DOCSLIB.ORG

1 a PERSONAL JOURNEY in SEARCH of FAJAR Lim Cheng Tju

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1 a PERSONAL JOURNEY in SEARCH of FAJAR Lim Cheng Tju A PERSONAL JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF FAJAR Lim Cheng Tju Let me begin with my personal journey. I was teaching Singapore history at a junior college a few years back. It was a source-based paper, using primary and secondary materials to teach the history of Singapore from 1945 to 1965 – from the end of the Japanese Occupation to independence. The Fajar sedition trial of 1954 was central to the Singapore Story and the formation of the People’s Action Party (PAP). In 1953, the University Socialist Club (USC) was formed by left-leaning undergraduates at the University of Malaya located in Singapore. Their organ, Fajar came to the attention of the British colonial authorities and soon enough, they got into trouble for an editorial they wrote on “Aggression in Asia”, which criticized the formation of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization. The British deemed the article as seditious, arrested and charged the editorial team of Fajar for sedition, but in a twist of events, the students were acquitted in court. One of the lawyers for the students was the young Lee Kuan Yew. The trial strengthened Lee Kuan Yew’s credentials as a left-wing anti-colonialist and it brought him to the attention of the Chinese student activists. Later that year saw the formation of the PAP on 21 November 1954. The founding members of the PAP had people from Chinese student groups as well as members of the University Socialist Club, the very people who were involved in Fajar . All these facts have been well documented in Lee’s own memoirs. ( The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew . Volume one. 1998). I thought it would be useful to examine extracts from the alleged seditious article in class but I immediately hit a brick wall. There were no issues of Fajar in the collection of the National Library. The National University of Singapore Library (which inherited the collection of the University of Malaya) has an incomplete set (5 issues short of the total 62; lacking the first 2 issues, numbers 20 and 24 of Volume 1 and number 5 of Volume 2). However, the publication was still under lock and key. Access to it was restricted. This got me interested in the contributions of the English-educated in the anti- colonial struggle. I had done work on the Chinese-educated and have come across the standard portrayal of the feeble attempts of the English-educated in the anti-colonial movement. This has been a point strongly made by Lee Kuan Yew in his memoirs and speeches, from the 1960s to the 1990s. I think we have reached a point where we need to reconsider the history of the leftwing as more than the story of the Chinese-educated and include the English- educated as well as the involvement of the Malays and Indians in the leftwing 1 movement. i This is in light of recent scholarship by Tim Harper, Huang Jianli and others presented at the 2005 Paths Not Taken conference in Singapore. Last year, a group of my friends, mostly young researchers, got together to start an independent project to document the history of the University Socialist Club. So far, we have made some preliminary findings, including on the Fajar case. For this short essay, I will start off with the chronology of the Fajar case, followed by what we have learned from the Colonial Office (CO) papers on this matter and end with some questions that remain unanswered. CHRONOLOGY OF THE FAJAR CASE The Fajar 8: Poh Soo Kai (president of club), MK Rajakumar, James Puthucheary, Kwa Boo Sun, Lam Khuan Kit, Thomas Varkey, P Arudsothy and Edwin Thumboo (oldest – James Puthcheary, 32; youngest P Arudsothy, 19; Edwin Thumboo second youngest at 20) 21 Feb 1953 – inauguration of the University Socialist Club Mar 1953 – first issue of the organ of the University Socialist Club. It was only renamed as Fajar (Dawn) from the third issue onwards. Jan 1954 – reorganization of the Working Committee and a new editorial board formed for Fajar (8 members) 10 Apr 1954 – a new tone in Fajar was noted in its No 6 issue Singapore Police Intelligence Journal No 4/45 noted the publication was becoming “an excellent vehicle for fellow travellers” (Confidential Telegram No 308 from Governor John Nicoll to Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir John Martin on 8 June 1954) 10 May 1954 – “Aggression in Asia” editorial appeared on the front page of the No 7 issue of Fajar . The Special Branch noted the issue. (article written by Poh Soo Kai and MK Rajakumar) 13 May 1954 – “513 incident”; Chinese students clashed with police over the issue of Registration of National Service Bill 18 May 1954 – University of Malaya Students’ Union came out in support of the “513” students 2 23 May 1954 – Attorney-General Davis saw the “Aggression in Asia” issue of Fajar and gave instructions to the police to make enquires as to who was responsible for its publication. 