Do you like to be famous as the root cause of a riot?
By scheng1
@scheng1 (24649)
Singapore
July 11, 2009 12:54am CST
In the history of Singapore, there is a bloody riot in 1950 known as the Maria Hertogh riots.
Maria Hertogh passed away a few days ago, at the age of 72.
When she was young, her parents were prisoners of war during World War II. A Malay lady adopted her. She was baptized as a Roman Catholic when she was a baby. Then converted to Muslim at age of five, after adoption by the Malay lady.
AFter the war, the parents located her, and fought a custody war in Court. That time, Singapore was the colony of Britain, and the biological parents of Maria Hertogh were Dutch.
The Court sided with her biological parents, threw out the appeal made by the Malay lady in less than five minutes. Despite Maria's protest that she wanted to stay with the Malay lady, she was taken away.
3 days of rioting occurred, mainly due to the locals unhappy with the favoritism shown by the colonial government.
So the riots were known as Maria Hertogh riots. I wonder how she felt, knowing that her name was permanently assoicated with rioting.
Do you like to be famous as the root cause of a riot? How will you feel to see the history book name the riot after you?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@seanliang (5)
• China
11 Jul 09
do you read the news about Urumqi riot in 5 July in China? it's so terrible,i never want to be famous as the root cause of such a riot.
1 person likes this
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
11 Jul 09
My goodness! That is quite a lot to have to live down. This woman would have had to keep a low profile for the rest of her life as she would likely have been confronted by people on both sides of this debate every where she went for a while.
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
12 Jul 09
I am sure in the Netherlands she would have not gone out very much, at least in the earlier years because of all the noteriety of the case.
That judge probably had to have body guards for a while. I wonder what happened to him...
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
12 Jul 09
I hope someone gave this stupid judge a good spanking. He's really stupid.
There were more than two thousand people waiting outside the court house, and he threw out the appeal in less than five minutes, wonder how stupid he could be! Even if he still felt that Maria should go back with her parents, he could at least have made a better show out of it.
1 person likes this
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
12 Jul 09
If he was European he would not have seen it that way. Particularly way back when.
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
11 Jul 09
If the riot caused justice to be done, I would be proud. Especially if there were no deaths involved. Sometimes governments won't listen to the people they are supposed to govern and riots are necessary. My government, for instance, hasn't listened to its people for decades and our people are getting restless and angry. We have had several nationwide demonstrations about taxes, peaceful but attended by thousands of people in each location. Still, no reaction from the government. I think we'll have to take it to a more aggressive level soon.
