29 Jul 2010
TWO organisations are taking a novel approach to get Singaporeans to remember the Republic’s pioneer leaders for the contributions they made.
Their plan is to first have the fingerprints of at least 5,000 Singaporeans imprinted on 10 blank canvases – each symbolising one of the first-generation leaders.
These canvases will then be handed to 10 artists for them to paint their vision of Singapore in the future.
The project is the brainchild of the Halogen Foundation, which helps build leadership potential in youth, and crafts company Studio You.
At the project’s launch at Old Parliament House yesterday, Halogen chairman and Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Michael Palmer said the fingerprints will illustrate the people of Singapore behind the leaders.
“The Singapore Story is about remembering the collective will of the people. This country was put together with their tenacity,” he said.
Those named in the Pioneering 10 project made up Singapore’s first post-independence Cabinet in 1965: Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Toh Chin Chye, Dr Goh Keng Swee, Mr S. Rajaratnam, Mr Ong Pang Boon, Mr Othman Wok, Mr Jek Yuen Thong, Mr Yong Nyuk Lin, Mr Lim Kim San and Mr E.W. Barker.
Halogen executive director Martin Tan, 33, hopes the project will prompt Singaporeans to reflect on the contributions of the leaders.
Ten organisations, from hospitals to kindergartens, have volunteered to fill each canvas with the fingerprints of at least 500 Singaporeans.
One of them is Ascension Kindergarten in Potong Pasir. It plans to get its 620 children and 40 staff to do so. The children will also get lessons on the founding fathers in the process.
The artists who will work on the canvases include The Straits Times’ award-winning illustrator Miel Prudencio Rosales Jr and 10-year-old schoolgirl Janice Yap. When their paintings are completed in November, they will be presented to the 10 pioneers or their family members.
Present at yesterday’s launch was Ms Deborah Barker, daughter of the late former law minister E.W. Barker.
She called the project a good idea: “It honours the pioneering leaders and the people of Singapore. And it is good that it involves the community coming together to make it happen.”
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