26 May 1954 – Director of Special Branch AEG Blades informed the A-G office that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya, Sir Sydney Caine had been consulted on the investigation. Original proposal to confront the Fajar 8 on 27 May, 2.30 pm. (SSB 1149/2) Further discussions were made between A-G Davis and Governor John Nicoll. 28 May 1954 – A-G Davis gave written sanction to prosecute the Fajar 8. 28 May 1954 – between 5 to 6 am, the Fajar 8 were picked up by the police. 7 of them were arrested at the University Hostel in Dunearn Road; Poh Soo Kai was picked up from his Katong home. ii They were charged in court in the afternoon of the same day. (Edwin Thumboo was charged on 29 May 1954) Bail of $1000 each was provided by Vice-Chancellor Sir Sydney Caine, who felt it was his duty to bail out the students involved. Lee Kuan Yew (honourary advisor to the club) represented the students in court. 21 Jul 1954 – case was mentioned in court. Trial dates set for 23 to 25 Aug 1954. 11 Aug 1954 – arrival of Queen’s Counsel and leftwing champion, Denis Nowell Pritt, as senior defense counsel for the Fajar 8. 23 Aug 1954 – first day of trial (2 USC members not involved in the Fajar publication were called as witnesses by the prosecution – Jeyaraj Christopher Rajavao and Chua Sian Chin. Chua was later a PAP MP and was Minister for Home Affairs and Education in the 1970s.) 24 Aug 1954 – second day of trial (another USC member was called by the prosecution, Ong Pang Boon, later a PAP MP and Minister for Education, 1963 to 1970) (other than political leaders, future top civil servants were also members of USC – Ngiam Tong Dow was a member who helped to distribute Fajar. But he claimed it never sold a single copy at the newsstand and he wondered who was paying the printing cost) 25 Aug 1954 – District Judge FA (Freddy) Chua threw the case out. Fajar 8 acquitted of all charges. Coda: 3 7 Oct 1954 – Pritt returned to Singapore to appeal for the conviction of the “513” Chinese-medium school students. (7 students) 12 Oct 1954 – start of appeal hearings 15 Oct 1954 – appeal dismissed. Conviction of the Chinese-medium school students upheld. 21 Nov 1954 – formation of the PAP. Founding members included members of the USC. (eg. PSG Oorjitham) RESPONSE OF THE BRITISH TO THE FAJAR CASE: According to the Colonial Office papers on this matter, CO 1030/361, the British were divided on the action taken to prosecute the students. As I have shown in my chronology, Attorney-General Davis was only aware of the “Aggression in Asia” article on 23 May 1954. Action was taken rather quickly after that. The Fajar 8 were arrested 5 days later on the 28 th . Perhaps the British authorities were responding the “513 incident” and saw red when the University of Malaya Students’ Union came out in support of the 513 students on 18 May. Nonetheless, there is a certain amount of haziness to British decision-making between 23 and 28 May. Governor John Nicoll had discussions with A-G Davis on this matter. The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Sir Sydney Caine was consulted by the police and by the Director of Special Branch, AEG Blades on how to proceed in handling the students. However, after the arrests, Caine said that it was not made clear to him that the police would actually arrest the students to be prosecuted. He was under the impression that they would only be questioned by the police. After the arrests, more divisions became apparent among the British authorities on whether this was the right thing to do. The key disagreement was between Governor John Nicoll and the Commissioner-General for the UK in SEA, Malcolm MacDonald. MacDonald was of the opinion that the case should be dropped immediately and continuation would do the British Empire more harm than good. In fact, MacDonald drafted a government statement to drop the charges against the students for Nicoll’s consideration. Nicoll rejected this idea and said that while it might have been a mistake to arrest the students, to drop the case would make things worse. The British would be seen as weak and lose face, so to speak. All this happened in June 1954, just weeks after the arrests. Reading the correspondence between MacDonald and Nicoll, I get the impression that it might 4 be loss of face that led MacDonald to disagree with Nicoll on this matter.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Concert' of Voices an Anthology of World Writing in English
