Singapore RIver- A little research.

River is always the mother who nurtures man and civilization. Back to the earliest civilizations that ever known: they were all built along river. Also, Singapore River was identified as the earliest settlement in Singapore. Many artifacts that belong to 14^th -16^th century were found along river, especially its upper stream. These founding convinced that the river was served as the source of food and water that supported early inhabitants’ everyday life. Singapore or better to be addressed as Temasek during that period was playing a role as entrepot under the rule of Srivijaya, Majapahit etc due to its geographical location that lies in the water path between China and India. As an ideal place of rest for the merchants, the river provided drinking water which is highly essential for them. However, Temasek’s function as an entrepot was lost as the rise of Melaka followed by Johor-Riau kingdoms from late 16^th to 18th century. Under the political circumstances that period of time, Temasek was sandwiched between different territories which caused it to be unstable from any kind of activities. After the colonial era began, it was finally the Dutch controlled the Malay Archipielago, but the Ducth was unable to discover the potential of Singapore as a perfect location of port. Singapore and of course, the Singapore river was kept silent and ‘disappears’ from any history record.

It was until 1819, a man with “extraordinary vision” - Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles landed on the island and assigned a role to the river (Chew, 2002). He signed a treaty with local ruler to gain the authority for the island development in order to build a world-class port city on the island. Under his systematically town plan, the river was only used as a nature boundary to separate different groups of people. He placed the European town and government at the north bank; ‘native’ population and Malay at the south of river bank; Chinese at the “ground below the bridge towards the river’s mouth” (Dobbs, 2003). It was obvious that Raffles had underestimated the true value of the river, but its significance cannot be hidden anymore as the time passed by. The river provided the wharf, shelter and store for the cargo that fit the commercial activities’ needs. As a Freeport that may maximize profit of merchants, more and more of them changed their base into Singapore. At the same time, Chinese, Indian and people from archipelago were migrated there and work as coolies, lighterman etc” (Dobbs, 2003). Warehouses were built along the bank; countless tongkang occupied the surface of the river especially the Boat Quay and Clark Quay. Eventually a lighterman industry was established; residential houses and hawker center were formed along the river bank. The population kept growing with an increasing rate. “Use of the river was pushed to its maximum between the opening of Suez Canal in 1869 and development of containerization in the 1970s” (Dobbs, 2003) .

At the late 1960s, the busy trading activities had polluted the river so much such that it was called ‘River of Death’ that unable to support life (Chan & Huang, 2005). Hence, starting in March 1969, the prime Minister- Lee Kuan Yew started his new policy to “clean-up” the river. Firstly, the cargo loading was relocated at Pasir Panjang and handled by PSA, since the lighter industry was identified as one of the major pollutant source. (Dobbs, 2002). Subsequently, hawkers, duck and pig farming were also being forced removed from the river side to eliminate the organic source of pollutant which turned the river water black in colour. After several years, the clean up mission was finally succeesful in 1987. In the effort of turning to ‘River of Death’ into a ‘River of Life”, the river therefore went through a redevelopment. “Under the Singapore River DGP (URA, 1994), the river was divided into 3 zones: Boat Quay that focuses on pubs, restaurants and boutique offices; Clarke Quay comprising a festival marketplace; and Robertson Quay as primarily residential” (Chang & Huang, 2005).

The most obvious observation which resulted from the history of the river is the distinct development between south bank and north bank at the river mouth during the colonial era. The residue old building showed that north bank is western denominated while south bank were occupied by Chinese, as the design style of the buildings shown. In addition, both old and present parliament house are located at the north bank, which is the legacy of Raffles’ town plan that the government base located at north bank. These historical buildings are now playing a totally different role they used to be, such as the old Parliament house is now the arts museum. Exception are religious places such as Po Chiak Keng temple that stand more than 120 years but still serving a relatively indifferent function. This is a typical example of culture heritage.

Singapore River definitely cannot be separated from the development of the Singapore. As Singapore exploits its strategic geographical location to serve as a port which forms the backbone of her economic, the river was indeed the main contributor until1980s. However, the boomed economic coupled with globalization change the fate of the river. The narrow river cannot afford the loading of cargo which kept increasing. As a result, the government took its original mission away and assigned another important role with it: build a new Singapore image and create a nationhood associated with it.


References:

Chang, T. C. & Huang, S. (2005, December). Recreating place, replacing memory: Creative destruction at the Singapore River. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, vol.46, pp267-280.

Chew, E. C. T. (2002). Raffles revisited: A review & reassessment of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826), Raffles Town Club, vol. 6 (Jan-Mar 2002).

Dobbs, S. (2002, November). Urban redevelopment and the forced eviction of lighters from the Singapore River. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, vol. 23(2), pp 288-310.

Dobbs, S. (2003). The Singapore River: A social history 1819-2002. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003.