Download or read book The Fajar Generation written by Poh Soo Kai and published by Function 8. This book was released on with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The University Socialist Club (USC) was formed in February 1953. In the 1950s and 1960s the USC and its organ Fajar were a leading voice advocating the cause of the constitutional struggle for freedom and independence in peninsular Malaya and Singapore. In May 1954, the British colonial government arrested the entire editorial board of Fajar and charged them with sedition. In the subsequent high profile trial the Fajar Eight, as the members of the board had become popularly known, were acquitted. The monthly periodical continued to be published until it was banned in February 1963, following the massive wave of political arrests codenamed Operation Cold Store. This collection of essays by leading members of the USC provides a timely documentation and narrative of the personalities who contributed to the struggle for freedom and independence in both countries.
Download or read book The Fajar Generation written by Soo Kai Poh and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘The University Socialist Club (USC) was formed in February 1953. In the 1950s and 1960s the USC and its organ Fajar were a leading voice advocating the cause of the constitutional struggle for freedom and independence in peninsular Malaya and Singapore. In May 1954, the British colonial government arrested the entire editorial board of Fajar and charged them with sedition. In the subsequent high profile trial the Fajar Eight, as the members of the board had become popularly known, were acquitted. The monthly periodical continued to be published until it was banned in February 1963, following the massive wave of political arrests codenamed Operation Cold Store.
Download or read book My Odyssey written by Jeyaraj C. Rajarao and published by Strategic Information and Research Development Centre. This book was released on 2022-12-06 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This autobiography is reflective of the many dimensional attitudes of the author, Dato’ Jeyaraj C. Rajarao. As he recounts his life story it is evident that he has lived a life with passion, integrity, wit and mischief. A life of black and white, with very little grey in it. The narrative begins with a simple story of love that spans decades. It then takes the reader through a young boy’s experience of the Japanese occupation of Malaya until she gains independence. It is obvious that the political, social and economic situation of the period influenced Rajarao as a young boy and helped form his ideologies. Rajarao is hard-hitting and critical when he conveys his opinions about the activities of the Prime Minister, and his cohorts, that caused Malaysia to be regarded as the worst kleptocratic country in the world. However, the reader becomes aware of how much Rajarao loves and despairs for Malaysia as he shares how she is being torn apart by race and religion-based policies. No doubt, there is much that can be regarded as controversial or confrontational but that is inevitable when truth is told. The book is intensely personal and immensely interesting. He is brutally honest as he admits his mistakes and apologizes. This book is recommended reading for the young and the old, as it is both a history book as well as an autobiography. It is dribbled with sharp observations on life, and draws the reader into a different era, yet it also educates them and recommends a purpose driven life. The Odyssey is certainly most thought-provoking, enlightening and stimulating.
Download or read book The University Socialist Club and the Contest for Malaya written by Edgar Liao and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The book, using a small group of left-wing student activists as a prism, explores the complex politics that underpinned the making of nation-states in Singapore and Malaysia after World War Two. While most works have viewed the period in terms of political contestation groups, the book demonstrates how it is better understood as involving a shared modernist project framed by British-planned decolonization. This pursuit of nationalist modernity was characterized by an optimism to replace the colonial system with a new state and mobilize the people into a new relationship with the state, according them new responsibilities as well as new rights. This book, based on student writings, official documents and oral history interviews, brings to life various modernist strands - liberal-democratic, ethnic-communal, and Fabian and Marxist socialist - seeking to determine the form of post-colonial Malaya. It uncovers a hitherto little-seen world where the meanings of loud slogans were fluid, vague and deeply contested. This world also comprised as much convergence between the groups as conflict, including collaboration between the Socialist Club and other political and student groups which were once its rivals, while its main ally eventually became its nemesis"--Publisher's description.
