Raffles Revealed – A lesson in history

Raffles Revealed is currently being run on Channel News Asia on the man himself and his role as an Imperialist serving the British Empire. It touched on Raffles ambition to wrestle Indonesia from the Dutch and French and bring it under the ambit of the Empire. The Dutch and French were fully in control of Indonesia operating from Batavia, present day Jakarta. Raffles was in Calcutta, the HQ of the British East India Company or front of the British Empire.

His strategy was to sow discord among the native tribal chiefs to rise against the Dutch. The natives were eager beavers, seeing the potential of an external power to assist them to overthrow the Dutch colonialists. But they did not realise that the British were doing it for their own convenience and their objective was to replace the Dutch as the colonial master and the native chiefs would still remain under another colonial power. Or the native chiefs might just play along, to get the British to fight the Dutch. They did negotiate with the British for their independence but was turned down. The British eventually attacked them as well and seized control of Indonesia for themselves.

The situation and the tactics used by the British then were similar to the situation in South China Sea. The Americans are here, sowing discord among the Asean countries against China. The difference is that China is not colonising any of the Asean states but with counter claims to the some of the islands in the South China Sea. But the Asean states are behaving like the native chiefs, thinking that they could invite the bigger devil to deal with a smaller devil, and thinking that at the end of the day the bigger devil will allow them to take control of the disputed islands.

The Americans today share the same strategic interests of the British in Raffles’ times. They are here for their own interests and carving out areas of influence and control. And the Asean countries are behaving like the native chiefs, thinking that they are wiser and could play the big powers against one another. The Americans seized the moment and the opportunity to agitate the Asean countries to rise against China.

In the narrative of Raffles Revealed, it was all about power and domination. There were no issues or concerns about human rights, national sovereignty and territorial integrity.  The Americans are here simply to guard their own interests and manipulating the Asean states to do their bidding but would be the ultimate winner and ruler of the region.

Eventually the use of force and power would rule the day. The Asean states, like the native chiefs of Indonesia, were just pawns in a bigger chess board. They are only to be used and to be controlled or dominated by either of the two super powers. Their silly dreams of taking advantage of big power conflicts to serve their interests would be like the dreams of the native chiefs, eventually still be conquered and ruled by the British Empire, now the American Empire.

Anything changed? History is a good teacher provided the students are not daft and willing to learn from it.