Extension of Duration of Bicentennial Exhibition

Mr Speaker, the Bicentennial Experience is an interactive exhibition showcasing 700 years of Singapore history and housed at the Fort Canning Centre. The Bicentennial Experience opened on 1 June 2019, and is scheduled to end on 15 September 2019.

Response to the Bicentennial Experience has been excellent. More than 300,000 visitors have seen the Experience so far, and we expect to welcome our 400,000th visitor in early September. Over 95% of visitors surveyed have rated the Bicentennial Experience positively or very positively. Many have used words like "inspiring", "moving", "powerful" to describe the Experience, and that it reaffirmed "what it means and what it takes to be Singaporean". I thank the public for their support and encouragement.

Since the opening, we have received many requests for the Bicentennial Experience to be extended as visitors felt that more Singaporeans and especially the young should enjoy it. Some have even called for the Experience to be made permanent so that visitors to Singapore and new citizens as well as future generations of Singaporeans can be educated on our history. We are reviewing these requests.

There are several issues to consider. For example, we need to calculate the additional costs required, and work out the technical implications of extending the Experience. We also need to find the right format if we were to make the Experience permanent, as it was never designed as such.

The Singapore Bicentennial Office will study the options of retaining the key elements of our Bicentennial year, including not only the Bicentennial Experience but also the many community showcases and publications this year, and share our plans in due course.

Sir, first let me say that the staff and volunteers behind the Bicentennial Experience Exhibition at Fort Canning have done an excellent job and, in my view, it is uniquely Singaporean.

My questions are, I was hoping it could be extended, so that it can be updated at major milestones of our country's progress. For example, Singapore's 60th birthday in 2025.

My second supplementary question is, at the end of the exhibition, people are asked "What is important to you?" and one of the balls you can put in that interactive survey is "self-determination". I would ask that the Ministry consider another type of interactive survey, for example, what should our priorities be, going forward, and what is our future dependent on. So, those who come can either put a ball in for defence, education, unity, international trade and so on. So, let it not just be about what is the past and how we got here but what are the ingredients that we need, going forward; in addition to my request to make it a more permanent exhibition.

Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for his suggestions and comments. We will take on board at the Bicentennial Office the suggestion about extending it; that is number one, and consider whether or not it could be updated at major milestones. As I said, we have not taken that decision yet because we are reviewing the cost as well as the technical implications, but we will take that on board.

With respect to the second question or the second comment, again, that is something that we can consider. The current little survey which asks them to rate which of the three they rank the most important – self-determination, multi-culturalism and openness – that was directed at helping people to identify what is the Singapore DNA, to think about who we are and what our 700 years of history have made us.

The elements that Mr de Souza has raised is the future elements about what should our priorities be, and, indeed, those are important as well. So, we will certainly consider that and I thank the Member for his suggestions.