The May 13 Generation: The Chinese Middle Schools Student Movement and Singapore Politics in the 1950s

By Tan Jing Quee, Tan Kok Chiang and Hong Lysa

The May 13 generation was the first belonging to the immigrant communities from China to grapple with the issues of being Malayan/Singaporean, breaking irrevocably with the received wisdoms of their elders, and in a political climate where their explorations were deemed to be subversive.

This book comprises the recollections penned by the participants of the era of the 1950s, where their generation was in the forefront of the anti-colonial movement, and the work of academic researchers who have examined the historical framework and context of the period, as well as how it has been made to fit into the country's mainstream history. The researchers have also examined the students' cultural expressions, whether it is in art, drama, dance or literature and found them to be socially engaged, and grappling with the question of who they were as a people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Function 8
• Release date: Jan 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9789811891182

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The May 13 Generation

The May 13 Generation

The Strategic Information and Research Development Centre (SIRD) is an independent publishing house founded in January 2000 i n Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. The SIRD list focuses on Malaysian and Southeast Asian Studies, Economics, Gender Studies, the Social Sciences, Politics and International Relations. Our books address the scholarly community, students, the NGO and development communities, policymakers, activists and the wider public.

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The May 13 Generation

Copyright © 2011 Tan Jing Quee, Tan Kok Chiang, Hong Lysa

Published in 2011 by

Strategic Information and Research Development Centre

No 11, Lorong 11/4E, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

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Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

The May 13 Generation: The Chinese Middle Schools Student Movement and Singapore Politics in the 1950s / edited by Tan Jing Quee, Tan Kok Chiang, Hong Lysa

Include index

1. Riots–Malaysia 1969.

2. Chinese–Education–Pulau Pinang–History.

3. Singapore–Politics and Government

4. Malaysia–History 1969.

I. Tan Jing Quee R. II. Tan Kok Chiang III. Hong Lysa.

959.5051

ISBN 978-967-5832-16-1 (pbk)

ISBN 978-981-1891-18-2 (ebook)

Cover design and layout by Rose Tan & Janice Cheong

Printed by Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd

2, Jalan Meranti Permai 1,

Meranti Permai Industrial Park,

Batu 15, Jalan Puchong,

47100 Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia.

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

List of Contributors

Historical Context

Chronology of Postwar Political Developments in Singapore and Malaya

The Politics of a Divided National Consciousness

TAN JING QUEE

Politics of the Immigrant Chinese Communities in Singapore in the 1950s: Narratives of Belonging in the Time of Emergency

HONG LYSA

Politics of the Chinese-speaking Communities in Singapore in the 1950s: The Shaping of Mass Politics

HONG LYSA

From the Middle School Students’ Union to the Nanyang University Students’ Union: Succession and Continuity in the Chinese Schools Student Movement in the 1950s and Early 1960s

KHE SU LIN

Recollections

My Story

TAN KOK CHIANG

Teacher Chen Yang Cheng– A Refined and Cultured Gentleman

LIM CHIN JOO

Soon Loh Boon: Obituary

The Awakening of a Chinese School Youth

CHANG KONG YIN

My Recollections of Learning Malay

LIM HUAN BOON

The Two Faces of Men in White

LOH MIAW GONG (LOH MIAW PING)

Detention Documents

Culltural Production

Malayan Chinese Literature: Development in the Midst of Turbulent Torrents

JI YAN

Cartoons and Woodcuts about Chinese Education and the Student Movement of 1950s Singapore

LIM CHENG TJU

Student Theatre Activism in Singapore in the 1950s

QUAH SY REN

A Chinese Dancer’s Experiences of Early Dance Activities in Singapore

GOH BOON KOK

‘Facts’ from Fiction: The Histories in He Jin’s Stories

HONG LYSA

‘May 13’ Writings

Fellow Student Shen Yu Lan

WEI JIA (HE JIN)

The Month of May

DU HONG

Motherland

MIAO MANG

Foreword

A young Singaporean today would find it hard to imagine what it was like to live through the Japanese Occupation (1942-45) as a teenager, to study in a Chinese middle school after the war, and to be involved in anti-colonial politics as a young adult.

