SINGAPORE: In Parliament on Thursday (Nov 6), Appearing Minister for Tradition, Group and Youth David Neo answered questions raised concerning the preservation of 38 Oxley Street, together with these regarding the way it differs from the Founders’ Memorial.
Mr Neo, a first-term Parliamentarian, mentioned in a Ministerial Assertion that the memorial doesn’t share “the identical sense of place” as 38 Oxley Street.
On Monday (Nov 3), it was introduced that the house of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew could be preserved as a nationwide monument, a transfer that was criticised by the late Prime Minister’s youthful son, Lee Hsien Yang, who identified that the Founders Memorial “is already an enormous and costly monument.”
Connection to the previous
Mr Neo mentioned on Thursday, “Historic websites are preserved as a result of they supply us with an genuine connection to the essential occasions and the individuals of the previous,” and added that they provide Singaporeans the “alternative to face on the identical grounds and be in the exact same house the place pivotal occasions in nationwide historical past befell, and we’re strolling in the identical footsteps of those that got here earlier than us.”
Citing such precedents as the previous Metropolis Corridor and Kandang Kerbau Hospital, the Appearing Minister added that doing this aids future generations of Singaporeans in having a way of connection to essential moments in historical past.
He additionally said that the monument at Lee Kuan Yew’s house would give attention to the historic occasions that occurred there, reasonably than the private lives of the Lee household.
He emphasised the “pivotal historic occasions that occurred there, one which introduced us from colonial to self-rule, to independence, reasonably than the lives of these individuals who lived there.”
As a result of the Founders’ Memorial is a reconstructed website, it doesn’t provide precisely the identical expertise.
“This sense of place, this being in the identical house as those that got here earlier than us, isn’t one thing that may be captured by replication at one other website. The Founders’ Memorial is a website that’s reconstructed. It doesn’t share that very same sense of place, that very same place that housed all of the essential occasions,” mentioned Mr Neo.
Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Eileen Chong (Employees’ Get together) requested what extra heritage worth the monument at 38 Oxley Street would have, “past the sense of house… that may not be extra successfully delivered on the S$335 million Founders’ Memorial.”
Mr Neo underlined that the Founders’ Memorial wouldn’t have the identical “sense of authenticity” that an expertise at 38 Oxley Street would have.
Lee Hsien Yang had written earlier this week, nevertheless, that deciding to gazette 38 Oxley Street as a monument, “disrespects Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy and values.” /TISG
Learn additionally: Lee Hsien Yang on 38 Oxley Street: Lee Kuan Yew was against monuments
