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  Monday with the Editor: Has the National Library got

      to go?  (cont'd)

     Back to FrontPage of article

  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.

  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.  

  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?

  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?

  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.

  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. 

The End

Read Also: Look for the real value before the heritage is lost

 

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