Ask any Singaporean what a Cenotaph is and you’d probably get replies like, “Isn’t that some kind of Middle Eastern delicacy?” Or try hopping into a cab and say, “Uncle, Dalhousie Obelisk please!” without having the cab driver raise an eyebrow.


I can’t decide for myself if our lack of awareness of the historical landmarks in our country is something the nation should lament about. Personally, I didn’t know they existed prior to this particular activity either. Having been to The Arts House countless times not once did I notice the little statue of a bronze elephant flanked to its side, a majestic gift from King Chulalongkorn. Is it purely ignorance on our part, too caught up in our little rat race to spare some time and thought on our nation’s history? What difference does it make anyway to the progress of our country currently facing real ‘enemies’ of current times? Lim Bo Seng did his part, now we’re doing ours right? (Then perhaps we should each have a memorial erected in our name.)


Singapore is certainly putting in real effort to conserve as much it can of what little things we have left from our rich history. These are not just buildings from the old times. These are buildings that remind us that no matter how young we think we are, we do have a history that is worth telling and therefore should be proud of. In the midst of anti-colonial sentiments around the period before and after the Second World War, most if not all of our neighbours in the Southeast Asian region were keen in ousting whatever traces left of the colonial presence in our land. European road names were changed and portraits and statues of significant men of the time were banished into a place where the sun doesn’t shine. But Singapore, always being the odd one out, polished the remnants of that chunk of history and acknowledged the colonial times as the focal point of our history. Perhaps because we don’t have anything else worth retelling. Perhaps, the bane of our modern existence had only began when Raffles landed at the mouth of our river, a story told and retold umpteenth times, and decided to make us British. He plucked us from obscurity and saved us from the impending doom that is barbarism. Raffles, our saviour.


Clearly, our modern history consists of a civilisation that the British trading company East India Company had first formed in 1819. For the largest part of our past, there is no denying of the contributions these Englishmen had made in building Singapore into what it is today. What better way is there to commemorate the deeds of these men than to preserve the evidences that bear and reflect their inevitable existence on our land. Thanks to the massive effort of the government in preserving these great historical testimonies and converting them into commercial buildings, endless generations of Singaporeans in years to come would be continuously reminded of the baby years we had growing up under the guidance and tutelage of our guardian Britain. One look at the shabby grey stones and the delicate and intricate detailing of the Old Supreme Court juxtaposed against the spanking new one, shining in its marble glory, one could easily infer that the contributions made by these Englishmen were highly significant to our formation. They did not just come to conquer us for the benefit of their own expansion and supremacy (although partly the reason). They came and ensured that they delivered their promise of releasing us from primitiveness and feeding us with the joys of civilisation according to their definition and standard. They did not just build buildings, they built buildings that serve us significantly in areas that matter most such as commerce, governance and lifestyle.


While the government seems to have done their part in conserving and retaining what is necessary to our historical heritage, the effect on Singaporeans appear minimal. We are known to be some of the world’s most hectic people always pursuing material succession for the sake of our own future. In the midst of being forward looking, we rarely spend enough time to stop and admire the people and things that they have done to bring us here in the first place. Singaporeans are less than concerned with what history has given us in the past and more interested in what we can achieve in the future. Other than the beauty the architecture of the colonial buildings withhold and the intricate details of the popular Palladian style of the 19th Century, to most Singaporeans they are simply remnants of the past that still manage to survive for our use well into the 21st Century. The Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall is a good example of the little appreciation that we pay to the conservation of our historical heritage. The building still serves the same purpose it did when it was first built in the 1800s but other than that fact, little else is known about it and people continue to use it like any other building in the country.


The conservation of these colonial buildings does raise certain questions about what Singapore wish to portray about our historical link with Britain. Noticeably, when one mentions conservations and preservations, they seem to apply only to buildings that have been of use since the colonial period but not any other old buildings built locally. For example, while the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall are well preserved, another performing arts venue, the Kallang Theatre, does not receive the same treatment and respect even though it had similarly seen through the tough growing up years of the country. Its historical significance is not considered to be relevant enough to the country for whatever reason and suffers the fate of being torn down even though some people like myself share personal attachment to it as it is one of the most important buildings that had seen through the true tough years of growth in the local performing arts scene upon achieving independence. Isn’t the toughest period of our life the time when independence was thrown at us without proper support in administration and resources? So shouldn’t we commemorate the people and testimonies of that time instead of the Englishmen of the early days?

posted by Muse

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