Personal experiences and memories do matter in the understanding and writing of history. In Eric Hobsbawm’s view, a young historian who did not experience life during the late 1930s and the early 1940s in Britain would be unlikely to understand the support of the war-generation for Churchill’s resistance against Hitler’s Germany. Such understanding requires an effort of the imagination, a willingness to suspend beliefs based on his or her own life experiences, and a lot of hard research work. Indeed, as the senior historian notes, "the beginning of historical understanding is an appreciation of the otherness of the past – with the knowledge of how much things have changed", especially with the great social transformation of the world since the Second World War.[1]

This volume documents the recollections of surviving members of the May 13 generation, now in their seventies and eighties. For them, their formative experiences in the immediate postwar era have been an indelible part of their lives, a past that lives on in the present. One senses the urgency of recording their memories, however filtered through the decades, in writing so that readers can appreciate the otherness of that past. For their part, the researchers who contributed to this volume attempt to situate the emergence of mass politics and the flowering of cultural expression within the larger historical context of decolonization.

Taken together, both the personal recollections and the contextual analyses address huge gaps in our historical understanding. Readers are invited to judge for themselves just how – and how far – this volume advances our understanding of the relations between individual biography and social change. But it is worth asking here: Why does such understanding matter? Why should we make a special effort of the imagination and undertake the hard work of appreciating a past that is so radically different from our present?

One wonders if there is a relationship between a lively sense of history and a deeper sense of public purpose – a concern for larger social causes beyond narrow private pursuits. On the one hand, the relative affluence of contemporary society is driven by individual ambition. On the other hand, countries across the world continue to face the complex challenges of inclusive social development and sustainable economic growth.[2] It is arguable if these goals can be truly achieved. Politics is the art of the possible – but, as Max Weber suggested, history shows that men and women would not have attained the possible if they had not reached out for the impossible.[3]

From this perspective, the political activism of Chinese-educated youths in the 1950s demonstrated their engagement with the possibilities of history, and their aspirations and i deals constituted a significant part of the dynamics of social transformation in the postwar era. In studying the history of possibilities represented by that era, we attempt to understand not just the impact of seemingly impersonal forces but also the personal choices made by youths in responding to the major issues of the day.[4]

The past is a fading echo, but as this volume shows, it still reverberates today.

Kwok Kian-Woon*

Notes

Eric Hobsbawm, On History (New York: The New Press, 1997), pp. 232 and 233.

See, for example, Rachel Chang, Poor Kids Need Aspiration. The Straits Times, 23 March , 2011. She concludes her commentary on education and social mobility in Singapore as follows: [T]he worst thing that an income gap and disproportionate achievement in schools can breed is not resentment, but resignation. A permanent underclass in society is formed not just when those in the bottom third stay there; it ossifies when they believe that it is where they belong. That we must avoid at all cost.

Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation [1919] in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, translated, edited, and with an introduction by H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958), p. 128.

On the study of politics as the critical study of the history of possibilities and the possibilities of history, see David Held, Political Theory and the Modern State: Essays on State, Power and Democracy (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989), p. 247.

* The writer offers his reflections as a Singaporean sociologist, and they do not represent the views of any institution that he is affiliated with.

Preface

This is an unlikely book, yet at the same time one whose time has come.

There is hardly any precedence for writings on and in Singapore which feature contributors who have lived through the events about which they are writing, alongside those who research on the period.

In the first place, there is a dearth of narratives and accounts on the subject at hand. The politically active Chinese middle school students, whose voices were about the most insistent and unequivocal in the country’s politics in the 1950s have been by and large silent, if not silenced, and have been so for half a century. Up to a decade ago, they were not the only ones.

As a corollary, those who are keen to learn about the experiences of these former students may on the whole find that they do not receive much guidance and encouragement from them. It may well be the case, and understandably so that those who see themselves as being marginalized and demonized in the country’s dominant history may not trust that their story would be understood. After all, that narrative has it that the economic and social stability which the country has enjoyed was attained only with their elimination as a political, social and cultural force. The Chinese middle school–that crucial social institution which gave the students their education, friendships and networks, solidarity and their anti-colonial cause is no more, and their putative successors do not regard the turbulent years of the 1950s as a part of the school’s history that their students should know about.

