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Singapore: The Past in the Present

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Geoffrey Gunn
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Unquestionably, Singapore has economically thrived in the space created by its independent status as an island Republic. The Federation of Malaysia, from which Singapore was expelled in 1965, has also levered itself into the highest ranks of developing countries. Nevertheless, separation has not healed the wounds on either side of the boundary exposed by the failed merger (1963-1965). To be sure, atavisms from the past continue to feed Singapore's siege mentality, just as Singapore's astute political leadership reads lessons from a history of local radicalism, ethnic chauvinism, and international influences including the pull of global Islam and its influence upon local Muslim minorities. No less, in the official narrative, a sense of China-centeredness on the part of the majority population has survived the birth of the Republic and presents the contours of an enduring challenge around identity formation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 33 , August 2009 , e4
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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2009

References

Notes

[1] Daniel A. Bell, David Brown, Kanishka Jayasuriya, and David M. Jones, Towards Illiberal Democracy in Pacific Asia, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1985.

[2] For example, see Garry Rodan, The Political Economy of Singapore's Industrialisation: National State and International Capital (Macmillan, London 1988), and his Transparency and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia: (Singapore and Malaysia, RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2004). See also Terence Chong, “Embodying Society's Best: Hegel and the Singapore State,” Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2006, pp. 283-304.

[3] Terence Chong, “Asian Values and Confucian Ethics: Malay Singaporeans' Dilemma,” Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol.32, no.3, 2002, pp.394-406.

[4] For a Japanese literature survey, see Hayashi Hirofumi, “The Battle of Singapore, the Massacre of Chinese and Understanding of the Issue in Postwar Japan,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 28-4-09, July 13, 2009. For an officialized Singapore view of the occupation, see anon, The Japanese Occupation: Singapore 1942-1945, National Archives/Federal Publications, Singapore 1985. See my, “Remembering the Southeast Asian Chinese Massacres of 1941-1945,” Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 37, No. 3, August 2007, pp. 273-291. Also see Vivienne Blaxell, “New Shonan and Asianism in Japanese-era Singapore” The Asia-Pacific Journal, January 23, 2008.

[5] Wai Keng Kwok, “Justice Done? Criminal and Moral Responsibility Issues in the Chinese Massacres Trial Singapore 1947,” Yale University Genocide Studies Program Working Paper No.18, Yale University, New Haven, 2001.

[6] National Archives of Australia (NAA) A1838 3024/11/89 Part 1 P.J. Curtis to Depart. of External Affairs, Canberra, 4 October 1963.

[7] Wai, Justice Done?

[8] Wai, Justice Done?

[9] Han Suyin, My House has Two Doors, Jonathan Cape, London, 1980.

[10] S. Jayakumar cited in Straits Times 6 July 1987.

[11] Bangkok Post, 19 April 1998.

[12] South China Morning Post, 30 April 1986.

[13] Tan Wah Piow, Let the People Judge: Confessions of the most wanted person in Singapore, Institut Analisa Social (INSAN), Kuala Lumpur, 1987.

[14] Francis T. Seow, To Catch a Tartar: A Dissident in Lee Kuan Yew's Prison, Monograph 42, Yale Southeast Asia Studies, New Haven, 1994.

[15] Straits Times, 24 June 1987.

[16] cf. Straits Times, 24 March 1998, p.9.

[17] Straits Times, 24 August 1988.

[18] Khun Eng Kuah, “Maintaining ethnic religious harmony in Singapore,” Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol.28, no.1, March, 1998, pp.103-21.

[19] On the Malaysian case, see “Death and the State in Malaysia” in author's New World Hegemony in the Malay World (Red Sea Press, 2005, pp.115-128).

[20] Noorman Abdullah, “Exploring Constructions of the ‘Drug Problem’ in Historical and Contemporary Singapore,” New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, Vol.7, No.2, December 2005, pp.40-70.

[21] For example, see Amnesty International, “Document: Singapore executions since December defy global trend,” ASA 36/002/2009, 13 January 2009.

[22] White Paper: The Jemaah Islamiyah Arrests and the Threat of Terrorism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Phoenix Park, Singapore, 2003.

[23] Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's Speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC on 6 May 2004 at 12 Noon, “Beyond Madrid: Winning the War Against Terrorism” downloaded 26 October 2005.

[24] The complexities of translating Middle Eastern Islamic idiom into local Indonesian-Malay Islamic parlance is well explained by Michael Laffan, “Dispersing God's Shadows: Reflections on the Translation of Arabic political concepts into Malay and Indonesian.”

[25] “Malaysia arrests 3 JI militants,” Straits Times, 3 July 2009.

[26] South China Morning Post, 19 March 2007.

[27] For the Reporters Without Borders site, click here.

[28] Cherian George, Contentious Journalism and the Internet: Towards Democratic Discourse in Malaysia and Singapore, (Singapore University Press, Singapore, 2006), reviewed by the author in Journal of Contemporary Asia (vol.38, no.4, November 2008, pp.656-57), offered here in paraphrase only.

[29] For analysis on the early days of Internet management in Singapore, see Gary Rodan, “The Internet and Political Control in Singapore (pdf file)” Political Science Quarterly 113 (Spring 1998). For the website of the official Singapore regulatory Media Development Authority, click here.

[30] George, Contentious Journalism. The Think Centre site can be found here.

[31] The online forum Singapore Review can be found here.

[32] George, Contentious Journalism.

[33] For the Wikipedia entry telling of this tortured story, click here.

[34] George, Contentious Journalism.

[35] James Gomez, “Online Opposition in Singapore: Communications Outreach Without Electoral Gain,” Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol.28, no.4, November 2008, pp.591-612.

[36] Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, “The Modern Middle Kingdom,”

[37] At least that is the case in Malaysia where a rally against the ISA on 1 August 2009 attracted some 20,000 people, the largest mobilization since 2007 when members of the Indian community demonstrated against discrimination. Attracting civil libertarians along with opposition party members, PAS included, the rally led to the arrests for “illegal assembly” of some 600 amidst a heavy-handed police crackdown. It appeared to some that incoming Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak had backtracked on pledges to review the ISA legislation. See Thomas Fuller, “Malaysia Arrests Put in Question Vow of Rights,” The New York Times, 2 August 2009.