Singapore Myths: #1 "From fishing village to global city"

Singapore's spectacular waterfront at night.   © 2020 Tan Keng Yang

Origin of Fishing Village to Global City

It is unclear who actually made this claim and when. But it has been so oft repeated through the state-controlled media and the national education program in schools that it has become gospel for the less questioning sectors of the population. Even foreign correspondents who failed to do due diligence have perpetuated this myth beyond the island’s shores. 

The following are a sampling of foreign takes on the fishing village narrative:

•  “…from an impoverished fishing colony…” YouTube channel VisualPolitik EN (19 Jan 2022, timeline at 11:24).
• "... the transformation of Singapore from a mosquito-ridden colonial trading post and military base to a proud and prosperous – if somewhat antiseptic – Asian tiger." The Telegraph in its obituary of Lee Kuan Yew's death.
• "... just how did this tiny country go from swamp to one of the region's leading economies? BBC News online (28 February 2015).

Banner in a heartland plaza propagating the claim.

Fishing Village to Global City as fake news

Here we have the classic example of how propaganda works: “If you repeat an untruth often enough, people will come to believe it.”

“If you repeat an untruth often enough, people will come to believe it”

The truth about Fishing Village to Global City

Yes, Singapore was once a fishing village but that was a long time ago when Stamford Raffles stepped ashore in 1819 to establish a trading post and get a piece of the action in the Far Eastern spice trade for the British East India Company.

The Padang some years after the founding by Stamford Raffles.
© National Museum

Under the British flag Singapore grew to be the premier city of its day, thanks to its strategic location in the middle of the South-east Asian archipelago and straddling the great sea lanes and air routes between east Asia and Europe. 

Over the decades Singapore became the Far East HQ of the British Empire, hosting its naval and air bases. 

Blenheim bomber and Buffalo fighters at Sembawang Royal Air Force Base 1941.
© Imperial War Museum

Endowed with deep water harbours it grew into a great seaport through which flourished a thriving entrepôt trade in tin, rubber, oil and consumer goods. In addition, it was the civil aviation hub of the region famed for its Kallang Airport where celebrities touched down before being chauffered to The Raffles Hotel, billed by the western press as the “most magnificent establishment of its kind East of Suez.” Luminaries of the times who sojourned at The Raffles included Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, Charlie Chaplin, Ava Gardner and many more. Even Hollywood deemed this tropical island city glamorous enough as movie locations for shows such as “Singapore, City Without a Conscience” and “Road to Singapore.”

When the people of China rose against Qing Dynasty rule, Dr Sun Yat-sen came to seek contributions from the wealthy merchants whose hearts were with the motherland. And when the Japanese set out for world domination, their prized target was fortress Singapore, which they duly captured.

A thriving city that grew into a metropolis 

So one can conclude that Singapore before the PAP was no colonial backwater, marshland, or fishing village as described by the party propaganda machine. In fact, it was young Englishman Stamford Raffles, an officer of the East India Company, who founded Singapore as a trading post midst jungles and swamplands, and turned it into a buzzling city under successive administrators. So vibrant and advanced was Singapore in those days that it could be called the Rome of the east. Just like all roads lead to Rome, all roads lead to Singapore, drawing fortune seekers and adventurers from as far away as Africa, the Middle East and China. Yes, even some old guards of the PAP headed south from a predominantly rural Malaya. 

"Just like all roads lead to Rome, all roads lead to Singapore"

What the departing colonials left behind became the seeds out of which sprouted today’s stunning metropolis – the great sea port at Keppel, the naval base in Sembawang, the airport, schools, hospitals, civil service, law courts, public housing, sanitation and piped water system. This head start provided by the Brits was augmented by the contribution of Dr Winsemius, seconded from the United Nations under its development aid plan, who masterminded Singapore’s early transformation through industrialisation. 

“I found a city of bricks, but left it a city of marble”

Coming back to the notion that Singapore was a magnet like ancient Rome, legend has it that Augustus Caesar famously proclaimed, “I found a city of bricks, but left it a city of marble.” Unlike Augustus, the PAP did not acknowledge the solid foundation laid by the early pioneers and the colonial administration as the city of bricks upon which they and the hard working population were to build the metropolis we know today.