Asian Angle | Celebrating Raffles: For Singapore, embracing democratic accountability might not be a bad idea
- Free trade, the rule of law, a functioning civil service … Singapore owes much to the legacy of British colonialism
- Isn’t it time the Lion City embraced another British idea: democratic accountability?
Yet officials have been careful as to how they describe proceedings. Lest they be accused of “celebrating” colonialism, they are calling the events a “commemoration”, and have called on Singaporeans to re-examine their views of the legacy of the British in Singapore.
On some levels, this attitude seems a little strange. Unlike in most of their other former colonies (with the exception of Hong Kong), the British left a mostly positive legacy in Singapore.
They introduced modern practices and institutions that set the island on the path to prosperity. These included a belief in the virtues of free trade, the rule of law that is essential for trade and commerce to thrive, a functioning civil service (at least by the standards of colonial administrations), and an open, multicultural society. These ideas continued to be critical for Singapore’s success after it attained independence in 1965. At a time when many political leaders and their populations seem increasingly sceptical about the merits of these ideas, Singapore’s success since 1819 is arguably the strongest argument for them.
The British wanted to be in Singapore and wanted it to succeed as a port city. This meant that they supplied more public goods (and colonial officials) than they would have had they been motivated by the desire to extract natural resources, exploit abundant labour, or protect their more valuable colonial possessions nearby. In Malaya for instance, the British were often forced to intervene in the civil wars or succession disputes of the Malay states that were adjacent to their port cities of Penang and Melaka, in case these conflicts disrupted commerce.