AKIPRESS.COM - A pristine white statue of a man in Western clothes, arms folded with the air of a conquering hero, stands on the banks of the Singapore River at the site where he is believed to have landed exactly 200 years ago on Monday, Aljazeera reports. 

The statue is of Sir Stamford Raffles, who cut a slippery deal with the locals in what was then known as Singapura to claim the island as a port for Britain's East India Company.

Beneath it, a plaque pays tribute to his "genius and perception" and the way in which he "changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis".

These days, the statue is popular with photo takers, but not everyone looks with pride on the memory of the white settler who brought the forces of imperial domination to an island that soon would be called by its Anglicised name, Singapore.

Nevertheless, on Monday the tiny Southeast Asian nation kicks off a year of commemorations to mark the bicentennial of Raffles's arrival and what has long been portrayed as the founding of modern day Singapore.

Many on the tropical island, with its diverse Chinese, Malay and Indian population, bristle at the notion that they are celebrating the country's colonial subjugation and exploitation.