Download or read book Retrospective written by June Yap and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Developed as an exploratory study of artworks by artists of Singapore and Malaysia, Retrospective attempts to account for contemporary artworks that engage with history. These are artworks that reference past events or narratives, of the nation and its art. Through the examination of a selection of artworks produced between 1990 and 2012, Retrospective is both an attribution and an analysis of a historiographical aesthetic within contemporary art practice. It considers that, by their method and in their assembly, these artworks perform more than a representation of a historical past. Instead, they confront history and its production, laying bare the nature and designs of the historical project via their aesthetic project. Positing an interdisciplinary approach as necessary for understanding the historiographical as aesthetic, Retrospective considers not only historical and aesthetic perspectives, but also the philosophical, by way of ontology, in order to broaden its exposition beyond the convention of historical and contextual interpretation of art. Yet, in associating these artworks with a historiographical aesthetic, this exposition may be regarded as a historiographical exercise in itself, affirming the significance of these artworks for the history of Singapore and Malaysia. In short, which history rarely is, Retrospective is about the art of historicisation and the historicisation of art.
Download or read book e Original Sin e written by Kumar Ramakrishna and published by Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.. This book was released on 2016-05-13 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "e;Revisionist"e; or "e;alternative"e; historians have increasingly questioned elements of the Singapore Story - the master narrative of the nation's political and socioeconomic development since its founding by the British in 1819. Much criticism focuses especially on one defining episode of the Story: the internal security dragnet mounted on 2 February 1963 against Communist United Front elements on the island, known to posterity as Operation Coldstore. The revisionists claim that Coldstore was mounted for political rather than security reasons and actually destroyed a legitimate Progressive Left opposition - personalized by the charismatic figure of Lim Chin Siong - rather than a dangerous Communist network as the conventional wisdom holds. Relying on both declassified and some previously unseen classified sources, this book challenges revisionist claims, reiterating the historic importance of Coldstore in helping pave the way for Singapore's remarkable journey from Third World status to First in a single generation.
Download or read book Commentary On Singapore Volume 3 Culture Identity And Society written by Gillian Koh and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2024-05-03 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thought-leaders contributing to this volume include Alvin Tan, Kwa Chong Guan, Yang Razali Kassim, Kishore Mahbubani, Gerard Ee, and more!This volume comprises essays republished from various issues of the annual journal of the National University of Singapore Society called Commentary.The third in a series that provides bite-sized reviews of the history of Singapore's development in a range of areas of public policy, it delves into the most challenging of them all — defining the Singapore nation, a quest that began just under six decades ago.This is an enterprise that the pioneer generation of political leaders recognised would provide collective purpose and the soul to what government and people do to establish the young country — an area that cannot rely on engineered solutions or diktat.The authors have proffered in these essays, their assessments of these attempts at crafting this identity but also the ground's responses be they through the development of the arts, the government's political narratives, economic strategy, visions of urban development, and civic activism. Included are discussions on Singapore's model of multiracialism, its vision of being a global city, the impact of public policy in the redevelopment of housing estates, and an appeal to adopt a model of empowerment in addressing the needs of the poor — incorporating what citizens are saying about who we are and wish to be as a people.There is no single definition of what the Singapore nation is; nor should we wish for easy answers as they have to be created and grasped on the ground. There is no final destination. The authors make us all too aware that it will be an enduring journey into 'being' which is enriched by the freedom to explore ideas, ideals, values, the self and the metaphysical condition of being a community of unity, that is paradoxically, necessarily comfortable with plurality, hybridity, and change. Owning this common journey is probably what distinguishes Singaporeans as a people and the volume reminds readers of that.
Download or read book Quest for Political Power Communist Subversion and Militancy in Singapore written by Bilveer Singh and published by Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. This book was released on 2014-12-15 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of communism in Malaya (including Singapore) almost coincided with the rise and fall of communism worldwide, best epitomized in Europe by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Operating through the Malayan Communist Party, communism posed an existential threat to Malaya. While the communist threat in peninsular Malaya was manifested dramatically in armed struggle with guerrillas in the jungle, in Singapore it was primarily in the form of united front subversive activities, interspersed with episodes of violence and assassinations. This new book examines the MCP’s quest for political power in Singapore in the midst of a raging Cold War between communism and the free world, with particular focus on events in the 1950s and 1960s. From its close collaboration with the two leading communist great powers (USSR and China) to its united front strategy of infiltrating student, trade union and political organizations, the MCP’s activities are related here in a clear and engaging manner
Download or read book The 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore written by Poh Soo Kai and published by Function 8. This book was released on with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation Coldstore remains the most contentious event in the history of postcolonial Singapore. Despite attempts by the state to silence ex-detainees, by warning that they would not be permitted to rewrite the state’s official version of history, the authors in this volume have done just that. They have placed on record their own perspective of events. The autobiographical element in the narratives brings to life what these individuals went through as left-wing political actors who responded to the call of anti colonialism and the challenge of shaping a new society. Their accounts of life in prison are a sober reminder of the deprivations and tortures inflicted to break their spirit. These stirring accounts are supplemented by academic contributions that provide contextual depth to the historical events and a critique of history writing in Singapore.
