The ASEAN Rizal (Part 1)

The Peninsula Hotel, Old site of the Hotel de la Paix

When I arrived here in Singapore, one of the first thing on my "to do list" was to retrace Jose Rizal's footsteps by utilizing his journal entries on May 9 and 10, 1882, his first, and his most significant visit to the islands. I thought that it would be easy, I had in mind an undersized island that I could effortlessly trek within a day, But I was mistaken, it was easier said than done. The City state is a colossal metropolitan, it could be small in land mass but what it lacks in space, it very well compensates in constructing enormous infrastructures, they have roads wider than our expressways, parks that would dwarf our Luneta, a library that's built like a corporate tower, a Ferris wheel that ranks as the world's highest, they even allocated a nature reserve that has more species of trees than that of the entire North American continent. In business school, there is a stratagem that is taught to undergraduates: make small appear Big, this best illustrates the character of the second wealthiest state in Asia.

In the end, I did [I hope] found the places I was looking for, but it took me nearly three weeks! the two raisons why it became time-consuming was, First, Rizal wrote his journal entries without supplying names and exact settings, giving indistinct descriptions, like viewing a "Portuguese church" or entering a "French church", he gave brief commentaries on its appearance but he never revealed any specifics, he was cleanly sketching what he saw, recounting places that he found to be interesting. Second, the colossal land development that has taken place in the last two decades has totally altered the landscape, they did, however, preserved some of the well-known heritage sites and edifices, and they did a splendid job, but the Singapore of 1882, now only exist in B&W photos and old records that can be found in their impressive National Library, the outstanding monuments are but a reminder of what was once a active city harbor of colonial Britain.

Rizal visited Singapore in five occasions, but the first was something special to the brown superman [this was his first ever foreign country visit], for it was here that he begun his pursuit of what he refers to as his "enlightenment", a quest that would take him all over the world and make him the greatest Filipino, in the words of Guerrero, The First Filipino!

We begin our journey with Rizal's rented room at the "Hotel de la Paix", located at Coleman Street, named after Singapore's pioneering city planner, George Coleman. The hotel was in fact the residence of Architect Coleman, constructed in 1829, converted into a lodge after his death. Hotel de la Paix was later renamed Burlington before it was totally demolished in 1965, the contemporary and chic Peninsular hotel, built in 1971, now stand on its place.

According to Marsita Omar, a Singaporean researcher from NLB, "the principal hotels in Singapore in the late 19th century, were Raffles Hotel, Hotel de L'Europe and Hotel de La Paix ". The hotel were Rizal was staying had a fine location, it was pricey but had good quality quarters, but it had terrible service, and the chow according to Rizal, "There was neither order nor coordination in the service...I ate rice which was inferior to ours". Hotel de la Paix sits in the hub of what was recognized then as the island's civic center, amongst its neighbors is the City Hall, Treasury and the Parliament.

In his journal he wrote, "I'm in my room which overlooks a patio adjoining the Hotel Europa, I hear English spoken everywhere...", The Hotel Europa, another classic structure was brought down in 1937, the site was use for the creation of the Supreme Court building, which was finished in 1939.

The old Masonic lodge could also be found in the same street, less than a block away, it's a possibility that he got in touch with his Mason brothers during his short stopover and that they were the ones that prearranged for his boarding in Singapore. Rizal, it seems to me, was already admitted into Masonry long before he came to Spain [this connection however could not be verified, since this ancient fraternity disallows unrestricted disclosures and Rizal never wrote anything about it, older historians believes that he became a Mason in Spain]. It should also be noted that in November 1896, during his last stop in Singapore on board a ship bound to Manila, were he was already in custody as a prisoner, his brothers had lodged a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to save him from being hurled back to Manila, the authorities of Singapore has denied the appeal, the following month he was executed.

He repeated his discontent with the hotel staff as he wrote, "When I returned to the hotel, I waited a long time for supper. At last it came after I had leafed through an illustrated German magazine with beautiful drawings", if he was hotel critic writer, reporting for a travel magazine, he would've failed this hotel, regarded then to be a premier destination.

