Chapter 1: Introduction
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THE ORIGINS, BUILDING, AND IMPACT OF A SOCIAL WELFARE STATE IN LATE COLONIAL SINGAPORE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY DECEMBER 2016 By Ho Chi Tim Dissertation Committee: Leonard Andaya, Chairperson Barbara Andaya Peter Hoffenberg Liam Kelley Michael Aung-Thwin Keywords: colonial policy, decolonization, Singapore, social welfare, state-building ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The doctoral dissertation is essentially a solitary enterprise, moreover for reasons and goals that can be characterized as egoistical. It is therefore easy to forget, long after earning the Ph.D., that the privilege of having the opportunity to earn the degree is dependent on the kindness and generosity of others. For his reassuring support, incisive advice, and an inspiring determination to be better and simply to know more, I am deeply grateful to Leonard Andaya. I am also extremely appreciative of the considerable intellectual and personal support given by Peter Hoffenberg, Michael Aung-Thwin, Liam Kelley, Barbara Andaya, Guo Jing, and the late Jerry Bentley. My deepest gratitude goes to Susan Carlson, who kept an encouraging look-out for an international student several thousand miles away. Heartfelt and the warmest of thanks go to Jenna Wilton, Melissa Esmacher, Adam Witten, Josh Hevert, Jeffery Oshiro, Marcus Ferrara, and Alice Terry for friendships that eased the worries of a stranger and made him feel welcomed. I am deeply grateful for the research support provided by the Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship, National Library of Singapore. Portions of this study, particularly Singapore’s social security developments, are direct results of the research fellowship. I am grateful to the Ministry of Social and Family Development and the School of Oriental and African Studies Library for allowing access to its archival records, the Asia Research Institute for facilitating access to research materials, and to Tim Yap Fuan from the National University of Singapore’s Central Library for procuring archival records from overseas archives. There are simply not enough ‘Thank You’s for the archivists of the National Archives of Singapore, particularly Gayathri Gill and Kevin Khoo, for their time, patience, and generous assistance in facilitating access to archival records. Special thanks to Larry J. Butler for extremely helpful book recommendations, to Chua Mui Hoong for publicizing my research in The Straits Times, and especially to Ann Elizabeth Wee for her time and chats, and the opportunity to work with her on Singapore’s social welfare history. I must also acknowledge the profound impact my colleagues from the Social Support Division of the former Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports had on me. This study is one result of a short but extremely fulfilling two years there. My application to the doctoral program was supported by Maitrii Aung-Thwin and Tim Barnard. I am especially grateful to Maitrii as well as Mr. Kwa Chong Guan for their steadfast support over the years, their generosity in giving their time and providing opportunities to engage, expand and further my research interests. I must also acknowledge and thank, for their invaluable friendship and unreserved support, Sarah Ismail, Zakir Hussain, Chew Yong Jack, Pang Yang Huei, Panu Wongcha-um, Kelly Lau, Sandra Lau, Mok Meifeng, Hu Wen and Tony Tan. There are no words or deeds that will adequately express my profound gratitude to my family. I am forever indebted to my best friend and wife, Ashanti Devi; and to my parents, Dorothy Chia Meng Ngoh and Richard Ho Yuen Woi. The completion of this work is impossible without their unconditional support and love. ii ABSTRACT This study asks two broad questions: How did state and society in colonial Singapore respond to the social needs of a human life over time, at birth, youth and adulthood, during illness, injury and unemployment, and finally old age, retirement and death? What kind of state eventually emerged to address those needs? Addressing those questions, this study offers an augmented understanding of state-building via a colonial policy that created a social welfare state in late colonial Singapore. The state is more than a series of institutions, bureaucracies, and policies erected for the purposes of administering a territory and its peoples. The state is also the result of historical processes and experiences arising from individual decisions and actions. The social welfare state here refers to the institutions, structures, processes, and the individuals working within to effect social welfare. Arising from a mix of metropolitan and global factors, social welfare was part of a new imperial policy after the Second World War to create cohesive