Silence then has been the most prevalent form of response to the dominant narrative, whether it be on account of the lack of a coherent reply, or out of fear, frustration and withdrawal, or the decision to put the past behind.

This volume marks the breaking of that silence.

The most precious part of the volume is the Recollections section, which is written in the first person. Even the youngest of the contributors have reached their retirement age. They have decide that it is time for them to say who they are, and what they think. These individuals may have agreed to write for different reasons. Perhaps what they had needed all along was the structure which the book offered; or they may have been stimulated by recent publications which refer to that period, or they regard this as an opportunity for them to be able to let their young grandchildren know one day about themselves. Even though only a handful have written, they have made a breakthrough.

Regardless of how solid the work of the academics and other researchers in the volume may be, there will be those to come whose work will surpass what they have written, and indeed it must be the hope of these contributors that would be the case. But the recollections in print in the volume cannot be thus superseded. They can be supported, supplemented, interrogated, qualified, critiqued, and challenged by other recollections, and cited and analysed by scholars, but they stand as testimonies that were made at a particular point in their individual lives and in the country's history, presented in a particular format, and in a specific configuration.

The editors have made every effort to invite and encourage contributions from as many people as possible. The response was not overwhelming. All the more then are the cognisant of the trust that has been placed on them by the contributors, whatever the reasons they may have for writing. Time is not on our side where this is concerned.

For the researchers and academics who are contributors to this volume, it is a unique opportunity to be published in this shared enterprise. It would be difficult for us to find a more meaningful and significant platform in which to situate our academics work. Though the combination of participants' recollections and academic output is an obvious one, it has taken all this while for it to happen. The original plan was for there to be only one or two chapters setting out the historical context and long term impact of the dynamics of the period. In the end, however, the inclusion of a substantial number of the more academic pieces not only helped to fill up the pages, an important consideration in itself it must be admitted, but also to throw up more dimensions and insights for consideration.

In order to allow authors who write in either Chinese or English to participate, and to reach a readership that cuts across age groups, this book is published in the two languages. The translators who have worked on the chapters have been most obliging, patient and dedicated.

Of the many people whom we would like to thank, Phoon Yuen Ming and Tan Teng Phee have been of assistance in the most diverse of ways, from helping us take photographs and scan documents, recommending excellent translators (and in one instance even taking on the translation when others would not be able to meet the tight deadline), to encouraging a potential contributor to write, and facilitating the effort by keying in the handwritten text as well as subsequent amendments whenever these were made.

Rose Tan was indispensable as our business manager, as well as designer of the book cover. But she is of course much more than that, being the other half of Tan Jing Quee.

The calligraphy that graces the book cover is the work of Mr. Zhang Guan Sheng.

I have been given the privilege of writing this Preface, and cannot pass up the opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of my fellow editors. Tan Jing Quee came up with the idea for the book initially as a companion volume to He Jin’s novel Ju Lang (2004), which we translated (with Loh Miaw Ping) into The Mighty Wave (2011). Throughout, he held firm to the belief that this effort was too important to give up on. Tan Kok Chiang took a leap of faith from afar, and agreed to come on board as an editor when we sent him an email invitation. His endorsement of the project has been important and heartening, as has been the meticulous work he put in to ensure among other things that where the translations are concerned, both versions are of equal standard.

It is clear from the Chinese middle school magazines of the immediate postwar years and the 1950s that the students of the time learnt the most and best from self-directed, purposeful activities complementary to, but outside of the school curriculum. As a historian in Singapore, I can really appreciate that state of affairs.

This book is dedicated to those writers who will take off from this initial, limited effort.

Hong Lysa

Introduction

The Chinese school student movement which emerged in the 1950s can be defined by two characteristics. The decade marked a major transition from the armed struggle which was waged in the Malayan jungles to a new phase of constitutional struggle against colonial rule centered in the urban areas, in particular Singapore. As a result of both international and internal pressure for change and self-government the British authorities initiated and encouraged electoral politics in both the Malay Peninsula and the colony of Singapore.

