1/09/2018

Singapore Bicentennial 2019


Celebrating Racism, Slavery and Exploitation
Next year 2019 has been designated Singapore Bicentennial to mark the 200th year of the founding of Singapore by the Englishman Sir Stamford Raffles, working for the British East India Company (EIC) on behalf of the British Colonial Empire. Singapore history is actually more than 200 years old with official verifiable records from the middle of the first century (about 100AD), some 1,800 years before Raffles.

Of course, Raffles did not “discover” Singapore. Singapore was neither lost, obscure nor an isolated and uninhabited island. Much documentary evidence points to events and activities involving ancient kingdoms, wars, communities and economic trade.

History has been revised to refer to Raffles as the founder of MODERN Singapore.  This attempt at re-creating history is even more dangerous and particularly disingenuous in the absence of any evidence that any specific past British Colonial policy was designed to create “modern” Singapore. 
In a 10 June 1819 letter to his friend Colonel Addenbrooke, Raffles stated that “Our object is not territory but trade, a great commercial Emporium, and a fulcrum where we may extend our influence politically, where circumstances may hereafter require. By taking immediate possession we put a negative to the Dutch claim of exclusion, and at the same time revive the drooping confidence of our allies and friends; one Free Port is these Seas must eventually destroy the spell of Dutch monopoly; and what Malta is in the West, that may Singapore become in the East.”  

Singapore colonial history has been carefully packed in chewable childlike lessons: a barely inhabited quite virgin island; Raffles’ landing (exact location unknown); promotion of free trade; growth of entrepôt trade; growth of immigrants from China and India; town planning; building of government centre; and the development of necessary infrastructure to support British rule over the local population and to preserve law and order so as not to disrupt British and EIC business interests.  The result is the erroneous conclusion that her 140 years of British colonial rule has been the springboard and foundation of today’s Singapore. 

Our school history textbooks have also propagated this alternative reality.  It was familiar and uncontroversial, also comforting without provoking any anti-colonial sentiments by fabricating false colonial history to foster an unthinking and uncritical mind-set that the tools of colonial subjugation have exceptionally moral good impact in Singapore, but not seen in any other British Colonies!

As Singaporeans enter the buzz and business of the Bicentennial, we need to deconstruct the myths of benevolent colonialism to discover for ourselves, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, the awesome truth that today’s MODERN Singapore would be impossible if we had continued with British colonial rule.

Racism
British colonialism, like the French, Dutch and American, is based in part on racism even as it is appears to be motivated by material wealth, financial gain and territorial expansion. They believe they have a God-given right to govern and subject indigenous people in continuous subjugation with their power and resources. The idea of a master race is inherent in imperial powers to justify their right to exploit, degrade, humiliate and rule over non-white peoples. 

Many racist comments in post-colonial Singapore can find its origins in British stereo-types, especially targeted at Malays.  A 1883 observation by Maj-Gen Sir George Leith, that “They (Malays) are incapable of any labour apart from the cultivation of paddy fields” sums up British sentiments regarding the Malays at that time.

Years earlier by the 1870s, the British had already placed Malays at the bottom of the racial competency order.  In the 1879 Commission Report into the Police of the Straits Settlements, the Singapore Attorney-General Thomas Braddell indicated that he preferred the “Klings” [Indians/Indian-Malay] to Malays as being more intelligent and more active, and better disciplined as a body” as more suitable to be as Police recruits.

A British tourist, Isabella Bird, also observed the Malay’s lack of interest in industry in The Golden Chersonese, 1883, p357: “The Malays won’t work except for themselves”

In May 1823, Sophia Hull, Raffles’ wife, founded the Singapore Malay Female-School. A report, betraying its racist bias and stereotype, expressed surprise at the progress made by some of the students "considering their native habits of indolence, and their want of energy." 

It is clear that race relations and racial conflicts in post-colonial Singapore are very much a result of nearly 140 years of British policies based on their racist altitudes and stereotypes regarding the Malays, Indians and Chinese communities. The various communities were also separated into spatial residential clusters and allocated to jobs based on “the ‘inherent’ biological traits of each race”. The consequence of deliberate geographical segregation and institutionalisation of jobs based on race effectively formalised the (artificial) differences among the races.  They also prepare the stage for the eventual economic inequality among the races with the Malays and Indians in lower pay jobs as compared to the Chinese.

