A five-letter f-word?
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Since I've been following the discussions in ST about the comparisons between Venice, Genoa and Singapore, I should add in here this Forum letter (18 May):
Singapore, Venice, Genoa -- and the winner is history
Mr George Yeo's article (“Venice and Singapore: A study in parallels”; May 9) and Mr Chen Junyi’s rejoinder last Saturday (“Locations, not foreign policies, saved Venice and harmed Genoa”) attest to the importance of studying history to obtain an understanding of why certain events and developments take place and how they impact on subsequent developments.
In Singapore’s case, a further factor was the element of luck. Sir Stamford Raffles could have picked any one of the hundreds of islands in the archipelago.
The fact that he chose to establish a trading outpost in Singapore (which was then called Temasek) was a stroke of good fortune on which the British and subsequently Singapore built up the state that Singapore is today.
Indeed, Bencoolen in Sumatra was also in the list of locations for Raffles to decide. His sense of history and strategic understanding of the region made him opt for Singapore.
K. Kesavapany
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