In the early 1950s a member system was introduced in the Malay Peninsula leading to a fairly speedy grant of independence to Malaya on 31 August 1957, after the British had successfully cajoled and persuaded the elite of the three main racial groups to work together to achieve independence. A similar attempt was introduced in Singapore in the first half of the 1950s by the introduction of the Rendel Constitution. However, the political situation in Singapore at the time was more fluid and the anti-colonial struggle more united, so that the British policy of divide and rule did not take off quite so easily. In fact, the political development in Singapore in the early 1950s indicated quite clearly that with each new election, the anti-colonial movement shifted leftwards. As a result, there was a delayed grant of self-government and independence to Singapore until the colonial government was quite convinced that they could remove what they perceived to be the main threat to subsequent developments.

The British colonial government accordingly had to take a more complicated and convoluted path, first by working with Lim Yew Hock, and eventually with a People’s Action Party (PAP) which had been cleaned and purged of its leftist elements before any further constitutional advance could be granted. This situation was achieved in staggered stages by a series of arrests from 1956 and a provisional attempt to grant full internal self-government in 1959. Even so, full independence was only premised upon the tripartite agreement by the three governments, ie Britain, Federation of Malaya and Singapore for a larger federation upon the precondition that the left -wing anti-colonial struggle should be removed. This was the setting for the planning and execution of the infamous Operation Cold Store which took place in 2 February 1963.

Soon after the establishment of Malaysia the internal contradictions between the Malayan and Singapore elite broke out into the open, leading to Singapore’s separation in 1965. From that date, two separate independent sovereign states replaced what everyone had previously conceived to be a single nation-state comprising the two territories.

The second characteristic of the anti-colonial movement in the 1950s was the emergence of youth to confront British colonial rule. This took form in the well-organised student movement comprising mostly Chinese middle school students in their late teens as well as the emerging youthful leadership in the trade unions, who were in their early 20s. This volume focuses on the former. Within the larger framework as explicated above, Section One examines colonial policy and practice in the post-war years, where the British colonial authorities re-armed themselves to continue ruling Singapore, this time by talking of moulding a citizenry as well. Education hence became a major arena of contestation, ending the almost century-long policy of laissez faire towards the non-English medium schools, in particular the Chinese-medium schools sponsored by the community. The authorities envisaged setting up ‘national’ schools, with the Chinese middle schools in particular targeted for intervention in order that their students could be disciplined in conformity to the ruler’s idea of good citizenship. This was resisted by the leaders of the community, and the students themselves. Despite their assurances to the contrary, it was plain that the British were averse to the Chinese-medium schools, in particular the political values and orientations they were seen to be inculcating, which it regarded as pro-China, which after 1949 was equated with being pro-Communist, denying its anti-colonial nature.

In the 1950s the middle school students came to play a critical political role as they became the most sizable and effective grouping that could mobilize support for political parties. The constitutional path which the colonial authorities proffered was slow and limited, but it did bring about the age of mass politics, where the cultivation of an electoral base became important. The students came to hold such sway particularly with the May 13 event, when they unexpectedly became the defenceless victims of official unwarranted public brutality, when ostensibly all they did was to try to petition the governor for exemption from national service so that they could concentrate on their studies.

As a public relations exercise, the May 13 event was a self-inflicted blow on the part of the British. However, thereafter their handling of the students became even more rabid, from banning their proposed charity concerts for flood victims and other worth-while causes, to attributing the outbreak of the Hock Lee riots to their instigation. All this was justified in the name of fighting the communists. When Lim Yew Hock took over the position of Chief Minister, he abandoned the attempts that his predecessor David Marshall had made to reconcile with and even to win over the students to support his party, which did not endear him to the British. Instead Lim Yew Hock primed himself for the constitutional talks by arresting students and other leftist circles and banning their organizations, the frictions and hostilities generated culminating in riots in October 1956. Following that, the centre of attention moved from the middle schools to the newly- opened Nanyang University, but even though the university students tried to avoid the confrontational stance of the middle school students, they could not but be drawn in when the People’s Action Party moved to control the middle schools system, and subsequently the University as well.

