The Civic District I

Raffles - The Man

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles is considered the founding father of modern Singapore. He was a British Colonial Official with the East India Company. In 1819, he established a trading post in Singapore on behalf of the East India Company. It seemed as though he had a vision in his mind for this nation that he “birthed”. Given the number of places, streets named after Sir Stamford Raffles it was not difficult to realize people’s open admiration for his contributions towards Singapore. SIngaporean honor the memory of Raffles by educating their young on the significance of Raffles’ contributions to Singapore.

The Statue

The original Sir Stamford Raffles' Statue was sculpted by Thomas Woolner. On June 27, 1887, this statue was installed at the Padang, facing the sea, between St Andrew's Road and Connaught Drive, on Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Day. It was unveiled by Sir Frederick Weld, then Governor of the Straits Settlements. Unfortunately, Padang was a popular playing field for football enthusiast. The statue was subjected to waylaid balls and was often used as a “box seat” during games. The authorities felt that the founding father needed a more honorable address.

On February 6, 1919, the statue relocated to Empress Place, in front of Victoria Memorial Hall, during the Centenary Celebrations. Interestingly the statue is positioned in such a way that it is facing the location assumed to be Raffles’ initial landing site at the mouth of the Singapore River. It is also placed axially with the centre of the clock tower of the Victoria Hall. To commemorate the statue’s new address and to acknowledge Raffles’ contribution to Singapore, a tablet was placed at its plinth. This tablet also carried the engraving of Raffles' Arms and the Knight's motto on a bronze shield placed at the base of the granite pedestal.

During the 150th anniversary of the founding of Singapore, a plaster cast of the original was used to recast a polymarble copy. This copy now stands at the side of Empress Place at a marking where it is believed to be Raffles' landing site. To differentiate the 2 statues of Raffles, The original in front of Victorian Theatre and Concert Hall is affectionately called the ‘black statue’ and the copy at the Singapore River is called the ‘white statue’. It is interesting to note that the copy is aligned with the original so the ‘black statue’ is look at the site where his copy is residing!



The Significance

The doubting Thomas may be prompted to ask if the concept of “Raffles as the founder Singapore” was overplayed as the national narrative. When one questions this, one has to be clear about the definition of a ‘founder’. A founder is a person who finds something. So if the finding is a single action then Raffles would be the original colonizer of SIngapore. If finding is a process then, Raffles will be one of the colonizer and this definition would have to include his successors Major-General William Farquhar (1st Resident of Singapore) and Dr. John Crawfurd (2nd Resident of Singapore).

Whatever the definition of founder is and who ever is considered the founder, one maybe puzzled at Singapore’s the open adulation of a colonizer. Singapore is quite different from other British colonies as there was not a long drawn civilization in this island. This island was part of the Johore-Riau Sultanate and has always been a bystander or minor player in the events of the region. The colonization of Singapore by the Brtish actually thrust us into the international stage. The lack of a convoluted past and the eventual stardom means that people did not seem to mind the anachronism. In fact, according to Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the statue of Raffles is a symbol of not only Singaporean’s acceptance of its British legacy but also evidence that such legacy could be a positive occurrence to a country’s development.



Trivia

Did you know that it was Dr. Albert Winsemius, an economic advisor to Singapore in the 1960s (he led the United Nations survey team to Singapore), who foresaw the statue of Raffles as a symbol of developed Singapore?

We start our journey from the foot of the recast polymarble copy of the original Raffles statue.

Please click on the picture(s) to view the enlarged version(s)