Slavery
The growing workforce of colonial Singapore in the 19th and early 20th century composed of mostly indentured labourers.  The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought increased maritime activities to Singapore as the larger steam-powered ships became the major ocean ships.  Eventually, Singapore became the major port for the thousands of labourers brought by labour agents from India, China, Bugis (West Indonesia), the Malay Archipelago and the Dutch East Indies for the tin mines and rubber plantations in Malaya.  The Port of Singapore thus became the major slave labour hub in the region even though slave trading, but not slavery itself, was officially outlawed by the British in 1807.

Colonial Singapore would not have prospered without the forced labour needed to build roads and bridges, work on the booming rubber plantations and tin mines, as well as providing prostitutes, concubines and domestic maids to serve the rich businessmen, British and Anglophile elites for nothing or pittance.

Under the British, Singapore became a prominent network hub of slave traders which linked villages in China and Japan to procure slaves and prostitutes. Even before Raffles, Bugis ships have also regularly brought slaves captured from the Indonesian Archipelago for trading or as gifts for government officials.    

True, we did not get to where we are today by accident or natural evolution.  However, we also did not get here through British Colonialism.  The transformation of Singapore from a fishing village to modern metropolis was not driven by the vision and foresight of British politicians in London and their colonial administrators.  True again, independent Singapore on 9 August 1965 did inherit a collection of laws, institutions, structures and processes after a brief 2-year “marriage” to Malaysia. These colonial legacies however were neither appropriate nor designed for nationhood and nation-building.

For example, the economy of Colonial Singapore was centred on entrepôt trade, which became obsolete in the post-war global international trade faced by a fledging Singapore economy.  The journey to modernity was not easy for an independent Singapore.  As with Hong Kong on July 1997, the British colonial masters had not actively address the critical issues of housing, education and health because their only goal was economic and the only interest was a British, not Singaporean, future. Raffles’ 10 June 1819 letter (see above) clearly attested and confirmed as much. 

The notion that British colonialism was a tool for the moral good of Singapore, and therefore should be celebrated as the driver of our modernity and as the catalyst of Singapore nationhood is sorely misguided.  It is a fallacy and has no historical truths.

As we carefully deconstruct our long history of more than 2,000 years, we will realise that most of us today (80%) came or were born after the British surrendered to the Japanese in 1942.  And about half (50%) of us are born after Independence.

Singapore was in fact abandoned by the British in the greatest surrender by the powerful British military to a much inferior Japanese Imperial Army on bicycles.  Colonial Singapore ended on 15 February 1942, ostensibly the best Chinese New Year “ang-pow” present if not for the subsequent Japanese unmitigated pogrom of cruelty, rape, killing and torture of all things Chinese.  The epiphany of Singaporeans during the 1942-1945 war years was the realisation that we could only depend on ourselves, and not the British or any outsiders.  This is now deeply ingrained in Singaporeans and drives the motivation of our National Servicemen and the indomitable Singapore Armed Forces.

The Japanese surrender on 12 September 1945 saw the shameless return of British colonial masters who thought, wrongly, that business would be as usual with her former colony. In April 1946, Singapore became a British Crown Colony to be ruled directly from London. Again, Singapore was treated like a commodity not unlike the prostitutes in her ‘red-light’ districts of Change Alley, Geylang, Keong Saik and River Valley to be mounted by any conquerors.

The Japanese war years have toughen Singaporeans to resist the restoration of Rule Britannia. The British imposed martial law – The Malayan Emergency - from 1948-1960 on security grounds to counter the emergence of communism, whose fighters were bred and trained in the Anti-Japanese Army during the war.  During the Emergency, the British suppressed legitimate civil and political protests through legislations controlling the newspapers and radio, introduced arbitrary detention with trial, banned workers unions and legitimate trade union strikes, deny ordinary civil rights (enjoyed in Britain!), and banned legitimate anti-colonial societies eg student unions, old boys association, farmers associations and trade unions.  All forms of challenge to British colonial rule were ruthlessly struck down and make illegal.  

Know that the celebration of 2019 Bicentennials would also glorify the failed measures of the Malayan Emergency.  Ironically, if these measures were successful, there would be no MODERN Singapore!   

It is clear that British rule over Singapore was never fully and effectively restored after the War.  And the battle for MODERN Singapore began in 1945 with the Japanese surrender. 

MODERN Singapore is the creation of a small group of politicians and activists of various political parties with somewhat conflicting ideologies, and NOT the natural outcome of British colonialism.

The People’s Action Party (PAP) led by Lee Kuan Yew eventually won the electoral right to flesh out and actualise the aspirations of Singaporeans for a free, sovereign, just, prosperous and equal nation. All the infrastructures, education, human talent, social services and armed forces needed for MODERNITY were built from scratch from the ground up.  Nothing needed for MODERNITY was inherited from the British colonial past. In repeated fair and transparent general elections over the past 50+ years, the PAP has assured and ensured that Singapore will never again be subjugated and subjected to the humiliation and indignity suffered under the British and the Japanese.    

