A Long-Term Vision for the Museum In December 1986, then minister for community development Mr Wang Kan Seng appointed a task force to draw up long-term plans for the development or the museum. This task force was chaired by Mr Tay Kheng Soon, a architect deeply concerned with Singapore's urban heritage and pioneering history. The task force's primary recommendation was that the museum should make a radical break from its traditional image of being a treasure house full of butterflies, stufled animals and strange smells, and especially the whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. The task force envisaged the National Museum becoming instead a living museum linking our past with our present and the future.