3/17/2008
Celebrating Colonial Governors
While we are celebrating the old greats of old Singapore, maybe we should also be celebrating all the great colonial masters that once ruled this little island. I have read a very interesting and detailed write up of Farquhar in TheOnLineCitizen forum. It is a great piece of write up that would put all other write ups of Singaporeans to shame.
The contribution by Farquhar and Raffles were truly great. And with the definition of citizen a little changed, with PRs regarded as locals, all the ex governors should easily fit the bill. I can recall names like Shenton Way, Cecil Street, Robinson Road, Nicol Highway, Smith Street, Stanley Road, Cavenagh Bridge, Anderson Bridge, Fullerton Building, Collyer Quay etc etc.
I would like to suggest building a series of bronze statues of them to line the new museum in City Hall. That would give a nice touch to our colonial past.
Don't agree? OK, OK, never mind. Take it that I have not said anything. Pass.
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3 comments:
Singapore is what it is today not because of Raffles or any of the colonial masters. Ask any younger Singaporean on the streets and they can give you the obvious answer. Don't agree? OK, OK, never mind. Maybe my history is outdated.
hahahah.
seriously, they were here to serve the majesties' interests. anything left behind to our benefits were incidental and not intended.
we can acknowledge their existence but no need to crow about their great contributions. in Chan Heng Chee's article on sat, the governor was forcing David Marshall to use the police to brutalise the Hock Lee bus strikers. that was how kind they were to the locals.
Raffles and (especially) Billy Farquhar kept S'pore laissez faire, and despite the obvious a few short-comings, Queen Victoria (successor William IV) was very much in favour of capitalism--libety, prosperity and peace for all Her Majesty's territories in the Commonwealth aka 'British Empire'. And she set the 'rules' for the modern constitutional monarchy - the monarch and her houses reducing the power and influence (fading into the background) and more power to the parliament and the people who choose their representative govt.
The PAP has deliberately not emphasised a large part of S'pore's early history. The seeds of law and order, free markets, peace and prosperity were sown long before even Lee Kuan Yew was a twinkle in his father's eye, and an erection in his father's shorts.
God Save The Queen!
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