    Concert' of Voices An Anthology of World Writing in English SECON D EDITI ON Edited by Victor J. Ramraj Contents Editor's Note to the Second Edition • xiii Introduction to the First Edition • xv Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) Girls at War (story) • 1 Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana) No Sweetness Here (story) • 13 Meena Alexander (India—USA) Port Sudan (poem) • 26 Agha Shahid Ali (India—USA) Snowmen (poem) • 28 Lillian Allen (Jamaica —Canada) Rub A Dub Style Inna Regent Park (poem) • 30 Mulk Raj Anand (India) Duty (story) • 33 Jean Arasanayagam (Sri Lanka) J Have No Country (poem) • 38 Louise Bennett (Jamaica—Canada) Anancyan Ticks (folk tale) • 40 Neil Bissoondath (Trinidad —Canada) Man as Plaything, Life as Mockery (story) • 43 " Dionne Brand (Trinidad—Canada) Return I (poem) -52 Amelia (poem) • 53 Edward Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados) Red Rising (poem) • 55 Dennis Brutus (South Africa) By the Waters of Babylon (poem) -59 Buhkwujjenene (Canada) Nanaboozhoo Creates the World (folk tale) • 61 Willi Chen (Trinidad) Assam's Iron Chest (story) '63 Marilyn Chin (Hong Kong—USA) Elegy for Chloe Nguyen (1955-1988) (poem) • 67 Austin Clarke (Barbados—Canada) The Man (story) '69 Wilkie Collins (UK) ' ' A Sermon for Sepoys (essay) • 83 Saros Cowasjee (India — Canada) His Father's Medals (story) "89 Ernest Crosby, see under Rudyard Kipling Rienzi Crusz (Sri Lanka—Canada) Roots (poem) • 93 In the Idiom of the Sun (poem) -94 • Cyril Dabydeen (Guyana—Canada) My Mother (poem) '96 David Dabydeen (Guyana—UK) , Catching Crabs (poem) '99 The New Poetry (poem) • too Fred D'Aguiar (Guyana—UK) Home (poem) • 102 A Son in Shadow: Remembering, in Fragments, a Lost Parent (Memoir/Essay) • 103 , ~ Kamala Das (India) , .
    [Show full text]
  • Commentary 2011
    Commentary: Volume 24, 2015 Singapore @ 50: Reflections and Observations Editor: Associate Professor Victor R Savage Published by The National University of Singapore Society (NUSS) Kent Ridge Guild House 9 Kent Ridge Drive Singapore 119241 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed by Naili Printing Industry MCI (P) 097 / 02 / 2015 COMMENTARY VOLUME 24, 2015 SINGAPORE @ 50: REFLECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS 1 Contents Tribute Singapore Economy 5 Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015): 56 - 78 Singapore’s Economic Mentor, Sage and Political Development, 1965-2020: Philosopher Review, Reflection and Victor R Savage Perspective Tan Khee Giap, Editorial Evan Tan Beng Kai and 6 - 14 Singapore@50: Reflections Vincent Kwan Wen Seng and Observations Victor R Savage 79 - 85 Development of Singapore’s Financial Sector Infrastructure Piyush Gupta 15 - 21 Singapore has become a City 86 - 93 The Hub Concept - for Cars, not People Reflections on the Past, Bruno Wildermuth Projections for the Future 22 - 28 An Extraordinary Journey: Joergen Oerstroem Moeller 50 Years of Urban Planning Security & Defence in Singapore Mieko Otsuki 94 - 100 50 Years of Singapore’s Securitisation: Prospects Social Issues and Challenges 29 - 37 Singapore In Transition: Bilveer Singh Staying Together For The External Relations Next 50 - Reviving the 101 - 108 Building on
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Edwin Thumboo1
    ASIATIC, VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2, DECEMBER 2013 Understanding Edwin Thumboo1 Gwee Li Sui2 Singapore Abstract Edwin Thumboo is arguably the most famous and powerful figure in Singaporean literature. He is also the most controversial, generating a broad range of responses to the meaning and value of his verse. Thumboo’s poetry parallels not just the stages of his life but problematically also how Singapore has developed socio-politically. These inextricable aspects create the very possibility for conflicting readings, which essentially disagree over historical decisions, the role of art and the impact of Thumboo’s career and character. My essay will look at the construction of the image of Thumboo and its relation to these differing outlooks. I shall consider the dimensions of his historical place, his artistic convictions, his status in literary and academic culture and his own personality. A different way of working with Thumboo – without using him to frame Singaporean literature – is also proposed. My wish is to be able to confront objectively where this major poet’s legacy stands today. Keywords Edwin Thumboo, Singapore, literature, poetry, history, nation-building Edwin Thumboo turns eighty in what is also the sixth decade of his poetry. The span of his career makes it more possible now than ever before to speak objectively about the man and his body of contributions. A huge amount of primary and secondary material on this celebrated writer-critic is already available at our disposal. Among the newer resources for researchers is my own annotated guide that has been housed at the National Library of Singapore’s website since 2011 and updated from time to time.3 This bibliography on 1 A different shorter version of this essay appeared as an editor’s introduction in Gwee Li Sui and Michelle Heng, eds.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Singapore Literature in the English Language(<Special Issue>I
