The History Of Singapore

Working with the British and Lee Kuan Yew, Lim Yew Hock had successfully crushed the left-wing anticolonial movement. But this was strictly temporary. Eventually an election would have to be called, and the left-wing would be able to contest the election, and they would win. What to do? In this episode, PJ Thum explains how British Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd, Lim, and Lee, colluded in secret, using legal manoeuvres to fix the 1959 election; and also discusses the international context of Singapore's decolonisation in the wake of the Suez Crisis. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at patreon.com/pjthum.

By 1956, Singapore's left-wing anti-colonial movement had grown into a coherent multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic movement, that threatened the moral right of British rule in Singapore. The British, Labour Front President Lim Yew Hock, and PAP Secretary-General Lee Kuan Yew all saw the movement as a threat to be crushed (for very different reasons). But they had to find an excuse to destroy the movement, while pinning the blame elsewhere (ideally on each other). In this episode of “The History of Singapore”, PJ Thum explains how Lim Yew Hock attempted to destroy the left-wing anti-colonial movement, while trying to escape the blame. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at patreon.com/pjthum.

The most dramatic impact of David Marshall's tenure of Chief Minister was that independence suddenly seemed imminent. The British would be leaving soon - but who would assume power afterwards? Marshall's resignation kicked off a deadly race for the Iron Throne of independent Singapore. In this episode, PJ Thum explains the political manoeuvering and treacherous alliances that began the moment Marshall stepped down, and how they would shape the next seven years. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit http://thehistoryofsingapore.com/ Support the show at http://patreon.com/pjthum.

At the end of 1955, Chief Minister David Marshall’s popularity was at an all-time high. Five months and seven days later, after a failure to win independence at the Constitutional Talks with the British in London, he resigned. What happened? In this episode, PJ Thum recounts the events of the Talks, the failings and failures of Singapore's politicians, and reflects on what David Marshall's 14 months in office tell us about what makes a great leader. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit http://thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at http://patreon.com/pjthum.

"f you read English-language sources, David Marshall appears naive, weak, and irresponsible as Chief Minister. If you read Chinese-language sources, Marshall appears as courageous, principled hero, fighting on behalf of the downtrodden and oppressed people of Singapore. Why the difference? In this episode, PJ Thum discusses David Marshall’s tenure as Chief Minister from April to December 1955, how he was seen by Singapore’s various peoples, and how perspectives change historical narratives. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at patreon.com/pjthum.

The greatest of Singapore’s leaders - not the best, nor the most accomplished, perhaps not even the smartest - but the *greatest* of the five men who have led Singapore’s government since 1955 - is David Saul Marshall. David Marshall shaped the praxis of power in Singapore, setting a moral standard that no leader since has managed to reach. His actions - and equally importantly, what he didn’t do - irreversibly shaped his office, and have made a significant, lasting, and often overlooked impact on Singapore’s democracy. In this episode, PJ Thum discusses the origins of David Marshall, and how his humble upbringing shaped his principles, his passions, and his courage, and how this thrust a humble Jew, reluctant to take part in politics, into the role of the first Singaporean-born man to lead our government. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit http://thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at http://patreon.com/pjthum.

Recorded extemporaneously while sitting outside the Colosseum in Rome, PJ Thum answers listeners’ questions about the the importance of historical context and the meaning of communism in Singapore in the 1950s, and about the political significance and context of new historical research which the government has attempted to deride as “revisionist”. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at patreon.com/pjthum.

The Afro-Asia Conference, held in Bandung in April 1955, was hugely inspirational for anticolonialism around the world and for Singapore's anticolonial movement. What is the spirit of Afro-Asia? Why was Bandung so inspirational? And how did it change the anticolonial movement in Singapore? In this episode, PJ Thum answers these questions, and visits the entirely fictional state of “Singalaysia” and asks what lessons the spirit of Bandung might offer to a theoretical opposition “Democratic Worker’s Action Party” on how they might successfully defeat the neo-colonial government at a General Election. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at patreon.com/pjthum.

Dr Poh Soo Kai was the president of the University of Malaya Socialist Club in 1954-55 and its secretary general in 1955-56. He was a member of the eight-person editorial board of the Socialist Club newsletter, Fajar, who were charged by the colonial government in 1954 with sedition. He was a founding member of the People’s Action Party in 1954 and was later the Assistant Secretary-General of Barisan Socialis when it was established in 1961. In 1963, he was detained without trial under Operation Coldstore and was held for a total of 17 years. He has recently published his memoir, “Living in a Time of Deception”, has just launched in Singapore and Malaysia. In this episode, recorded live at the book launch, PJ Thum sits down with Dr Poh to discuss his book, his political career, and what he’s learnt from his long life. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at patreon.com/pjthum.

