Who really founded Singapore?

Sir Stamford Raffles is popularly regarded and honoured as the founder and
“Architect of Singapore “.Places and institutions bearing his name have a good reputation. The statues of Raffles standing beside the Old Parliament House and in front of the Victoria concert hall are reminders of his role in the settlement of Singapore. His founding role is reflected in books, journals and articles on the history of Singapore.

So what did Raffles did that made him the true founder of Singapore?

Initially, Raffles started his search for an ideal place for the British to start a new trading settlement and he believed that Singapore was a suitable port as Singapore had its natural advantages like excellent harbour and a good supply of drinking water.

On January 28, 1819, the British reached Singapore and saw a small part of the island filled with sand and the others, covered with jungles and mangrove trees. Raffles then heard that the Dutch were not on the island.

After hearing the story of succession dispute between Tengku Abdul Rahman and Tengku hassein, Raffles decided to invite Tengku Hessein to Singapore secretly so as to prevent the Dutch to suspect anything.

On meeting Raffles in Singapore, Tengku Hassein agreed to be the new Sultan, recognized by the British. They soon signed the treaty with the British and allowed them to build the settlement in the southern part of Singapore.

Why do i regard Raffles as our "real founder"?

In my opinion, I think that Raffles should be the “real founder” as he was the one who signed the treaty and gone through lots of difficulty with handling the Dutch and many more problems.
Although he leave Singapore not long after, he had done a lot for us and I thought that without him, there would not be Singapore today and we would be probably still under the Dutch as the power of the Dutch was very strong at that time. Without him, I guess we would not even had a chance to improve as there was not even a settlement to start off with.

Thanks for reading…