Rizal was noticeably astonished by what he had been witnessing he wrote, "I'll remember everything I have seen since this afternoon", There were a "thousand enigmatic things" he added, he took pleasure being on the road, but what's worth mentioning is that he never felt at ease with all the oriental culture that surrounded him, he sought for Christian churches and preferred to speak with Spanish speakers. It could very well be the strangeness of the place, far away from the customary sceneries of picturesque Calamba, but then again we should evaluate the established culture of a Filipino, during those years, someone like Rizal, for example, and compare it with other advanced Asian society and we would notice that we had already been hispanized and it would be quite unattainable to alter its effects. Here is Rizal, plainly detached from the preponderance of the Asian way of life. Calling Rizal, a Malay would be improper because aside from his lineage [Chinese and Castillian], he never saw himself as a Malay, on no account did once he declared that he was, but there are many who find it irresistible to associate him with being Malay, chiefly those who sponsors Asianization, believing that culturally, Filipinos belongs to Asia, when it is a historical fact that Asia was never with us.

There were a lot of first for the youthful Pepe, and this is what makes his Singapore experience essential, not only to him but to us, for it was the launching point of his mission to help rid his Filipinas of what he calls its "social cancer". The Rizal that spent that short holiday in Singapore had some dilemma with the language used, his English was awful, could be worst than his Tagalog, and he had trouble conversing with it, although he had already mastered French and his German at this point, English was the foremost language of the island nation [even today] The language barrier could very well be the reason why he never attempted to elaborate and know more about the places he visited, he was merely avoiding the nuisance of inquiring from inhabitants with a "language that they alone can understand".

End of Part 1

Fort Canning's Hidden Tombstones

One of my favourite places to visit are old cemeteries, yes, eternal homes, memorial parks [whatever it's called these days], I find it ironic that these places which have markers dedicated for the dead could tell us  a lot about life, well, the life lived by its residents that is. In the gravestones that I found, not only contain the usual information we  see back home, like, where they were born and date that they died, some of the epitaphs also presented information's on the deceased trade or profession, affiliations, names of their ship, their lineage and other more, it was strange but never the less, very interesting, you're like reading a posthumous resume. Some had more than one language inscribed; it was an impressive memorial considering that most of these gravestones have been around for almost two hundred years.

Established in 1823, the cemetery served mainly Protestants and Catholics. There are two majestic arches that in a way resembles that of the gates of Intramuros, it has the initial IHS, the first three letters of the name Jesus in Greek. In mid 1800's the site no longer could accommodate burials, the cemetery was permanently closed, there were several attempts to have it reopened, however none were authorized. In the 1950's a significant number of gravestones were removed [to free up space?], the few remaining stone memorials where fixed to the cemetery walls.

Today, one could enjoy a leisurely walk in this peaceful nature park while enjoying the natural scenes and viewing the old tombstones. It was a cloudless afternoon, the sun was exposed, but the trees were countless, they kept the place cool and misty. Up in the hill, behind the elevated white hill house, which looks like the Malacanan from a distance [now cultural theatre and venue], I witnessed a regal wedding in an area that call to mind our charming Paco cemetery [now also a park], they were the moneyed class here [mga mapera!] all the parked cars on the cemented pavement were luxury cars [cars that I usually see on posters with half naked female models], everything looked extravagant, I hang around for awhile and listened to an acoustic duo that serenaded the newlyweds.

One of the famous residents of the this old Christian cemetery is George Coleman [not Foreman the boxer], the famed Irish architect, credited to have given Singapore its first beautiful buildings, like the first Government house, St. Andrews, Parliament, Raffles Institute and the Armenian Church. He also built this structures called Cupolas, right in the middle of the cemetery, probably a place built as a shed but it's too small and could only accommodate few people, maybe two - I believe that this structures where built for the spirits [his and his wife] its an odd structure, this is the first time I've seen one.

Coleman would be Burnham to Singaporeans, he's credited to have given Singapore its true English buildings. It was said that the first Catholic Church in Singapore was originally designed by him; however, it was not approved because  of financial issues.



