.Friday, March 2, 2007@ 9:01 PM Y
The national museum has decided to erect a statue in front of its entrance. They have to choose between Sir Stamford Raffles and Tan Tock Seng. If you were working for the museum, who would you choose and why.Tan Tock Seng amassed wealth through his industry and thrift acumen but he did not ignore the suffering and plight of his unfortunate fellowmen. The immigrants who came to Singapore were poor and suffered from diseases like malaria, cholera, typhoid, smallpox and tuberculosis. Tan Tock Seng spent large sums of money on providing medical services and amenities like water wells for the community and he also spent money to ensure that the poor had proper burials.
Raffles was the one who founded Singapore and he fought hard to take control of Singapore. Although he did not do much with the setting up of the new settlement, Singapore would not have existed if not for him who discovered the island.
I think Tan Tock Seng would be more deserved to be erected in front of the entrance. He did alot more for the people in Singapore. He spent large sums of money giving strangers proper burials, they were people that he didn't know. Most of us would not have been bothered with such matters. We would most probably just walk away as if it was none of our business. But Tan Tock Seng gave money to give them proper burials and I think it is very compassionate and thoughtful of him to give people a decent burial especially those who might not have families with them.
Although Stamford Raffles was the one who founded Singapore, i think he didn't really do much. All he did was to go through the agreement between the British and the Dutch and the paper war. After signing all the treaties which were supposed to be signed, he went off, back to British and left all the work to William Farqhuar. In conclusion, i dont think his statue should be the one being erected in front of the museum.
From all these examples and evidences, i think i would make Tan Tock Seng the statue, standing in front of the museum.
