SG200? Singapore is Older Than You Think

Farish A. Noor

The Straits Times

08 December 2018

Farish A. Noor, an associate professor at RSIS and the School of History at NTU, wrote in his commentary that what that was founded in 1819, was a commercial entrepot that came under the control of the East India Company – but not Singapore, for, as a place with a community and economy of its own, it had existed for hundreds of years before that. In the lead-up to the celebrations next year, questions will probably be raised by many, like how far back can or should a country trace its history? The next logical step would be to seek out more evidence and data to understand and value those cultures – along with their attendant vocabularies, epistemologies and sciences – that were erased by the colonial encounter, but which can be remembered and re-assembled again.

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