    Towards a Creative Use of the Alien Tongue: A Study of Title Singapore Literature in the English Language(<Special Issue>Images of the Southeast Asian World Author(s) Kosetsu, Miyuki Citation 東南アジア研究 (1984), 22(1): 92-107 Issue Date 1984-06 URL http://hdl.handle.net/2433/56163 Right Type Departmental Bulletin Paper Textversion publisher Kyoto University Southeast As£an Studz'es, Vol. 22, No.1, June 1984 Towards a Creative Use of the Alien Tongue: A Study of Singapore Literature in the English Language Miyuki KOSETSU * exercise. Singapore writers who write In I English cannot fully express themselves Singapore literature m the English lan­ except in this language; it is the language guage refers to a body of literature produced in which they feel most at home of all lan­ in Singapore by those writers who can ex­ guages and dialects they may have at com­ press themselves best in English though it is mand in varying degrees. The passage not their mother tongue. Singapore, mul­ from a poem quoted below expresses in a tiracial and multicultural, has a bewilder­ succinct manner these writers' feelings of ingly complex language situation, with more uncertainty about their identity; this poet than 20 languages and linguistic variants is Chinese in race and cultural background, currently spoken. Of the four official lives in the Malay world, and nevertheless languages, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and has to express herself in the alien tongue: English, the first is designated the national language, but only in a symbolic sense. My country and my people English is the de facto national language I never understood.
    [Show full text]
  • The Handbook of World Englishes
    The Handbook of World Englishes THOA01 1 19/07/2006, 11:33 AM Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics This outstanding multi-volume series covers all the major subdisciplines within lin- guistics today and, when complete, will offer a comprehensive survey of linguistics as a whole. Already published: The Handbook of Child Language The Handbook of Language and Gender Edited by Paul Fletcher and Brian Edited by Janet Holmes and MacWhinney Miriam Meyerhoff The Handbook of Phonological Theory The Handbook of Second Language Edited by John A. Goldsmith Acquisition Edited by Catherine J. Doughty and The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Michael H. Long Theory Edited by Shalom Lappin The Handbook of Bilingualism Edited by Tej K. Bhatia and The Handbook of Sociolinguistics William C. Ritchie Edited by Florian Coulmas The Handbook of Pragmatics The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences Edited by Laurence R. Horn and Edited by William J. Hardcastle and Gregory Ward John Laver The Handbook of Applied Linguistics The Handbook of Morphology Edited by Alan Davies and Edited by Andrew Spencer and Catherine Elder Arnold Zwicky The Handbook of Speech Perception The Handbook of Japanese Linguistics Edited by David B. Pisoni and Edited by Natsuko Tsujimura Robert E. Remez The Handbook of Linguistics The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Edited by Mark Aronoff and Janie Volumes I–V Rees-Miller Edited by Martin Everaert and The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Henk van Riemsdijk Theory The Handbook of the History of English Edited by Mark Baltin and Chris Collins Edited by Ans van Kemenade and The Handbook of Discourse Analysis Bettelou Los Edited by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah The Handbook of English Linguistics Tannen, and Heidi E.
    [Show full text]
  • The Year That Was
    Kunapipi Volume 2 Issue 1 Article 18 1980 The Year That Was Anna Rutherford University of Aarhus, Denmark Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Rutherford, Anna, The Year That Was, Kunapipi, 2(1), 1980. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol2/iss1/18 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] The Year That Was Abstract Australia It's been a year for the bizarre in Australian fiction: a transvestite who is a Byzantine empress/ station hand/ whore-mistress; a narrating foetus; a plantation owner who takes you out at night to wrestle renegade pineapples to the ground; characters with words stamped on their foreheads and one with a coffin owinggr out of his side ... This journal article is available in Kunapipi: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol2/iss1/18 The Year That Was AUSTRALIA It's been a year for the bizarre in Australian fiction: a transvestite who is a Byzantine empress/ station hand/ whore-mistress; a narrating foetus; a plantation owner who takes you out at night to wrestle renegade pine­ apples to the ground; characters with words stamped on their foreheads and one with a coffin growing out of his side ... Little did Synge know when he said there should be material for drama with all those 'shepherds going mad in lonely huts'! The theme of the year's most remarkable book, Patrick White's The Twybom Affair Oonathan Cape) is caught early when one of its charac· ters remarks, 'The difference between the sexes is no worse than their appalling similarity'.
