Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History ed. by Alfian Sa'at, Faris Joraimi, and Sai Siew Min, and: Thomas Stamford Raffles: Schemer or Reformer? by Syed Hussein Alatas (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History ed. by Alfian Sa'at, Faris Joraimi, and Sai Siew Min, and: Thomas Stamford Raffles: Schemer or Reformer? by Syed Hussein Alatas Nurhidayahti Mohammad Miharja Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History. Edited by Alfian Sa'at, Faris Joraimi and Sai Siew Min. Singapore: Ethos Books, 2021, 280 pp, ISBN: 9789811420382. Thomas Stamford Raffles: Schemer or Reformer? By Syed Hussein Alatas. Singapore: NUS Press, [1971] 2020, 127 pp, ISBN: 9789813251182. In 2019, Singapore celebrated its national Bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of its colonial founding by the British. The two publications reviewed here represent some of the more critical responses to the colonial-dominated Singapore historiography. Raffles Renounced was published as a post-Bicentennial reflection in 2021, whereas Thomas Stamford Raffles, which had earlier been published in 1971, was reprinted in 2020 to contribute to the discussion of the colonial 'founder' and 'founding' of Singapore in the context of the Bicentennial. Implicit in the compelling title of the first book, Raffles Renounced, is the idea that one can only move towards a Merdeka history by renouncing Raffles. The subsequent question would be what of Raffles and the colonial legacy are to be renounced, and how does Merdeka history do this? Merdeka history is defined as, 'one that not only untangles us from colonial narratives, but also as an approach to doing history that is emancipatory' (p. 15). This suggested mode of historical thinking thus 'legitimises the participation of the many in shaping how we understand our collective pasts and social memories' (ibid.). Raffles Renounced critically examines Singapore's commemoration of the Bicentennial. And in the bid to counter the colonial-centric Singapore historiography, Chapters 2 and 3 explore Merdeka narratives that were absent from the Bicentennial. Raffles Renounced highlights how Singapore's postcolonial history ought to begin with the 'merger with Malaysia in 1963, which was supposed to liberate us from the British empire—our proper colonisers' (p. 13), instead of its 1965 Separation from Malaysia. The political reason for overlooking this Merdeka period was because anti-colonial sentiments were at their peak during this time. Such sentiments were shared by the political leaders of Singapore who saw Singapore as 'part of the process of decolonisation in the Malay world where its people belonged, and their future lay' (p. 35). Such narratives were clearly not in tandem with the current historiography that extols colonialism. Efforts in decolonising Singapore history, nevertheless, are not new, where examining Raffles began as early as 1971 with Thomas Stamford Raffles. Yet, despite the recent Bicentennial efforts to extend the 'founding' of Singapore beyond 1819, Syed Farid Alatas—in his introduction to the republished edition of Thomas Stamford Raffles—notes that Raffles' status as a 'Great Man of history' remains unchanged (p. 4). As a piece of historical sociological research on colonial ideology, Syed Hussein Alatas specifically examined the political philosophy and conduct of Raffles. The elder Alatas also notes the close relationship between an individual's political philosophy and biography—that his analysis of Raffles' political philosophy 'is designed to clarify certain aspects of his biography' (p. 26). Chapter 1 details the general framework of Raffles' political philosophy, which [End Page 227] Alatas argues is primarily geared towards 'advancement of British imperial interests and his own career' (p. 32). To further substantiate the imperialist political ideology embraced by Raffles, Alatas looks at Raffles' involvement in two cases: the massacre of Palembang (Chapter 2) and the Banjarmasin Affair of Alexander Hare (Chapter 4). In Chapter 3, he restates how Raffles' 'likes and dislikes towards the different groups were motivated by the degree and nature each of them affected English interests' (p. 71). In the concluding chapter, Alatas attributes the enduring positive historical canonization of Raffles to British colonial biographers and historians. While Raffles Renounced emphasizes contemporary portrayals of Singapore history, both books share decolonising concerns. Raffles Renounced shows the multitude of ways to imagine a decolonial/Merdeka/Singapura history, for instance by drawing upon the different repositories starting with the Malay world's historiography and intelligentsia (pp. 7–8), especially in the 'contemporaneous Sinicised script of rags-to-riches' Bicentennial (p. 118). Multidisciplinary mediums such as the visual and...