The section on Recollections contains reminiscences and reflections on the part of former middle school students. A common thread running through them is the sense of being wrongfully accused and vilified, and the righteousness of their cause. The tone of these essays differs with the personalities of the authors and the experiences they went through. They range from defiant and cutting, cathartic in nature, to subtle and careful, significant for what they have to say as much as what is left unsaid. The May 13 event as the transforming force in their lives forms the core of the narratives of the writers who were participants, as well as the claim to being imbued with a sense of larger purpose and social responsibility towards the underclasses in society.

In the general absence of awareness about and of opportunities to mention the leftists of the 1950s and 60s, the obituary has been a significant platform to remember the individuals and demonstrate that the politically defeated were not totally speechless. Prominent notices of condolences were taken out in the Chinese-language newspaper by former comrades when leading left-wing leaders died, registering the point that they remained much respected. The two obituaries in this volume are much more modest in scale, but they similarly bring a larger dimension to the life of the deceased, offering careful insights about their times, and ours.

But more than words can ever tell about a life are the documents and photographs that one of the authors has kept for all these decades. She calls them her most treasured possession, but their meaning and potency have been locked up by being purely in the possession of its owner, which others would not get to read. In this book, they are released into the public domain, to tell their story by their sheer existence. As a set of documentary materials generated in the course of a person’s life they take on a meaning, and evoke an immediacy and poignancy that the same sheets of paper lying in a public repository would not.

So just what was it that the middle school student activists of the 1950s were up to, that has come to make them so much the object of condemnation by the state? An important part of their political activism was expressed in their cultural explorations. This volume features essays on their art (woodcuts), drama (Chinese-language theatre), dance (ballet), literature (short stories) in which they were the most active and experimental at the time, and which constitutes the incipient shaping of a Malayan Chinese culture. The short story, poem and essay that form Sect on four of this book were by students and were widely read and cited among them at the time. They offer an insight into the issues which the students were embroiled in, the debates they had, the aspirations they held, which they apprehended perhaps only amorphously and simplistically then, but were not to have the time to arrive at a deeper and more measured understanding. They quite certainly underestimated the complexities of the situation that they were caught in, to their great peril.

The May 13 generation was the first of the immigrant communities from China to grapple with the issues of being Malayan/Singaporean, breaking irrevocably with the received wisdoms of their elders, and in a political climate where their explorations were deemed to be subversive. Countless numbers of them were banished, detained, or went underground. Each of these courses altered their individual lives, but also irrevocably stamped the nature of post-colonial Singapore, where to this day they remain largely marked by the choices they made or were made for them in their youth.

List of Contributors

CHANG KONG YIN was born in Batu Pahat in Malaya, where he attended primary school. In late 1948 his family moved to Singapore and he entered Hong Wen School to finish his primary education. In 1952 he enrolled in the Chinese High School and graduated with a Senior Middle Three certificate in 1957. From 1958, he participated in the labour movement, becoming a fulltime union worker.

GOH BOON KOK was born in Trengganu, Malaya, and moved to Singapore to complete his secondary education and university degree. His love for Chinese folk dancing was nurtured through his involvement with the Chinese middle schools student movement in the 1950s. He later enrolled in the Singapore Ballet Academy as a ballet student. At the University, he continued to pursue his dancing interest by learning Indonesian dance. He is now a practising accountant.

HONG LYSA, formerly with the History Department, National University of Singapore, currently does research on her own steam. She is co-author of The Scripting of a National History: Singapore and its Pasts, (2008) and a founder-member of the e-journal s/pores: new directions in Singapore studies [www.s-pores.com]. She is a member of the team that translated He Jin’s novel Ju Lang (2004) into The Mighty Wave (2011)

JI YAN is a Singapore amateur writer. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, and editor of newspaper literary supplements, and literary journals. His writings include collections of prose, fiction, and poems.

KHE SU LIN obtained her B.A from the Department of Chinese Language, University of Malaya, and M.A from Nanyang Technological University. She has taught in high schools in Perak and Singapore, and was a research assistant of the History of Nanyang University Research Project at Nanyang Technological University. She is now a high school Chinese language teacher in Kluang, Johore.