1955-56 was the peak of mass participation in Singapore’s democratic process. Singapore has a long tradition of highly politicised mutual associations, with fierce internal and external competition. From 1955, thanks to the new government, space for legitimate political activity rapidly expanded in Singapore. Yet the public also understood that the constitution heavily circumscribed what elected ministers could achieve in the Legislative Assembly. In this episode, PJ Thum explains how and why associations became the focus of political activity in Singapore, and how they transformed the organisation and practice of politics in Singapore. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at patreon.com/pjthum. “Living in a Time of Deception" by Dr Poh Soo Kai: www.facebook.com/events/214541525557653/

Is it right to use illegal means to resist evil? Or is law and order paramount? Where do we draw the line? How do we decide? This is the moral quandary that faced the actors of the Hock Lee Bus Strike. The law was on the side of the deceitful, exploitative, underhanded owners of Hock Lee Amalgamated Bus Company. The workers felt they had no choice but to resort to an illegal strike to uphold their own rights and dignity. Who was right? Your answer to that question is shaped by your values. Hock Lee demonstrates how history is formed of multiple overlapping perspectives, and that reasonable people can disagree very strongly about the same events and both be correct. In this episode, PJ Thum discusses the context and events of Hock Lee, the many different perspectives on the strike and riot, and how the strike altered Singapore’s anticolonial politics. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit http://thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at http://patreon.co

The outcome of the 1955 general election was a massive shock to the British colonial government of Singapore. They had held the elections precisely because they had expected conservative, pro-British parties to win. They had believed that the silent majority of Singaporeans were conservative. But Singapore was not a conservative society and were not interested in conservative policies. Singaporeans voted in droves for the progressive, left-wing parties. The Labour Front, led by the great David Marshall, was the big winner. In this episode, PJ Thum explains why the British so badly misunderstood the electorate; why the Labour Front won the election; the significance of the 1955 elections; and why Singapore cannot be characterised as a conservative society. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit http://thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at http://patreon.com/pjthum.

In the aftermath of the 13 May 1954 incident (aka “The “Riot Squad Brutally Beats Up A Group of Unarmed Students on 13 May 1954” Incident), the government insisted on seeing the incident as being about maintaining internal order and security in Singapore. It completely ignored the underlying factors which contributed to the incident, including the long history of discrimination, harassment, and oppression towards Chinese students. In this episode, PJ Thum explores what happened after 13 May; how the government’s refusal to understand the causes of the event radicalised the Chinese students, giving birth to a new force in Singapore’s decolonisation; and how this set the scene for future political upheavals and riots. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit http://thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at http://patreon.com/pjthum.

On 13 May 1954, the Singapore Police’s Riot Squad charged into a group of 900 unarmed students, brutally beating them, sending 30 to the hospital and arresting 48. The students were not protesting, but were quietly awaiting the outcome of a meeting at nearby Government House. This incident was a turning point in Singapore history - never before had the state conducted such unprovoked and outrageous violence against unarmed students. Worse, in the wake of the incident, the colonial government blamed the students for provoking the riot squad. In this episode, PJ Thum explains the long history of government deceit that led to this act of colonial brutality and its impact on Singapore’s decolonisation. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit http://thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at http://patreon.com/pjthum.

To safeguard British interests in Singapore after independence, the British desired to leave behind a reliably pro-British population, who would identify themselves as British. To achieve this, the colonial government embarked on massive social engineering to destroy Chinese culture and education. In this episode of “The History of Singapore”, PJ Thum explains why and how the British sought to transform Singapore’s Chinese into loyal English-speaking British subjects, and how this alienated and radicalised the Chinese-speaking community. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com. Support the show at patreon.com/pjthum.

The campaign for Nanyang University (“Nantah”) was the first mass-based, locally oriented, popular campaign in Malaya, and resulted in Southeast Asia’s first crowdfunded university. Why were the Chinese so passionate about Nantah? Why did Chinese people from all walks of life give so much of their precious, hard-earned money to bring about its creation? And perhaps most importantly, what does the creation of Nantah tell us about how Malaya’s Chinese saw their place in Malaya and the composition identity? In this episode, PJ Thum delves into detail about the legendary Nantah campaign; explains the opposing visions of Malayan identity held by the Chinese and the British colonial authorities; and concludes with how the success of its campaign, in the teeth of heavy colonial resistance, emboldened and empowered the Chinese, setting up the explosive confrontations of the next few years. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com. Please note

Post-War Singapore was divided into two worlds. In one, rich English-speaking Singaporean elites enjoyed unprecedented political participation and prosperity due to a new constitution; in the other, non-English speaking Singaporean workers were economically exploited, politically neglected, hounded, harassed, detained, and even tortured and deported because of the Malayan Emergency. In this episode, PJ Thum explores these divisions and in particular explains how the events from 1948 - 1952 starkly illustrate the sharp divide that created, in effect, two very different Singapores in one country. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com.

World War II in Southeast Asia was a minor disagreement compared to what came after. With the defeat of the Japanese and end of World War II came the real conflict in Southeast Asia, one that continues to define Southeast Asia to this day: the battle between Southeast Asians for ownership over the newly independent states. Central to this conflict was the question of identity. If you control the definition of a national identity, you can control the membership of a nation, and thus control ownership of a nation-state. In this episode, PJ Thum discusses the opening salvoes of Malaya’s most vicious, savage, violent battle: the battle over Malayan identity. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com.

Singapore was ripped from the hands of one Empire by another on 15 February 1942. The military aspects of Japan’s Malayan campaign have been well studied - but what were its implications for Malayan independence? In this week’s episode, PJ Thum discusses the two major impacts of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore on Singapore’s (and the rest of Malaya’s) subsequent independence movement. Please send questions, comments, and feedback to thehistoryofsingapore@gmail.com or visit thehistoryofsingapore.com.

In this episode, PJ Thum takes listener questions. Questions include issues of nomenclature, on nationalism and national identity, on historiography, and why the MCP's brand of anti-colonial nationalism was not more widely embraced by Malayans. Thank you to everyone who sent in questions. The podcast will be on hiatus for the next two weeks and return on 27 November 2015 - coincidentally, Bruce Lee's 75th birthday. Till then, remember, history must have emotional content. Don't just think. Feel!