    [Show full text]
  • Charting Ecological Currents in Edwin Thumboo's Poetry
    Vol 8 (1) March 2018 Imagining Oneness: Charting Ecological Currents in Edwin Thumboo’s Poetry Arka Mondal (Independent Scholar) Abstract Eco-poetry is a special kind of expression that effects an imaginative unification of the human mind and the more-than-human natural world, thereby leading/guiding the former to an alternative way of being in the world. It is an efficient system for evoking the feelings of a community. It is also an artwork that evinces the interrelatedness of all life forms and preservation of landscapes. Keeping this in view, the paper examines the unexplored poems of Edwin Thumboo to accentuate how these serve the aforementioned functions, despite the inconsistencies in the poet’s ecosophy, that is, his representation of nature as an independent, healthy place, and having spiritual significance. It discusses Thumboo’s continuous engagement with the more-than-human natural world: his identification with other life forms, expression of concern for non-human spaces, and representation of viable ecological communities in his poetry. Introduction In one of the chapters titled “What Are Poets For?” from The Song of the Earth (2000), deep ecocritic, Jonathan Bate, states that the Romantic writers regard poetic language as a special kind of expression, which has the capacity to effect “an imaginative reunification of mind and nature” (245). Bate uses the term “ecopoetics” to describe these Romantic poems, and considers such poetical works as efficient systems for “recycling the richest thoughts and feelings of a community” (247). These are the artworks that evince an alternative way of being in the world in consonance with environmental ethics.
    [Show full text]
  • Malaysian Literature in English
    Malaysian Literature in English Malaysian Literature in English: A Critical Companion Edited by Mohammad A. Quayum Malaysian Literature in English: A Critical Companion Edited by Mohammad A. Quayum This book first published 2020 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2020 by Mohammad A. Quayum and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-4929-1 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-4929-6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Mohammad A. Quayum Chapter One .............................................................................................. 12 Canons and Questions of Value in Literature in English from the Malayan Peninsula Rajeev S. Patke Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 29 English in Malaysia: Identity and the Market Place Shirley Geok-lin Lim Chapter Three ........................................................................................... 57 Self-Refashioning a Plural Society: Dialogism and Syncretism in Malaysian Postcolonial Literature Mohammad
    [Show full text]
  • “Uncle Never Knew”: Exploring Edwin Thumboo's
    “UNCLE NEVER KNEW”: EXPLORING EDWIN THUMBOO’S POEM—CULTURAL ADAPTATION, IMMIGRATION, AND FAMILY TIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA CARLOTTA L. ABRAMS ncle Never Knew,” a poem by Edwin Thumboo, describes the life of Uone man, transplanted to Singapore from China. But, in a sense, while the poem is the story of many sojourners all over the world, it is a reminder that each experience is different, rooted in the background, the cultural, social, political inheritance of the individual. This experience is inevitably enormously varied—and valid—despite people’s differences. The nature substance and significance lies in what each person encounters, in that tension between resistance to the old culture and way of life on the one hand, and the inducement to compromise, adapt, and seek new configurations that will enable the start of a new life in a new location. Thumboo is from an Indian background and a Chinese background. In an article entitled “Self Images Contexts for Transformations” Thumboo describes the waves of immigrants to Singapore in the early days, “to call them immigrants is an act of hindsight, for they saw themselves as sojourners, here to earn, live frugally, and remit what they could to China and India” Thumboo describes how the immigrants eventually brought brides, educated their families, and helped re-establish “the fuller rhythms of life, a fuller sense of family” (749). According to Thumboo: This Uncle belongs to the Chinese half who/which came to Southeast Asia i.e. Nanyang in three waves. The first came in the late 19th century, the second in the middle of the 19th century, both to Thailand and the Moluccas, better known as the “Spice 368 “Uncle Never Knew” 369 Islands” which formed a key part of the Dutch colonial possessions.
