Christmas Island was sold against the interest of Singapore. But then, what could the residents of the island do when they were still subjects of an Empire, and the colonial masters said so? Under those circumstances, when the people had no control over their destiny, you can’t really blame anyone for selling out the island. Under those circumstances, it is not right to accuse Lim Yew Hock for selling the island, or a traitor to the people of Singapore. The people then were not owners, mostly stateless. One only becomes a traitor to the people if the people own the land that was sold away.
Christmas Island can still be sold without selling it the way it was sold, lock, stock and barrel, to another country. Say the residents of Christmas Island, a tiny little piece of rock, decided that they could build properties and sell them to foreigners. In no time every piece of land will be sold to the rich foreigners and the foreigners became de facto owners of the island.
Another way of selling the island against the interests of its inhabitants is to bring in more foreigners to populate the island in the name of progress. When the foreigners become the majority in the island, they will literally inherit everything in the island from its original inhabitants.
Sure, in the name of economic progress, Christmas Island could be the next cosmopolitan city island in the world, the perfect playground for the rich and famous. What about its poor inhabitants? Squeezed out of the island and lost the island forever, to a bunch of new owners.
Selling out in another form. At the end of the day the island will have new owners, belong to other people forever, no longer own by the islanders.
5 comments:
Welcome to the world Christas island 2. I spoke to a temporary work from Penang yesterday night, He is being in Singapore for 5 years and slowly taking course in NTUC. he started as a delivery man and now is a sale manager. He is an Indian and work hard to get a better life. I welcome this type of people, very localised and is one of us during our nation birth.
But not that kind of rich from china and India trying buy out everything and replace us. That I cannot accept!
Red Bean your article reminded me of Fiji now like Indian island
India is the next superpower. There will be more Fijis in times to come. This is only a natural development in the Indian Ocean. This had already happened among the states in Northern India, Bhutan, Nepal, etc are all Indian protectorates. There is already an Indian Empire today.
To the depoliticised, they cannot fathom what all this is about. Maybe one day when they become stateless, lost their homes and their countries, would they realise what is happening.
isn't it a false statement to say Xmas isl was sold against Singapore's interest's when Sing.never owned it?
by proximity Indon. is the natural owner but then again they didn't mind the little things Britain squabbled over,when they have many other isl.'s
Singapore was given self rule and eventually independence. All the colonies were returned to the residents and natives of the land. If Christmas Island was not sold, it will still be part of Singapore. It was sold against the interest of Singapore even when it was still not a fully independent state. There was self govt and an acknowledgement that it will be a separate political entity.
Historically, all land is free and the owner is the first occupier. This law or principle was entrenched by the western colonial empire. They went further and killed or terminated the natives to own the land, like the US and Australia and several islands around the world.
That is why the Vietnamese, Filipinos, Malaysians and Indonesians have no claims to the Spratleys and Paracels. The Chinese were the first occupier with their deep sea fleet. And many Southeast Asian states were not even states but little villages with their village heads. There was no Indonesia, Phillipines or Malaya as sovereign states when the Chinese were occupying the Spratleys and Paracels. They drew them in their maps.
Can you find a Malayan, Filipino or even Vietnamese map of these islands dating earlier than the Chinese? They don't even know of the islands existence.
Indonesia was an articificial construct forced upon by the English and the Dutch. Otherwise, by natural evolution of states, there could be tens of states within the Archipelago, like the Phillipines.
Colonial legacies.
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