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  Business Times 7 Jul 07
When history's forgotten and roots ignored
The sense of 'home' is then eroded by sheer materialism
By Siow Li Sen, Senior Correspondent

WITH National Day coming up, an episode this week reminded me how difficult it is for Singaporeans to cleave to this island state we call our home.

A librarian at the National Library Board (NLB) told me - when I called on Thursday asking for books written on Goh Keng Swee - that she didn't know who the man is.

She was extremely polite and even apologetic that I was having some trouble navigating the NLB website but when I ventured 'you know who Goh Keng Swee is?', she said 'no'.

That did not prevent her from trying to help with my search for books on Dr Goh, one of the founding fathers of modern Singapore and widely acknowledged as the nation's economic architect.

(For those who wonder, there was just one book on the man listed on the website.)

I had earlier thought that maybe only bankers were ignoramuses when it came to history - given their devotion to their jobs which pay big bucks, justifying all their waking hours.

At a recent lunch, a young banker asked why I found Xian fascinating enough to have visited it three times. China's ancient capital has other interesting places to visit such as The Great Mosque of Xian, the largest and best preserved of the early mosques of China, besides being the gateway to the terra-cotta warriors - a World Heritage Site. I said that each visit reveals new findings for any visitor because the ongoing archaeological diggings in the vicinity, which has numerous imperial burial mounds, are constantly uncovering new treasures.

What then floored me was her innocent remark: wasn't Qin Shi Huangdi China's only emperor? Qin, who died in 210 BC, is regarded as China's first emperor after he unified the country, and the terra-cotta warriors were believed to have been buried with him when he died, although his tomb has yet to be found.

I am probably too harsh in rushing to judge others who have no interest in history. But I am not talking of some obscure notes in history.

Surely, the existence of Dr Goh and the fact that China has had more than one emperor since its first over 2,000 years ago is basic general knowledge which even our primary school texts would have covered?

Has living in Singapore become so demanding in the sense of the need to make more and more money that all other requirements or interests are abandoned?

Is that what Singaporeans mean when they say the reason they migrate is that they can't stomach the 'high cost of living' here?

Rather than being regarded as 'home', Singapore has become a place measured by money, so it can be easily replaced with another city.

When people have so little grounding in the past, it's difficult to feel for the present, other than in the most fleeting, tangible ways.
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