The 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore
The 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore

Author: Poh Soo Kai

Publisher: Function 8

Published:

Total Pages: 656

ISBN-13: 9811891168

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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.

"Original Sin"?

Author: Kumar Ramakrishna

Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

Published: 2015-02-17

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 9814620432

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Revisionist” or “alternative” 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.

Living in a Time of Deception
Living in a Time of Deception

Author: Poh Soo Kai

Publisher: Function 8 Ltd & Pusat Sejarah Rakyat

Published:

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 9811441596

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is the historical memoir of Dr Poh Soo Kai, a man of medicine and a founder member of the People’s Action Party.

Templer and the Road to Malayan Independence
Templer and the Road to Malayan Independence

Author: Leon Comber

Publisher: Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.

Published: 2016-05-13

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 9814620998

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Dr Comber's account of General Templer's administration in Malaya as High Commissioner and Director of Operations (1952-54) during the Malayan Emergency departs from the usually accepted orthodox assessment of his time in Malaya by focusing on the political and socioeconomic aspects of his governance rather than the military. In doing so, Dr Comber has relied mainly on primary and other first-hand sources, including the confidential reports sent from Malaya by the Australian Commission to the Australian government in Canberra, and the private papers of some of the leading Malayan politicians of the time with whom Templer had dealings which have been deposited in the ISEAS Library, Singapore, many of which have not been used before.The evidence and facts that Dr Comber marshals in this study reflect well the reservations that were often felt about General Templer's authoritarian form of government. While he was a good general and had an impressive military record, his administration in Malaya was marred by a lack of understanding of the background to Malaya's history and the subtleties that are inherent in its culture and way of life which would have enabled him to come to terms more easily with the aspirations of the Malayan people for self-government and independence.

Retrospective
Retrospective

Author: June Yap

Publisher: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre

Published:

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 6297575053

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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.

Singapore
Singapore

Author: Michael D. Barr

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-12-13

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 178673527X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Singapore gained independence in 1965, a city-state in a world of nation-states. Yet its long and complex history reaches much farther back. Blending modernity and tradition, ideologies and ethnicities, a peculiar set of factors make Singapore what it is today. In this thematic study of the island nation, Michael D. Barr proposes a new approach to understand this development. From the pre-colonial period through to the modern day, he traces the idea, the politics and the geography of Singapore over five centuries of rich history. In doing so he rejects the official narrative of the so-called 'Singapore Story'. Drawing on in-depth archival work and oral histories, Singapore: A Modern History is a work both for students of the country's history and politics, but also for any reader seeking to engage with this enigmatic and vastly successful nation.

Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History
Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History

Author: Alfian Sa'at

Publisher: Ethos Books

Published: 2022-08-19

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 9811490236

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Why did independent Singapore celebrate two hundred years of its founding as a British colony in 2019? What does Merdeka mean for Singaporeans? And what are the possibilities of doing decolonial history in Singapore? Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History presents essays by historians, literary scholars and artists which grapple with these questions. The volume also reproduces some of the source material used in the play Merdeka / 獨立 / சுதந்திரம் (Wild Rice, 2019). Taken together, the book shows how the contradictions of independent nationhood haunt Singaporeans' collective and personal stories about Merdeka. It points to the need for a Merdeka history: an open and fearless culture of historical reckoning that not only untangles us from colonial narratives, but proposes emancipatory possibilities.