Coleman was also commissioned by Raffles to several jobs including overseeing convict labours and surveying the many islands, but he's best remembered for his contribution in architecture. His tombstone was dedicated by his wife, it was an impressive and very well made gravestone, the Singapore historical commision as placed a metal marker, so people could easily spot the grave. Mrs. Coleman would later marry a man named James Napier, said to be the first Law agent in the straits settlements, she would dedicate another grand memorial tomb here  later on, but this time to her son with Napier, James Brooke Napier , their prominence can be seen in the graceful memorial head stones that still stands in the cemetery hill.



Coleman's house [the street was renamed after him] , which is near the old cemetery was converted into a hotel long after he died, it is now where the Peninsula hotel stands. The Coleman house could be the hotel where Rizal stayed, however, I could not find anything that could substantiate this, although I'm certain that the area where Peninsula hotel now is where Rizal's Hotel de la Paix was located. Whether it was Coleman's house that became the hotel later on is still a question to me, I have yet to see a map or something to find out if they were the same.

Somewhere in the hill, I stumbled upon a small house made of solid timber, there was a centrepiece that was covered in silky clothe, it was adorned with fresh flowers and some fragrant object, the place is said to be the final resting place of the last king of Malaya, he was a Muslim Rajah, the Malay people revered him. I saw there some people cleaning the wooden floor. The house is traditionally built like the wooden houses that can be found in Mindanao. The place is known to Malay as Bukit Larangan, the word Bukit is where our Bukid originated, Larangan to Malay is forbidden, for us I believe it means 'field'. For years they have considered the hill a no entry zone, of course when the British came that all changed. Raffles built his house on the hill, he once wrote a friend that he would not mind being buried alongside the Malayan king, however, it is yet unproven if the great Rajah was indeed buried on his hill, since it was recorded that he died in Malaca. There were an excavation that was carried out and they had found eveidence that could prove that the hill was the site of Iskandar Shah.



I saw people cleaning the wooden house, scrubbing it [binubunot] they must be the assigned cleaners, which reminds me of my grade school years where school children were assigned to be cleaners depending on the day, mine is usually Monday since my last name start with an A. The wooden house has striking similarity to the Mindanaoan wooden houses, it was humble yet poetic, it has a pointed edge on its roof, it's open on all sides and there were people kneeling on its hard wood parquet. I did not bother to enter and take pictures; I don't want to disturb what there were doing inside. I took a picture from a distant and moved on.

There is so much to see in this hill, there's a botanical garden, it has hundreds of plants with name plates on it. It was said that Raffles also had ordered spices to be planted for studies and future plans of making  them steady agricultural produce. Unlike Magellan or Legazpi, who has been succesfully demonized in our popular history, this man Raffles seems to enjoy a rock star stature here, he's regarded as the founder of the modern Singapore, when he claimed the island for the English empire. One could go around his garden and find exotic plants, plants that I have never seen even in books, I did however found Kamias, I wanted to take some home for sinigang but I decided not to, I might get fined, they don't call this country the Fine city for nothing. Sinigang by the way is Malay in origin.

I noticed a tombstone that I believe belongs to an Armenian, on it, the birthplace written was "Manila", Filipinos had great ports then in Spanish Manila - migration was extensive even then. Another had the Masonic emblem on it, actually I've seen several around - they must've been really devout and proud members of that secret society. I also saw Star of David symbol, turns out that they had a healthy Jewish population then, Jewish were very influential in the islands - I remember this ambassador to France, I believe he was Singapore's first non Oriental high ranking diplomat. I also discovered interesting are the angels carved in marbles, they were like jewels, they look as if they have just been made recently.

There was this tombstone that was dedicated by the officers and crew member of a US Navy ship, they probably buried their fallen comrade here for practical reasons,  a voyage back to midland US is a distant transit, so he was laid to rest here in a tropical island. Everywhere I find curious epitaphs, some had expressive verses, other were plain, providing only the names and life in years.

Even on a hot day, the climate remained cool, thanks to the rainforest like vegetation, I stayed in the area for three hours, wandering around and occasionally taking breathers in between, hiding beneath the shades of the hills mighty trees. I'm sure going to look for old burial places back home, who's with me?