Reflection 2

Question: The National Museum had decided to erect a statue in front of its entrance. They have to choose between Stamford Raffles and Tan Tock Seng. If you were working for the museum, who would you choose and why?



To my opinion, I would choose erect Tan Tock Seng’s statue instead of Stamford Raffles. Museum in dictionary means that it is typically a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education ,enjoyment , the tangible and intangible evidence of people and their environment."

Even though I knew that without Stamford Raffles, Singapore would still be a quiet, desolated little fishing village but my opinion still stays. The reason for my opinion is because that Tan Tock Seng really contribute us a lot which I will mention below…

Tan Tock Seng was born in Melaka and he came to Singapore at the age of 21 in 1819.He worked for a few hard years by selling vegetables and poultry in the streets and he finally amassed wealth. Tan Tock Seng was rich, but unlike most millionaires, he did not ignore the poor instead he did his best in helping them. In 1843, Tan Tock Seng offered funds for the construction of a pauper hospital located at Pearl’s Hill where most poor immigrants can be cured there with little or no medical cost.

Although during his time he is one of the wealthiest millionaires in Singapore, he donated generously to the charity frequently. As he was a Taoist, he believed that the dead should have been conducted a decent funeral and he paid for the funerals for many immigrant families who have not enough money to do that, and he also paid the funerals for the unknown dead bodies. As everyone knows many people were grateful to him and so they named the pauper hospital that he founded with a lot of his wealth, Tan Tock Seng Hospital.