The Botanic Gardens is now a Unesco World Heritage Site and everyone is naturally proud and patting the Government on the back for preserving the Botanic Gardens ("Unesco title plants Singapore firmly on world map"; Sunday).

But we must not forget that it was Sir Stamford Raffles who established the first "Botanic Gardens" in Singapore in 1822 along the slopes of Fort Canning Hill.

Let us also not forget that he was also the one who founded Singapore. Without him, there would be no Botanic Gardens.

As we plan how to remember Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, let us also not forget to remember another founding father, Raffles, perhaps with a Founders' Day. If not for him, there would have been no Lee Kuan Yew, and no Botanic Gardens.

Louis Francis Albert