LIM CHENG TJU is a history teacher in Singapore who has written extensively about history, popular culture and the arts. His articles have appeared in the Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science, Journal of Popular Culture, International Journal of Comic Art, and Print Quarterly. He is also one of the founding editors of s/pores. [www.s-pores.com].

LIM CHIN JOO was born in 1937. He is an old boy of Singapore Chinese High School in the 1950s, and was kept under political detention from 1957 to 1966. He is a retired lawyer.

LIM HUAN BOON was born in 1929. After the war, he enrolled at Chung Cheng High School, where he graduated in 1950. He firmly believed that in a country of three different racial groups, competence in the Malay language was of utmost i mportance, and became the pioneer in Malay studies in the Chinese community. He led the way in the learning of Malay and in inter-cultural exchange with the Malay community in the 1950s and 60s. At age 82, he is still actively promoting the study of Malay.

LOH MIAW GONG (LOH MIAW PING) was born in Singapore, and completed her primary education at Duan Mong Primary School in 1950. When she was at Chung Hwa Girls’ High School in 1955, she was elected to the Executive Committee of SCMSSU. Detained on October 10, 1956 and released three years later, she joined the trade union movement. In the 1963 general election, she ran under the banner of Barisan Sosialis. She won in her constituency but was again detained before she was sworn in as an M.P. She is a member of the team that translated He Jin’s novel Ju Lang (2004) into The Mighty Wave (2011)

QUAH SY REN is Associate Professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is General Editor of The Complete Works of Kuo Pao Kun (10 vols.) and Co-Editor of Scenes: An Anthology of Contemporary Singapore Chinese Plays (2010).

TAN JING QUEE is a retired lawyer and a former political detainee. He is the co-editor of the following publications: Comet in the Sky: Lim Chin Siong in History (2001), Our Thoughts Are Free: Poems and Prose on Imprisonment and Exile ((2009); The Fajar Generation: The University Socialist Club and the Politics of Postwar Malaya and Singapore (2009), and a member of the team that translated He Jin’s novel Ju Lang (2004) into The Mighty Wave (2011).

TAN KOK CHIANG was at Raffles Institution when the May 13 incident took place. He joined the Chinese student movement following his completion of Standard Nine and became English Secretary of the SCMSSU. He started his university career at Nanyang University after the banning of SCMSSU and finished as a member of the University’s first batch of graduates. He has been overseas ever since, retiring in 2002 as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Canada.

The May 13 GenerationThe May 13 GenerationThe May 13 Generation

Historical Context

Chronology of Postwar Political Developments in Singapore and Malaya

Second World War was a confrontation between the Allies, comprising five major powers (US, Soviet Union, UK, France, China) versus the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan).

14 August 1941 – President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill agreed on an eight-point Atlantic Charter program under which the Allies would manage the postwar developments. Inter alia, the Allied Powers shall not seek new territories; existing colonies shall be granted the right of self-determination and self-governance.

1942-1945 – The Japanese Occupation of Singapore

In 1943, British establish the Malayan Planning Unit in Hyde Park Gate to draw up detailed plans for the administration of Malaya after re-conquest.

December 1944 Blantan Agreement—South East Asia Command (SEAC) entered into agreement with Malayan Communist Party at Blantan for joint cooperation to re-conquer Malaya. 15 August 1945 Interregnum. A period of three weeks would lapse after Japanese surrendered before British troops re-occupied Malaya.

During this period, MCP took de facto control over many towns and villages.

7 Sept 1945 - 31 Dec 1945 – Establishment of British Military Administration (BMA).

1 Jan 1946 – Britain announced establishment of Malayan Union for the Malay Peninsula and a separate Colony of Singapore. Both colonies ruled directly by Whitehall.

Malayan Union proposals aroused widespread opposition by (a) AMCJA-PUTERA, a multi-racial coalition, led by Malayan Democratic Union and Malay Nationalist Party respectively. (b) Malay opposition led by UMNO and Malay aristocracy.