communities out of plural societies that would eventually be self-governing, and ideally join the British commonwealth of nations. The history presented is a local one as the introduction and implementation of social welfare in postwar Singapore were complicated by local circumstances, namely the unpredictable responses of a colonial society unfamiliar with a deliberate state presence in social welfare and the challenges of decolonization. This study puts at the forefront the migrant worker, the colonial administrator, the concerned volunteer, the social welfare officer, the social worker, and the people they helped. Their lives and experiences gave meaning and coherency to the social welfare state that emerged in late colonial Singapore. Each individual moreover experienced colonialism differently and vividly, making it more than an ordinary period of time in Singapore’s past. Colonialism’s varied legacies on Singapore have yet to be fully appreciated, especially those affecting social policy, state-societal relations, nation-building, and historical research. This study is an attempt at elucidating those issues. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………... ii Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………. iii Chapter 1. Introduction: Expanding the Singapore Story …………………………….. 1 Chapter 2. Prewar Singapore: Welfare, State, and Society ………………………....... 49 Chapter 3. Welfare during War and its Aftermath …………………………………… 102 Chapter 4. Introducing the Social Welfare State ……………………………………... 151 Chapter 5. Realizing the Social Welfare State ……………………………………….. 201 Chapter 6. A Biography of State-building …………………………………………… 252 Chapter 7. Securing the Welfare of a Singapore Nation ……………………………... 305 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………….. 334 iv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: EXPANDING THE SINGAPORE STORY The basis of Singapore history, as an academic field of study, has not changed much since the initial general histories offered by Constance Mary Turnbull and others.1 The underlying question driving most inquiries into Singapore’s past can be surmised as why Singapore succeeded despite seemingly insurmountable odds. As such, histories of Singapore follow a template that usually begins with Stamford Raffles establishing a trading settlement on the island in 1819. They then take the reader through the interactions, moments and events, and personalities, pre-identified to be significant. Those typically involved an overview of the colonial period, the ethnic differences in society, the Second World War, and the postwar trials and tribulations, namely the struggles against communism, communalism, and then after 1965, for survival. The trope of a struggle against odds is popularly known as The Singapore Story. Since 1997, this has been the basis for a National Education program that has been embedded into various educational levels and during National Service.2 The Singapore Story is also incidentally the title of the memoirs of the late Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first Prime Minister.3 Scholarly responses to the Singapore Story trope have, over time, enriched the field. Some add detail and expound on known events.4 Others, such as the counter-responses, aim 1 Representative histories include C. M. Turnbull, A History of Modern Singapore, 1819-2005 (Singapore: NUS Press, 2009), Mark Ravinder Frost, Yu-mei Balsingamchow, Singapore: A Biography (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet; National Museum of Singapore, c2009), and Edwin Lee, Singapore: The Unexpected Nation (Singapore: ISEAS, c2008). See also Ernest C. T. Chew and Edwin Lee (eds.), A History of Singapore (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991). 2 The National Education program officially commenced in 1997. It was initially supported by an ambitious public exhibition in 1998 entitled “The Singapore Story: Overcoming the Odds”, which produced companion educational and resource materials, such as Eugene Tan Hwi Choon, in consultation with Kwa Chong Guan, The Singapore story: A Learning Nation – Select Bibliography (Singapore: National Reference Library, National Library Board, 1998), and The Singapore Story: Overcoming the Odds – An Interactive Multimedia Experience. A National Education Project by Ministry of Information and the Arts (Singapore: MITA, c1999). National Education is not a stand-alone school subject, but communicated via suitable subjects, such as History, Geography, and Social Studies. Elements of the Singapore Story trope are also incorporated into lecture sessions during National Service, and form the basis of the Singapore Studies curriculum at the university level. For an overview, go to “Welcome to the MOE National Education Website”. URL: http://ne.moe.edu.sg/ne/slot/u223/ne/index.html.