is lost
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