Download or read book Sites of Modernity written by Wasana Wongsurawat and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates, compares and contrasts the experience of entering into and engaging in modernity and the modern era in many parts of the Asian continent. It focuses on the coming into being, development, and transformation of major urban centers from Tokyo to Mumbai from the late 19th century to the present, providing a broad overview of this crucial period of transition in Asia, not only from diverse geographical and historical perspectives, but also incorporating a broad range of further disciplines.
Download or read book Tommy Koh Serving Singapore And The World written by Lay Hwee Yeo and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims to celebrate the many contributions of Professor Tommy Koh as a Singaporean diplomat, public intellectual and social changemaker.It is an account of the ideas and ideals of an extraordinary Singaporean public servant who was not only born with the talent and ability to traverse many areas of society, but one who, when given the opportunity, had the drive and ambition to make the most of it to create a better world for Singaporeans and the global community.Experts in the various fields of endeavour and people who have worked with him examine his significant contributions in essays that are organised in four main sections: Diplomacy and International Relations; Arts, Culture and Heritage; Progressive Society; International Law; and a fifth section that features tributes contributed by his colleagues and former classmates.Set in the context of Singapore — a nation known for its socio-economic progress, its ability to punch above its own weight in international relations, as well as its increasing appreciation for heritage, the arts, and sustainable development — this book illustrates the power of the individual and sense of agency that can create the systems and structures to achieve all those things. The story of Professor Tommy Koh as captured in this book should energise other change agents to go out and create the progressive, inclusive and sustainable world they want.An inspirational collection for general readers, this book reflects the spirit of Singapore's pioneer generation whose determination and tenacity turned the nation into the modern-day miracle that Singapore is today.
Download or read book Comet in Our Sky written by Poh Soo Kai and published by Function 8. This book was released on with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Singapore's political firmament is crowded with stars who could have lit up to the island state's history, but were snuffed out by detention and harassment before they could do so. One of the brightest was probably Lim Chin Siong, who with Lee Kuan Yew, was one of the founders of the People's Action Party, but he spent more time in detention than representing his constituents. Lim Chin Siong was the most prominent left-wing leader in Singapore for a decade until he was eliminated from the political scene by the infamous Operation Coldstore on February 2, 1963. This book is an account of Lim’s significance in Singapore’s political developments in the decade preceding. It also contains tributes by his friends and colleagues in Singapore and Malaysia, an assessment of his life by many who were inspired by him. This new edition features an essay by Dr Poh Soo Kai and an extract from Lim’s posthumous manuscripts.
Download or read book An Uncommon Hero written by and published by GB Gerakbudaya Enterprise S. This book was released on 2011 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many witness momentous events in their lives, but few participate, much less leave their mark. Dr M. K Rajakumar, on the contrary, left an indelible mark at every phase of his eventful life.
Download or read book The Malayan Emergency written by Karl Hack and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Malayan Emergency of 1948–1960 has been scrutinised for 'lessons' about how to win counterinsurgencies from the Vietnam War to twenty-first century Afghanistan. This book brings our understanding of the conflict up to date by interweaving government and insurgent accounts and looking at how they played out at local level. Drawing on oral history, recent memoirs and declassified archival material from the UK and Asia, Karl Hack offers a comprehensive, multi-perspective account of the Malayan Emergency and its impact on Malaysia. He sheds new light on questions about terror and violence against civilians, how insurgency and decolonisation interacted and how revolution was defeated. He considers how government policies such as pressurising villagers, resettlement and winning 'hearts and minds' can be judged from the perspective of insurgents and civilians. This timely book is the first truly multi-perspective and in-depth study of anti-colonial resistance and counterinsurgency in the Malayan Emergency.
