Selling off our heritage: How our medical school disappeared. Happy birthday, our grand old Alma Mater!

Few will, or will care to remember that our present Medical School and indeed, the National University of Singapore was born July 3rd, 1905. So sad.

Towards the end of the 19th Century, Singapore was still training "doctors" by sending qualified students off to Madras. In 1904 a tin trader, Tan Jiak Kim collected the necessary funds and spearheaded a move that would eventually lead to the establishment of our own true-blue Singaporean medical school. This was initially called the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School.

The building it operated in was actually an old women's asylum, located somewhere behind the current grand looking College of Medicine Building at Sepoy Lines (Ministry of Health). The precious heritage building is no more there because in the early 80s, after the medical school relocated from her birthplace to Kent Ridge, the huffy Ministry of Health decided that such useless heritage was not worth preserving and promptly flattened the historical building - replacing it with of all things, a car park!

Ever forward looking, the National University of Singapore seemed also little interested in heritage issues. When in 2005, the Yong Loo Lin Trust donated a "transformational gift" of $100 million to the medical school, the school threw heritage out the window and gratefully renamed itself the Yong Loo Lin Scool of Medicine. It simply didn't matter that no one actually knew who Yong Loo Lin was.

A hundred million dollars was apparently the biggest gift the University had ever received. But it was in truth, a relatively small sum compared to the operating budget of the university. One wonders what would happen now if Gigamole donates $105 million to the University. Can I get the medical school named after me?

It is so easy to sell off our heritage. Sad, and tragic, because it is our heritage that ties us together, and makes us who we are.

But Gigamole remembers. So here's wishing you a happy happy birthday, our dear Alma Mater. Though I am not sure where you are now. Sadly, I don't think the NUS or YLLSOM will remember your birthday today. Last I checked, nothing on their websites.

Selling off our heritage - the plight of Kampong Glam

Most would have missed the plaintive appeal (tucked way down on Page 42, Sunday Times 17 June), of Ms Hidayah Amin about how Kampong Glam may be losing  its story to the glitz of Omani wealth. Kampong Glam was a Malay enclave, originally designated for the occupation of Sultan Hussein Shah (himself of Bugis heritage) and his family. The area was primarily populated by immigrants from Java, Sulawesi and Bawean. There were Indian and Middle Easterners as well, but they mostly assimilated into the Malay culture. Ms Amin would know as, being the great grand-daughter of Haji Yusoff the belt merchant, she lived in the big yellow house, smack in the middle of Kampong Glam. At least until the government forcibly acquired the property.

She is so right, and her appeals should not go unheeded. The Malay culture needs to be protected, and it is fundamentally wrong to continue to assume that propagating a pseudo Middle Eastern Islamic facade is  equivalent to preserving the Malay heritage. The richness of Malay, Javanese, Sulawesian and Boyanese cultures need to be specifically protected as well. Unfortunately though, there are few who are wealthy and powerful enough on their side to fight for them.

Their voice desperately needs to be heard. We have lost too much of our true Singaporean heritage already.

Selling off our heritage

Some 5-10 years ago, as if at a given signal we started all this nonsense about naming buildings and institutions after dignitaries and philanthropic donors. Now, I don't really care if they name new (or even old) buildings after people who give lots of money. Nor do I particularly care if they want to name institutions and buildings after local 'heroes' and prominent figures who have contributed much to our nation building. But naming established institutions after people who just give money is, I think, way over the top.

I beilieve the NUS was one of the first to lead the charge. The School of Medicine particularly. I for one, was aghast when heard they named the grand old School of Medicine after a Yong Loo Lin. 'Yong who?' was my first response. How could they? Here was my old alma mater, 100 years old, with a proud heritage.....gone overnight. Morphing unceremoniously into the Yong Loo Lin of Medicine. "Yong-who? School of Medicine?" . No consulation with staff.....or alumni. Talk about a top down approach. Many of my contemporaries had been equally appalled. A heritage sold. No matter how the School of Medicine insists on the continued heritage, there is no doubt it had all been destroyed by the stroke of a pen.

How much was the heritage worth? One hundred million bucks. Sounds big doesn't it? Until you realize how big the annual operating budget for the school is. Let me tell you one hundred million dollars doesn't really go very far. Consider for example, that the NUS operating expenditure is in the range of $1.5 billion.

And so we sold the hundred year heritage for a hundred million dollars. One million for each year. How callous, and tragic (not to even mention that the old original building of the medical school, the female asylum, had much earlier on, been bulldozed over to build a carpark!).

This was most certainly one of the straws that led to the final one for Dr Tan Cheng Bock. He finally resigned in exasperation from the board of Jurong Hospital when they decided to name the hospital after Ng Teng Fong, whose family had also donated some money.... some $125 million of it. Again while the sum may appear big, it is also small compared to the $1 billion the government is spending on the hospital.

So what gives....?

Seems to me that our idea of Total Defence includes the protection our heritage, because it is our heritage that holds us together and gives Singaporeans a sense of that common history and vision for the future. Seems to me that the selling off of our heritage for a paltry 30 pieces of silver is not working in our favour, and undermines all the effort in the building our total defence.

It is time to take stock.