RefLecTion 2

Topic : The National museum have decided to erect a statue in front of it's entrance. They have to choose between Stamford Raffles and Tan Tock Seng. If you were working for museum, who would you choose?

Well, if i'm given a choice to choose one of them, i would choose Mr Tan Tock Seng. Well in my opinion, although Raffles was the founder of Singapore and build the foundation but all he did was the foundation but not the process of it. Building process of it means way more than just building a foundation in my opinion. Raffles build the foundation because British was needing a trading spot and Singapore was the best and only choice, so Raffles did not help Singapore willing and there is currently 1 Raffles statue in front of Victoria Hall already.

Tan Tock Seng was a prosperous Singapore businessman of the early 1800s, known particularly for his generosity to the poor. He contributed heavily to the 1844 construction of a new hospital for the indigent, which was then named Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He helped the poor and build new hospital for indigent willingly, no one forced Mr Tan Tock Seng to donate and help. And in the early 1800s, most Singaporean were poor and could not even afford three meals per day. So in my opinion helping out in the past compare to now require more effort.

Comparing the situation of Raffles And Mr Tan Hock Seng, Raffles was more sort of being forced to help Singapore since Singapore was the only best choice left for British trading spot, and all Raffles did was just build foundation. But Mr Tan Hock Seng was more sort of willing to help with his heart, he could have just save the money for himself instead of donating to the poor and help to build new hospital. He was known for his generosity and his most famous gesture was the gift of $5,000 to build the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in 1844. $5000 seem a small amount now but the value of it in the past was really big. He also gave widely to other charitable causes, for example, the burial of destitute Chinese, as a proper funeral was important for the Chinese, rich or poor.

"the burial of destitute Chinese, as a proper funeral was important for the Chinese, rich or poor." that shows he believe in Chinese traditional culture, he do it himself and he make sure that other Singaporean who believe in that Chinese culture could afford it too. He even help the poor to make funeral if they could not afford. So that's the reason i choose Mr Tan Tock Seng, I think he really deserve a good credit. Nowadays Singaporean should really learn from Mr Tan Tock Seng's spirit.

Copy Not Right by the way, not Copy Right :P
~TMK~