Download or read book Controversial History Education in Asian Contexts written by Mark Baildon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-22 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines both history textbook controversies AND teaching historical controversy in Asian contexts. The different perspectives provided by the book’s authors offer numerous insights, examples, and approaches for understanding historical controversy to provide a practical gold mine for scholars and practitioners. The book provides case studies of history textbook controversies ranging from treatments of the Nanjing Massacre to a comparative treatment of Japanese occupation in Vietnamese and Singaporean textbooks to the differences in history textbooks published by secular and Hindu nationalist governments in India. It also offers a range of approaches for teaching historical controversy in classrooms. These include Structured Academic Controversy, the use of Japanese manga, teaching controversy through case studies, student facilitated discussion processes, and discipline-based approaches that can be used in history classrooms. The book’s chapters will help educational researchers and curricularists consider new approaches for curriculum design, curriculum study, and classroom research.
Download or read book Dissident Voices Personalities in Singapore s political history written by Mesenas, Clement and published by Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. This book was released on 2013-09-15 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They stood firm on their convictions despite the odds. Some paid a heavy toll for their beliefs – deprivations, long prison terms, lonely lives in self-imposed exile. But they never broke. Some will say the unflinching attitude of these dissidents against what they perceived as coercive authority has been an exercise in futility. Yet other say the course of Singapore’s history might have been altered if their will had prevailed. Their stories need to be told. The first of it’s kind, this book will inform and educate. Rather than to glorify their tough stance, these memoirs are a record of human endurance. It exemplifies the extremes sacrifices some people will make in pursuit of their ideals. Written by veteran journalist and author Clement Mesenas, this book chronicles the lives of twenty of this country’s leading dissidents – including Lim Chin Siong, David Marshall and Ong Eng Guan, among many others. Clement Mesenas started his career in The Straits Times in 1968, cutting his teeth in journalism as a young crime reporter before moving on to the sub-editors desk and then to the field of magazine publishing. He was branch union chairman and secretary-general of the Singapore National Union of Journalists. He also co-founded the Asean Confederation of journalists. He left Singapore in 1979 to become managing editor of the Kuwait Times, where he worked for 10 years before moving to the Gulf News in Dubai, where he served 10 years as its deputy editor. He returned to Singapore in 2000 to join MediaCorp’s TODAY newspaper as one of its pioneering editors and retired in 2011. He now publishes a number of community publications and is working towards establishing a global network through digital media platforms.
Download or read book Studying Singapore s Past written by Ping Tjin Thum and published by NUS Press. This book was released on 2012-07-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: C.M. (Mary) Turnbull's contributions to historical writing on Singapore extended from her 1962 thesis, published in 1972 as "The Straits Settlements, 1826-1867: Indian Presidency to Crown Colony", to her magisterial history of Singapore, first published in 1977 and re-issued in 2009 in an updated edition as A History of Singapore, 1819-2005. Her approach to history involved detailed work with documents and published materials, with a particular focus on political and economic history. One contributor to the present volume described the book as an "exercise in endowing a modern 'nation-state' with a coherent past that should explain the present." As styles in history evolved, younger scholars including some of her former students and colleagues began exploring new approaches to historical research that drew on non-English-language souce material and asked fresh questions of the sources. Mary enjoyed controversy and expected debate, and had a deep interest in these accounts, which were in many ways a natural progression from her own publications even when they raised questions about her interpretations and conclusions. Studying Singapore's Past had its origins in a conference organised to discuss her work. The volume includes ten contributions, some from long-established scholars of Singapore's history, others from a new generation of researchers. Their work offers an evaluation of established understandings of Singapore's history, and gives an indication of new directions that researchers are exploring. In publishing the book, the editor not only pays tribute to a distinguished historian but also seeks to make a contribution to the historiography of Singapore and to ongoing debates about Singapore's past.
