Tamil pioneer statue among 3 others join Sir Stamford Raffles statue along Singapore River

[manlion]

SINGAPORE - Four more statues have risen along the Singapore River next to the iconic one of Sir Stamford Raffles on Friday (Jan 4).

The Straits Times understands that the statues were erected overnight and that it is a project for the Singapore Bicentennial.

The new statues perched on pedestals remain wrapped up but ST understands they are of Sang Nila Utama, Tan Tock Seng, Munshi Abdullah and Naraina Pillai.

Sang Nila Utama, the founder of Singapura, was a prince from Palembang who renamed what was then known as Temasek when he landed on the island in 1299.

Tan, Munshi and Naraina were among the first settlers to arrive in Singapore in 1819 and are widely regarded as pioneering leaders of the island's main communities.

Tan was a merchant, philanthropist and community leader who contributed to starting a hospital that is named after him.

Munshi was Raffles' secretary, interpreter and Malay tutor who documented key events in Singapore after Raffles landed and is regarded as the founder of modern Malay literature.

Naraina was chief clerk at the treasury and a local leader of the Indian community.

Organisers of the Bicentennial have said that although it commemorates 200 years since Raffles' landing, the anniversary is also an occasion to mark the contributions of a range of pioneers and early settlers, as well as to recognise Singapore's much longer history as a settlement that dates back more than 700 years.

http://www.asiaone.com/singapore/fo...stamford-raffles-statue-along-singapore-river

 

[manlion]

Known as one of the first Tamil men to set foot in Singapore, Naraina Pillai made his mark in history with the construction of the Sri Mariamman Temple that still stands today.

EARLY YEARS

Before Naraina Pillai arrived on our shores, he was working as a government clerk in British-ruled Penang. It was then that he crossed paths with Stamford Raffles, who was a senior official at the East India Company. Today, we recognise Raffles as the founding father of modern Singapore.

In 1819, Pillai was attracted by Raffles’ ideals of Singapore as a new settlement. Thus, when Raffles embarked on his second visit to Singapore, Pillai went along with him.

Upon arriving in Singapore, Pillai quickly realised that life had to begin from scratch. He got a job as a chief clerk in the colonial treasury, or shroff, but left when the Resident’s shroff from Melaka arrived.

THE BIRTH OF A TRADESMAN

Observing the rapid rate of houses being built on a new and developing settlement, Pillai saw a business opportunity. He set up a brick kiln by Mount Erskine (now Tanjong Pagar), and wrote to his friends in Penang for bricklayers, carpenters, and cloth merchants. This made him the first recorded Indian brick business owner and first Indian contractor in Singapore.

Pillai’s entrepreneurship ventures did not stop there. He also entered the cotton goods trade, selling textile at Cross Street. His business quickly became the largest and best known in town, as the arrival of British merchants helped it flourish.

Unfortunately, his bazaar was burnt to the ground in 1822. This landed him onto a great amount of debt with the British merchants, who gave him five years to repay what he owed them.

Pillai sought help from the man he had first arrived in Singapore with – Raffles. Raffles gave him a section of prime land in Commercial Square (now Raffles Place), he erected new warehouses and rebuilt his businesses from scratch. He managed to repay his debts in time.

LEADER OF THE COMMUNITY

Besides his business ventures, Pillai also harboured a vision to serve the growing Hindu community here. Once business had stabilised, he decided to focus on building a Hindu temple.

However, he encountered some difficulties while searching for a suitable site for the temple. The first two plots of land were rejected due to fresh water or administrative issues. But third time’s a charm for Pillai, who finally managed to find one at South Bridge Road in 1823. By 1827, the Sri Mariamman Temple was built.

The Sri Mariamman Temple in 1905. Photo from the Lim Kheng Chye Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Apart from building a temple, Pillai also wanted to open a Hindu institute to educate young boys.Unfortunately, this vision did not materialise. Nevertheless, his efforts had gained him recognition amongst the Tamils, leading the British to appoint him as chief of Indians from Chola Mandalaman. Being chief gave him the authority to settle disputes within the Indian community.

