Why Didn't Singaporeans Fight for their Right to Keep National Theatre?

Was at Westgate & saw these stands depicting history of Singapore. A stand said many Singaporeans were sorry to see the National Theatre demolished in 1986. It was built using the money contributed by the people in a "a dollar a brick" campaign.

I didn't know that River Valley 5 diamond-shaped structure was built by the people's money.  Bro & I assumed it was the government that built it.

Well hell. If it was the people's money, then they had a right to stop the demolition. In fact, the building belonged to the people!! Why just feel sorry to see it go?? They could have stopped it & demanded that it be preserved! 


Why let it become a memory?

Even back then, Singaporeans were soft. Don't know how to fight for their rights. Just like the dolphins of Taiji Cove. Massacred.

The people as a mass, are always stronger than any government or any organization. The government is just 1 person. The people are in the millions.

Why sit back & let something that they loved & contributed to, be destroyed?

The loss of that River Valley structure is a grand pity.  Its unique diamond-pointed fascade is unforgettable. Van Kleef Aquarium beside it.  (The stand at Westgate spells it wrongly as "Cleef".)

I remember we went into Van Kleef once or twice & it was just like what a man said in the stand at Westgate: the aquariums were like TVs playing National Geographic & entering there was like stepping into a different world.

The aquariums resembled TVs because their glass had a bulging appearance.

Bro's memory is better. He remembers the hand-shaped fountain (in a cupping shape) outside the diamond-shaped fascade.

Nothing of it is left, except for a pathetic scaled-down model of the diamond-shaped structure on a little grass patch across from Fort Canning Park near Liang Court.

Bro said why have such a pathetic little model when we could have had the real thing in all its glory? If the government hadn't stupidly destroyed it.

Now it exists only in photos & memories.

I didn't know that it was the National Theatre. Didn't even know that the 5 points of the diamond shapes & fountain represented the stars & crescent moon of the National flag.

Do you know how much of that is worth now? So priceless. Yet the government demolished it. For what? Nothing.  It has just been left as empty grass.

Singaporeans could have saved their National Theatre & Van Kleef Aquarium. All reasons for not preserving them are just excuses.