Firstly, there was only intervention by the British when their economic interests were threatened. They only came up with policies to improve the welfare of the people when the welfare of the people directly affected their economic gains. In the area of healthcare, the British only implemented health policies and set up different health facilities after it realized that the spread of diseases among the locals will decrease its trade profits. For example, the governor raised the problem of other countries imposing quarantine law against Singapore due to the prevalent spread of diseases in Singapore. With imposed quarantine laws, there will be lesser merchants that are willing to travel to Singapore to carry out their trade, thereby reducing the British trade profits in Singapore. Therefore, the governor asked the commissioners to implement health measure to solve the problem of the spread of diseases. Through this example, it can be seen that the governor only made the decision to implement health measures that improve the lives of the locals due to the pressing need to do so in order to prevent their trade profits from decreasing further.
Secondly, policies were only implemented by the British only when the outcome of the policies benefited them. In the education sector, the British only set up schools and educational facilities when there was a greater demand for people trained in English to fill up the posts in the government and the trading companies. For example, in the 19th century, there was a large demand for people that knew English to fill up the various jobs in the government and trading companies as Singapore was expanding its trade. Without enough trained people in the workforce, Singapore’s resources will be stretched to an extent such that they could not handle the different problems that were occurring in Singapore daily. Therefore, the government decided to provide grants to set up Malay and English schools. Most of the financial resources were concentrated on the English schools in order to maintain loyalty among the English speaking Chinese population so that they would be willing to work for the government and trading companies. Thus, it can be seen that educational policies were once again implemented out of self-interest rather than humanitarian concerns as the British urgently needed new talent in the workforce.
Lastly, the British government was only driven to action after the numerous complaints from the merchants that were trading in Singapore. Originally, the police force of Singapore was small and largely ineffective. The British only implemented new measures to improve law and order upon pressure from the merchants. For example, in the 19th century, the original police force of Singapore was mostly ineffective due to the small size of the force. Out of concern for their trading activities in Singapore, the merchants pressured the British government to improve the law and order in Singapore. The British needed the patronage of these merchants to their port in order for them to gain substantial trading profits. For fear of scaring away the merchants, the British decided to implement new measures that will improve the law and order in Singapore, mostly changes in the police force and the setting up of various criminal laws and the sentences for the crime. Therefore, this showed that the British only acted when the circumstances threatened their trading profits.
In conclusion, the trading profits were the primary concern of the British in Singapore. Therefore, in order to safeguard their economic gains, they implemented new policies that tackled problems affecting the trading profits of Singapore’s port. Thus, it conclusively showed that the policies implemented by the British were actually motivated by self-interest rather than humanitarian concerns.