The proposed Singapore Bicentennial celebrations must provide the true history of Singapore’s journey to MODERNITY which began in 1945.  Otherwise, it would be just a celebration of misplaced and wronged history! Suggest we should wait for 2045 to truly commemorate 100 years of MODERN Singapore.
“Until very recently Singapore’s past was a matter of supreme indifference for most Singaporeans simply because they believed this island never really had a history worth remembering…” – S. Rajaratnam, ‘The Uses and Abuses of the Past’, 1984.





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24 comments:

  1. I thought the new born again history is of one old man discovering Singapore, not Raffles.

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  2. Only "RUNNING DOGS" of the British Empire and Japanese Empire would want to spend millions of Taxpayers' money to celebrate an occasion that reminds the People of their own misfortune, weakness, helplessness, shame and indignity.

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  3. Of course Raffles did not discover Singapore. And Columbus did not discover America.

    People were already settled in those places long before they arrived. And they had the cheek to say that they discovered the place. Shame on them.

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  4. Having spent so much time, thoughts and hardwork to struggle for Independence and then after 53 years of Independence, going to spend time, thoughts, hardwired and MONEY to honour the Colonial Masters!
    What idiotic, spineless, senseless creatures would have come up with such moronic ideas?

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  5. Must be Cancer at work in the brain?

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  6. Last GE had to "keng " and capitalised on his Father's death to gain sympathy votes.

    Next, have to capitalise on the Founding of Singapore and His Late Father's legacy to again capture Honour Votes.

    Indirectly showing off how His Father built up Singapore. Mediacorps will be propagated daily with clips and stories of how the PAP won victories upon victories.

    Just in time for my Son's premiership.

    The Dafts were be immersed and impressed by them.

    So 80 percentages goes to them.

    Another Five years of glory for them and miseries for the Dafts.

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  7. Political Joke
    -------------------
    Do you think we should be celebrating 200 years of Singaporeans working as slaves for;
    a) First the British
    b) then the Japanese
    c) and currently the PAP

    Viva Singaporeans!
    The stupidest slaves in the world.
    So stupid, we don't even know we are slaves ... working hard for cars and HDB flats that don't belong to us.

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  8. The world is the strong will conquer the weak irregardless of race or species or color.

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  9. What else did they put inside the 'sai chwee' to make the slaves so stupid?

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  10. Anon 4.26

    Why you have a feeling of this 'Sai Chwee' mystery.

    Not many suspects the mystery of the 'Sai Chwee' and the ordinary water from our reservoirs as well as from JB.

    It's only after the purification that that is the real mystery or cause of why Sinkies are so obedient.

    Same time so kiasoo,kia see and kia everything.

    It's the FLOURIDES that they put in the water that claimed to be clean water.

    Had a conversation with a water purifying engineer who also had his own research lab on water purification.

    He told me that the FLOURIDES in the water that you been drinking everyday from Pay Until Bankrupt are sort of valium. Calming effects on humans.

    When you have them for long period of time, you be sort of in a dazed calm unthinking zombie.

    That's why some companies recommend those purification machines and systems which can cost a bomb to filter your water from impurities besides the Fluoride.

    So this is the secret of having 70% votes and obedient and daft dazed sinkies.

    Log in You Tube and the answers of what this Engineer said reveled the Truths.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Few examples :

    https ://youtu.be/Hjh6T4x8-Zs

    https ://youtu/H3ljmufPTow

    https ://youtu.be/yi83kOB8ug

    https ://youtu.be/XuMxAB9q92E

    Etc

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  12. Huh? Wat? Celebrate 200th anniversary of being discovered by a AngMoh...No need to celebrate Lah...someone already said b4 that this little red dot belongs to everybody in this planet, Stephen Chow in pirates of the Caribbean too had said "Welcome to Sing-ka-pour" , anyone can come here be called Sinkies & get its red passport La faster than a copier machine Lah..

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  13. I wonder if PAP Millionaire Khaw will invite all his religious Leeders to bless the GE 2019 polling stations?

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  14. I just recently converted my citizenship status from Malaysian citizen to Singaporean slave.

    Does my CPF money still belong to me or does my CPF money now belong to PAP?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Aiyoh, the 70% have already been blessed long ago. God bless the dafties. Sorry, PAP bless the dafties for life.

