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MANAGING PLURALITY: THE POLITICS OF THE PERIPHERY IN EARLY COLD WAR SINGAPORE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2010

Leong Yew
Leong Yew
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore E-mail [email protected]
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Abstract

Mainstream histories of the Cold War have tended to reduce the events surrounding Southeast Asian decolonization and nationalism to the universal notions of ideological confrontation, bipolarity, and the global division between a capitalist and communist camp. This obscures how multiple entities – the former colonial powers, different classes and ethnic groups, and local elites of different ideological and political persuasion – come into contention as they negotiate for a place in postcolonial society. Thus this article examines the case of Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s and argues that these forms of contention provincialize experiences with nationalism, communalism, and communism and by so doing disconnect them from the dominant narratives of the Cold War. I examine various texts by British colonial officials, communist and non-communist political figures, and university students that show how British attempts at managing a decolonizing entity were offset by the local intelligentsia's ambivalence in coming to terms with nationalism and communism.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , July 2010 , pp. 159 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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