By TAN SAI SIONG
A FRIEND'S 10-year-old was griping at his Mum. She had sent him and his sister to the Stamford Road museum, saying they would have a whale of a time, figuratively and literally.
Alas, the whale's skeleton which she recalled from a visit in her childhood is no longer there. She is 50 and had seen the exhibit when she was no older than her son is today.
My first reaction on hearing the woeful tale was to chide my friend. But truthfulness got the better of me. Like most Singaporeans, I know the layout of practically all the main shopping malls here like the back of my hand.
Yet until earlier this year, I had not stepped foot into the National Museum, renamed the Singapore History Museum, for decades. The loss is mine.
Not only is the SHM a wonderful piece of architecture redolent with Singapore's past but it is also a repository of our country's history which allows us to be in touch with our roots for less than the price of a cinema ticket.
To be sure, ours is not the Smithsonian. But it provides enough about Singapore's history, culture and politics to make it worth a family outing, especially if that trip is timed for the daily free guided tours.
My friend's instincts in sending her children to the museum were right because Singapore's young should not grow up thinking that the only way to spend the school holidays - or free time - is to shop, eat, sleep, go to the movies or Johor Baru.
But she should have accompanied them. A well-planned trip to the museum could become the springboard for excursions in which parents and children spend hours together, bonding through the shared experience of learning about Singapore's past.
True, in the last two years, schools have been trundling their children by the bus-loads to museums and on heritage tours covering Chinatown, Little India, Kampung Glam and World War II battle sites.
However, these group trips, with their tight time-tables and worksheets to be completed at the end of each tour, may be less conducive for leaving the young with good memories than a leisurely family weekend stroll to places shaped by our ancestors.
In any case, as my friend's faux pas shows, Singaporean parents need as much to go on heritage tours as their offspring.
Here is where the SHM's many exhibitions can prove useful as a starting point for the Singaporean family's holy grail.
Take the Fort Canning display which opened in March. It shows the changing phases of the hill over the centuries, starting as an ancient settlement and the abode and burial ground of Malay kings.
Fort Canning Park ... bonding through
the shared experience of learning.Because of this royal connection, it was known as Bukit Larangan or Forbidden Hill by the superstitious folks living at the foot of the hill, when Stamford Raffles arrived with William Farquhar.
The two British entrepreneurs secured Singapore for the East India Company with the slick strategy of settling the Johor Sultanate's succession question and annuities of 5,000 and 3,000 Spanish dollars for the newly-crowned Sultan and his father-in-law respectively.
The deal signed, sealed and delivered, Raffles swanned off, leaving Farquhar to gather less superstitious helpers from Melaka to haul a cannon and the British flag up the Forbidden Hill and build a road from its summit to its foot.
When Raffles returned for his last and longest visit in 1822, he had his house built at the summit. It remained the home of Singapore's early governors till the 1860s when the British turned the hill into a fort and named it after the First Viceroy of India.
With unabashed royal yearnings, Raffles even wrote to his friends in London that should he die, he would not mind being buried among the historic kings of Singapura.
He was not granted that "royal" fate but a part of the hill was alienated for a Christian cemetery. Space was also found for a spice garden - the forerunner of the Botanical Garden - a light-house and bunkers.
If the kids start getting restless at the exhibition, a short walk to Fort Canning Park - which is what the Forbidden Hill is now called - behind the museum will allow them to let off steam.
There, the past lingers on in the headstones from the long vanished Christian cemetery and in the still extant kramat, or sacred place, reputed to be the tomb of Iskander Shah, Singapore's 14th-century ruler.
The National Parks Board and the HongkongBank have produced a map of the park, marking out interesting and historic spots, even though some, like Raffles' home, no longer exist.
Back at the museum, another starting point for yet another trip into our country's memory bank is the Rumah Baba exhibition opened last year.
It recreates in loving detail the living environment of the Chinese Peranakan, with its formal Chinese arrangement and eclectic mix of furnishings.
From there, families go on to look at the real shophouses in which Peranakans used to live and which are now restored, many for new uses. Parents can devise games whereby they and their children can try beating one another in "spotting" the various styles of shophouses.
The Ministry of Education, with help from the tireless volunteer group known as Friends of the National Museum, has produced three excellent guides that could serve as the "bible" for these family outings.
The guides not only give the history of the places but also trace the people and their activities and show how they had shaped their environment.
Sounds too much like playing tourists in our own backyard? Well, better that than dreaming of a White Christmas in shopping malls selling brands and goods that can be found in any similar-sized mall from London to San Francisco.
First published in The Straits Times, December 12, 1997
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