Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Who really "founded" Singapore?

In my opinion, I think that Sir Stamford Raffles was the real founder of Singapore. Though William Farquhar and Dr. John Crawfurd indirectly had a share in shaping Singapore into what it is today but Sir Stamford Raffles after all had played a far more important role in the founding og Singapore. Without Raffles concern about the Dutch Spreading monopoly of their trade and authority, William Farquhar would not had embarked on a journey with Raffles to the south of Dutch Melaka, in search of a new British trading settlement. It was also Raffles who had decide to establish a trading settlement on the island and also fought hard on the ideal even though the one who ruled the island, Sultan Abdul Rahman, was under the control of the Dutch. Raffles came up with a plan to bring back the rightful heir, Tengku Hussein, to Singapore secretly so as to not arouse the Dutch suspision and then back on the island, Tengku was recognised by British as the rightful heir. After Raffles had signed the treaty that allowed the British to build a settlement on the island, he left to govern Bencoolen as Lieutenant-Governor, hence, William Farquhar had to take over the management of Singapore. Dr. John Crawfurd signed the treaty that allowed the British to have control over the whole island and that was at the time when Raffles had already left for Bencoolen. If Raffles had stay on to manage Singapore, he would haveb been the one who signed the treaty. Hence, Raffles is the one who really "founded" Singapore.