    [Show full text]
  • ARIEL 34-2-3 Cover.Indd
    Of New Covenants and Nationalisms: Christianity and The Poetry of Edwin Thumboo and Lee Tzu Pheng Robbie B. H. Goh Christianity, as an inherited set of discourses, symbols, allusions and typologies, constitutes a powerful cultural remainder in the context of modern Singapore; this is notwithstanding the “confl ictual” theories of colonializing and orientalizing discourses (as Bhabha 85, describes Said’s project), which emphasize relationships of “domination” and “subor- dination” in social relations and texts (Said 8). Confl ictual post-colo- nial theories serve to confi rm the antagonistic and oppositional milieu from which the newly independent nation and its culture emerges. As Bennett (5) observes, “national awareness” in the fi rst place is “often associated with a process of de-dominionisation,” so that the process of new cultural formation is complexly involved in issues of politi- cal reaction, mutual suspicions, and the threat of alternative hegemo- nies. In the case of Singapore’s construction of a national identity, it has been observed by earlier studies (Chen 30–38; Heng and Devan 351; Stravens 277) that this confl ictual and antagonistic relationship between the former colonial culture and that of the independent nation, is exacerbated by a governmental policy (particularly pronounced in the 1970s and 1980s) of opposing good “Asian values” to vicious “Western values.” In literary terms, Anglophone writers in Singapore have had to negotiate a wariness regarding the “dominant British tradition,” and a lingering unease over the role that “a timeless Western intelligence,” “the sensibility which European writers throughout the centuries have joined to evolve,” could possibly play within this culture (Fernando 36; Gooneratne 13).
    [Show full text]
  • Writing Bessie Head in Botswana: an Anthology of Remembrance and Criticism
    Writing Bessie Head in Botswana: An Anthology of Remembrance and Criticism Edited by Mary S. Lederer Seatholo M. Tumedi 1 i Originally published by Pentagon Publishers Gaborone Botswana ©2007 Contributors Original design and layout by Waterstone Publications This edition ©2020 Contributors Subject to the following conditions, this electronic book may be freely reproduced and distributed for non-commercial purposes. The entire book must be reproduced and distributed, without alteration, including alteration of format. Copyright and all other rights including the right to republish commercially or otherwise in any form remains for each contribution with the author thereof. The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. First edition (print) [2007] ISBN 978 99912-434-1-2 Second edition 2020 ISBN 978-99968-60-18-8 (e-Pub) ISBN 978-99968-60-19-5 (pdf) Bessie Head photo courtesy of Khama III Memorial Museum P./Bag 8 Serowe Botswana ii Acknowledements The editors wish to thank the following for their support of this project: the English Department of the Universityof Botswana, Bruce Bennett, Maitseo Bolaane, Tom Holzinger, Ray Seeletso and Gabriel Matshego of Pentagon Publishers, and of course all the contributors for their patience in bringing this project to completion. “Character, Role, Madness, God, Biography, Narrative: Dismantling and Reassembling Bessie Head’s A Question of Power” by David Kerr was was originally published in Marang Special Issue 1999: Proceedings of the Conference “Language, Literature and Society: A Conference in Honour of Bessie Head, Gaborone 16–19 June 1998” (1999): 191-98. It is reprinted here with kind permission of the author.
    [Show full text]
  • Asean 20Th Century Literatures Selected Poems and Short Stories From
    ASEAN 20TH CENTURY LITERATURES SELECTED POEMS AND SHORT STORIES FROM SINGAPORE 1 INTRODUCTION Modern Singaporean Literature by Dr. Gwee Li Sui Works in English The Exile by Edwin Thumboo Sunflowers for a Friend byLee Tzu Pheng Grandfather’s Story by Catherine Lim Works in Malay Cerita Peribumi Singapura (Tale of a Singaporean Native) by Suratman Markasan Lembu (Cattle) by Mohamed Latiff Mohamed Works in Chinese 皮影戏 (Shadow Puppetry) by Wong Yoon Wah 寄错的邮件 (Wrongly Delivered Mail) by Yeng Pway Ngon Works in Tamil (Duality) by K. T. M. Iqbal (The Earrings) by Rama Kannabiran Country Coordinator: Dr. Gwee Li Sui Editorial Committee: English-Language Coordinator: Dr. Gwee Li Sui Malay-Language Coordinator: Azhar Ibrahim Chinese-Language Coordinator: Tan Chee Lay Tamil-Language Coordinator: Shanmugam Kadakara 2 Introduction to Twentieth-Century Singaporean Literature The literature of Singapore exists primarily in the country’s four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. Although its English-language writing is the most productive and the most widely read today, it may well also be the last to have emerged. This surfaced decisively from the 1940s whereas the other literatures have been around since at least the century before. The selection here reflects the diversity of thematic and stylistic concerns that defines the field as a whole. Edwin Thumboo’s poem THE EXILE relates the story of a radicalised Malayan Chinese in the 1950s. The young man represents many who had been caught in the vortex of patriotic and pro-Communist sentiments at the time. His idealism and political naiveté are shown to be what ruins him ultimately.
    [Show full text]