April 1947 – British set up working committee to discuss a constitutional re-arrangement with Malay Sultans and UMNO, but AMCJA-PUTERA was excluded.

July 1947 – AMCJA-PUTERA submitted People’s Constitutional Proposals, which was ignored.

Sept 1947 – AMCJA-PUTERA organized whole-day hartal, in support of their demands.

1 Feb 1948 – Britain announced the establishment of the Federation of Malaya Agreement which restored rights and privileges of the Malay Sultans, and protected the special position of the Malays. The Malayan Union Constitution was repealed.

June 1948 – British government outlawed the Malayan Communist Party, and introduced Emergency Regulations.

Emergency regulations were extended to Singapore, which was ruled directly by the British as a separate colony under a governor. Malayan Democratic Union closed down. In 1954, the British introduced partial elections under Rendel constitution. The Labour Front under David Marshall formed the first elected government in May 1955.

March 1956 London constitutional talks fail. Marshall resigned; replaced as Chief Minister by Lim Yew Hock. Mass arrests were carried out in September and October 1956 against student leaders and cultural and social organizations, and in August 1957, to remove major left-wing figures in the trade unions.

1958 – Lim Yew Hock led delegation for successful London constitutional talks. The new constitution was to come into force following general election in May 1959. Former political detainees were barred from taking part in this election.

PAP won 43 out of 51 seats the general election. Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister of Singapore.

In April 1961 – Tunku Abdul Rahman floated the idea of a closer association of the Borneo Territories, Singapore and Malaya (The Grand Design).

PAP suffered by-election defeats at Hong Lim and Anson in April and June 1961 respectively. PAP expelled 13 dissident assemblymen.

Sept 16 1961 – Formation of Barisan Sosialis by 13 expelled assemblymen and left-wing trade union leaders. Barisan Sosialis and other left-wing parties in the region opposed formation of Malaysia.

2 Feb 1963 – Operation Cold Store mass arrests of over 120 leading cadres of opposition parties, trade unions and other mass organizations.

16 Sept 1963 – Singapore entered Malaysia. 9 August 1965 separated from Malaysia and became an independent state.

Chapter One

The Politics of a Divided National Consciousness

Tan Jing Quee

A nation-state is usually defined as a sovereign political entity constituted by a people within a defined territory with a common memory of past struggles, speaking a common language and practising a common culture. It is generally acknowledged that the nation-state emerged in the west with the rise of capitalism, eventually leading to the break up of the Holy Roman Empire. Western civilization was essentially Christian, encompassing all nationalities and peoples throughout the empire. Historians have dated the emergence of this national state system to the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), from which individual sovereign states were formed and emerged, each to occupy a defined territory, and competing with other sovereign states for dominance. The competition and struggles constituted the expansion of the colonial empires of these various states, in particular those established by Spain, Portugal, Holland, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Belgium, throughout South America, Asia and Africa. In time, the British empire emerged as the most powerful and extensive, up to the Second World War. Numerous independent states were formed with the breakup of the colonial empires.

The Second World War was essentially the struggle for domination led by the Axis powers under the leadership of Germany, Italy and Japan and the Allies comprising the United Kingdom, the United States, the other European states, and China. Following the defeat of the Axis powers in 1 945, the second wave of nation-states emerged. The end of the Second World War led to the demand by the subject peoples in Asia and Africa for the end of colonial rule with the creation of independent states.

However, unlike state formation in the period of the Treaty of Westphalia, these new states bore the hallmarks of the impact of colonial domination and rule. The states which emerged out of old tribal societies and feudal states far exceeded in number the nation-states which emerged from the Treaty of Westphalia. It is also noteworthy that the emergence of these states did not always coincide with that of a merchant class nor with the development of capitalism, as was the case in Europe. In fact they lacked a domestic capitalist class. The leadership in the struggle for the creation of the new states was often if not invariably provided by either the traditional elites or a new class of intellectuals which had been created under colonial rule. The emerging states therefore did not possess a large business class to construct and fashion a new independent social and economic order. The former colonial powers continued to dominate the economic development and exploitation of the natural resources of these societies which had been thrust into the modern world even though they had now emerged as sovereign