REMEMBERING A PIONEER

As one of the Indian pioneers of Singapore, Naraina Pillai’s name cannot be forgotten. Today, his contributions are commemorated in a number of places.

Sri Mariamman Temple today

The Sri Mariamman Temple still stands proudly in its original location today and has been gazetted as a National Monument. In 1843, the temple was enlarged when Indian landowner Seshalam Pillai gave some of his land. A new sheltered walkway between the entrance tower and main building also replaced the former attap-covered walkway.

Today, the Sri Mariamman Temple is not just a place of worship. It also served as a refuge and shelter for Indian immigrants before they found accommodation and started work. Traditional Hindu weddings also continue to take place there.

In 1957, Pillai Road was officially named to commemorate Naraina Pillai as the first Indian to set foot in Singapore.

 

[Placemat]

Singapore is a nice and boring place to live

 

[manlion]

This is current deputy prime minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, 61. A former head of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and later finance minister, he is credited with reforms that helped the PAP rebound from a sharp fall in its vote in 2011. After a rebound in snap elections called in 2015, in which the PAP also capitalized on the wave of nostalgia at Lee Kuan Yew's death, Shanmugaratnam was then shifted into his vague coordinating role in cabinet.

There is some history here. In 1987, Lee Kuan Yew used internal security powers in what was called Operation Spectrum to detain 22 young Catholic social activists, some of whom, after soft torture, confessed on TV to having been unwitting tools of the communists.

At the time studying at the London School of Economics, Shanmugaratman had mixed with one of the detainees, and an exiled Singaporean leftist lawyer, Tan Wah Piow. "I can only speculate that the PAP feels that Tharman is a useful tool but he can't be trusted to lead because he will take Singapore in a very different direction, especially one away from the Lee family," Thum said.

And of course, he is of Tamil descent. But a Tamil as prime minister -- instead of the foreign minister, justice minister, intelligence chief, strategic thinker roles often filled by this articulate minority -- might be just the tonic for a nation at the crossroads of the Indo-Pacific.

Only for a top layer is Singapore anything like "Crazy Rich Asians." For the rest, things are pretty stagnant and people are mad in the sense of angry. Singapore citizens are now only about 60% of the 5.6 million population, their wages and job openings depressed by workers imported from the wider region, their apartments leveled off in value.

Low, co-author of a book called "Hard Choices: Challenging the Singapore Consensus," sees few fresh ideas coming out of the PAP. "The result of 2015 removed whatever impetus or pressure there was, both within and without," Low says. "The reform appetite has completely gone out the window in Singapore in the last three years."

The disgruntled Singaporeans are unlikely to take to the streets like the Gilet Jaune (Yellow Vest) protesters in France, but they showed in 2011 they can protest at the ballot box. The PAP held power comfortably but recorded its lowest share of the vote -- 61% -- since 1963.

The PAP cannot keep the entire nation in perpetual lockdown. One historic characteristic of Confucian societies, after all, is a tendency to entropy, interrupted by convulsions. Like the stuck-up family in the movie eventually does, the party should cast its net wider to include those not regarded as fully legitimate in Singapore's diverse gene pool.

Hamish McDonald is an author and a former regional editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review during Mahathir's previous government.

 

[Nilgiri]

Honestly I don't like how they are crowding new statues around the original one. They should stand on their own in different places.

It would be nice to leave Raffles alone at the harbour front.

 

[Placemat]

Honestly I don't like how they are crowding new statues around the original one. They should stand on their own in different places.

It would be nice to leave Raffles alone at the harbour front.

Raffle statue is not at hf. It's at raffles place and a second black one at the other side of river

 

[Nilgiri]

Raffle statue is not at hf. It's at raffles place and a second black one at the other side of river

Yeah I mean just that whole boat quay, raffles quay area of singapore river. I lived in Singapore for years pal....the parlance changes as years go by esp as they increase the need for more names of localities for the MRT network etc. You do know where the old harbour was right?