The dialogue touches upon the Banjarmasin affair, a less known historical event that saw Raffles facilitating the provision of women to Hare’s settlement, procured through “coercive and unjustifiable means,” as a favour to a friend. With this dark painting, inspired by Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s famous “Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre” Mah depicts Raffles as a skeleton, letting the public know about these darker narratives often omitted from Raffles’ biographical accounts.