{"id":18166,"date":"2020-08-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2020\/08\/10\/commemorating-stamford-raffles-and-the-founding-of-singapore\/"},"modified":"2021-01-18T14:38:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T06:38:03","slug":"commemorating-stamford-raffles-and-the-founding-of-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2020\/08\/10\/commemorating-stamford-raffles-and-the-founding-of-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"Commemorating Stamford Raffles and the \u2018Founding\u2019 of Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: \u2018Raffles Standing\u2019 by Wang Yuanzhe from SRN\u2019s SG Photobank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1819, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) sailed to Malacca to secure British presence in the Riau region, and later settled on a post at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula \u2013 what would eventually become the island of Singapore.<\/p>\n

Though Raffles has since been recognized as the founder of modern Singapore in school history textbooks and the public psyche, this changed with the 2019 Bicentennial. Associate Professor Huang Jianli\u2019s (NUS Department of History) article \u2018Stamford Raffles and the \u2018Founding\u2019 of Singapore: The Politics of Commemoration and Dilemmas of History\u2019 (Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society<\/em>, 2018), sheds light on the recent contentions and politics that have emerged behind the way a young nation state commemorates its history.<\/p>\n

As A\/P Huang identifies, one of the main reasons behind Raffles\u2019 celebration as a historical hero is due to the party-state\u2019s embrace of the British colonial legacy in post-independence governance and the lavish celebration of PAP rule. In response, the Bicentennial organization consciously avoided a top-down commemoration by choosing to involve schools, businesses, and religious organizations. Importantly, A\/P Huang highlights the Bicentennial\u2019s embrace of the nation\u2019s 700-year timeline over the 200-year one, choosing thus to recognize Singapore\u2019s existence as a bustling local settlement even before the imposition of the British Empire \u2013 a departure from the misconception of Singapore as a \u2018sleepy fishing village\u2019. In doing so, A\/P Huang suggests that the Bicentennial avoided perpetuating the centrality of Raffles\u2019 heroic landing to Singapore\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

In recent years, scholarship has also shifted against Raffles. Many organizations and important public academics and figures like Professor Tommy Koh or author Nadia Wright have challenged these dominant portrayals of the nation\u2019s narrative by attempting to elevate other important figures (for example, William Farquhar), who they believe played a more vital role in developing Singapore.<\/p>\n

Amidst the contentions over Singapore\u2019s history, however, A\/P Huang states that one thing remains clear: the nation is at a crossroads in determining the future direction of its national history.<\/p>\n

Read the full article\u00a0here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1819, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) sailed to Malacca to secure British presence in the Riau region, and later settled on a post at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula \u2013 what would eventually become the island of Singapore. Though Raffles has since been recognized as the founder of modern Singapore in school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":18167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4529],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18166"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27623,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18166\/revisions\/27623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}