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  16. /// In repeated fair and transparent general elections over the past 50+ years, the PAP has assured and ensured that Singapore will never again be subjugated and subjected to the humiliation and indignity suffered under the British and the Japanese. /// Michael Heng ah

    Do you think it is more correct to say that "Singaporeans have assured and ensured that PAP Ministers will never again be subjugated and subjected to the humiliation and indignity of having to work for a living" ?

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  17. Anon 6:14, welcome to Singapore.
    Not to worry, your CPF will be very safe.
    Even after you pass away, it is guaranteed that there will still be a lot of money left in your CPF.

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  18. No money oredy leow still everyday thinking of having big parties to spend public money.

    Next time want to celebrate prostitution day or gang rape day?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Happy Fucking New Year Everyone!

    I think the OP (Miko) worries to much. The British East India (and West India) Company helped England "own" and control more than 25% of the world. Thus the sun never set in the British EMPIREThe East India Companies were the first HUGE GLCs in human history and have proved the effectiveness of governments getting into Big Business.

    Great Britain needs a Trump to "Make GB GREAT again”. I'm not talking about UKIP's Farage or the Brexit nonsense. 🤡

    To protect their interests, the huge Brit GLCs had the might of the Royal Navy to hantam any interlopers, be they the locals whose land and cuntry the Mat Saleh's took over, or other Mat Saleh's like the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese. Fuck them. Sink their vessels and annex their colonies! 🤣

    The Brits provided spectacular entertainment. The British East India Company was not only a heavily armed global corporation, but also the world's biggest drug dealer---many times richer and more powerful than any of the Medelin and Mexican Cartels.

    The Brits grew opium in India and Afghanistan and sold it to Chinese, who got so fucking stoned and addicted, the Chinese government tried in vain to intervene, leading up to wars with the Arse-Kicking British Navy who fucked the Chinese until there was no more blood to bleed out from their ruptured anuses….and so HONG KONG.

    Hong Kong: Chinese people speaking their native Cantonese dialect, along with flawless English complete with the clipped accents and mellifluous cadences of the English "upper crust". (aka nabey cheebye banana chao angmoh... 🤠😝) Best part, HK'ers look down on the other Chinese as "uncultured barbarians", especially those rough Baba / Pernanakan cocksuckers.

    So yah, I think a Bicentennial Celebration of British culture is well deserved.

    Ah...2018. What can I say? All the stuff I've been writing about in tech and society is coming to pass. In 2011, I set up a Bitcoin miner on one of ex-wives computers—and iMac. Back then, if you solved a hash, you would get one or two coins. People were flipping out because Bitcoin was hitting around USD15...and you could reasonably expect to make around one Bitcoin a week.

    Needless to say my ex-wife is laughing at my ass now as I forget how many coins she has...or had...she may have cashed out.

    People are getting hacked left right and centre (not me...yet). Recently: several friends have been "phished" on FaceBook and FaceBook Messenger. 👍🏾

    Big data is gaining in influence. The Chinese govt plan mass surveillence. 🤖👌🏿 And they won’t be the last govt to do so. http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21711904-worrying-experiments-new-form-social-control-chinas-digital-dictatorship

    Meanwhile in Singapore....

    Last week, some friends and I were destroying our lungs and livers at the Olde Cuban in Chinatown. Cigars and single malt scotches served by eminently fuck-able Chinese gals. The conversation meandered from our dirty desires to culture shock for ang moh's relocating to Asia.... In this ad-hoc mabok Olde Cuban "think tank" was me, a couple of Germans, a local Indian, and American latino, and a Japanese.

    Later, still laughing but now horny, we made our way to Brix at the Grand Hyatt, where any man can rent pussy from any number of willing, sexy and money-hungry harlots from exotic climes like Mongolia, Uzbekistan. Wasting no time, the Germans each got a Mongolian lass. I think that international relations keeps the world at peace and prosperity. 🤣

    SO…whither thou Singapore? Singapore continue to rock awesomely, without a doubt. As per the wishes of our dead DEAR LEADER Harry, people on this island are driving and striving.

    Thus… I am happy to report: ALL IS WELL on the world’s most awesome island city state.

    Once again, all the best for 2018. Get plenty of sex and money. That’s an order. 🤡

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow he is back. This guy must have jumped up from his grave.
    For a while I was wondering whether to put up an obituary column for you so that people can pee on you.

    Great to have you back.

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  21. Allah snackbar mate!Great to be back...can't stay or be regular....busy as a bride on her wedding night.

    But seriously, those who are waiting to pee on my grave might have to wait awhile Insha'lah. But I shall remember to die with my mouth open in case any of my "fans" want to shit in my mouth ;-)


    ReplyDelete
  22. You know what a bribe is waiting for on her wedding night?

    ReplyDelete
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