University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2013-2014: Penn Humanities Forum Undergraduate Violence Research Fellows 5-2014 State of the Arts: Government, National Identity, and the Arts in Singapore Shawn Teo University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2014 Part of the Asian History Commons, and the Cultural History Commons Teo, Shawn, "State of the Arts: Government, National Identity, and the Arts in Singapore" (2014). Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2013-2014: Violence. 1. https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2014/1 This paper was part of the 2013-2014 Penn Humanities Forum on Violence. Find out more at http://www.phf.upenn.edu/annual-topics/violence. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2014/1 For more information, please contact [email protected]. State of the Arts: Government, National Identity, and the Arts in Singapore Abstract In the 1960s, countries in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia and Malaysia were wreaked by ethnic violence. Race riots broke out in Malaysia in 1969 between Chinese and Malays. In 1973 and 1974 anti- Chinese riots and pogroms erupted in Indonesia. Amidst a sea of ethnic unrest, the Singaporean government became aware that the multiethnic nature of Singapore rendered it vulnerable to riots.Memories of the 1964 race riots and the 1950 Maria Hertogh riots were still fresh. The government hoped that the creation of a cohesive national identity would reduce the risk of ethnic and racial violence. In this project I examine the development of national identity in Singapore from 1965-1990 to see how the government and civil society interacted to create a national identity. Keywords Singapore Disciplines Asian History | Cultural History Comments This paper was part of the 2013-2014 Penn Humanities Forum on Violence. Find out more at http://www.phf.upenn.edu/annual-topics/violence. This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2014/1 STATE OF THE ARTS: GOVERNMENT, NATIONAL IDENTITY, AND THE ARTS IN SINGAPORE Shawn Teo 2013-2014 Penn Humanities Forum Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellowship Senior Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for Honors in History Faculty Advisors: Fred Dickinson, Kathy Peiss Table of Contents Introduction Page 2 Chapter One Page 13 a. The balancing act of race Page 16 b. Language and inherited culture Page 19 c. The press as a threat to the nation Page 26 d. Tensions with the “West” Page 34 Chapter Two Page 44 a. Economics and the cost of the arts Page 47 b. The arts as morally contaminating Page 51 c. From condemnation to co-optation Page 63 Chapter Three Page 76 a. Politics in the arts Page 76 b. Finding a voice Page 88 Conclusion Page 108 References Page 115 a. Primary sources Page 115 b. Secondary sources Page 123 i | P a g e Introduction An ex-British colony, the city-state of Singapore became independent after a merger with Malaysia (initiated in 1963) failed after two short years At the point of independence in 1965, the island was a mere 581.5 square kilometers in size – smaller than some lakes in the United States.1 Located off the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia, with whom relations were now tense, and with few to no natural resources of its own, the country faced immense challenges right from birth. Singapore’s earliest leaders harbored no illusions about the difficulties of the task they faced – survival was by no means guaranteed. They had seen merger with Malaysia as the sole viable route for Singapore to survive outside colonial control, and now that that was no longer an option, the leaders felt that they had been thrown in the deep end. Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first Prime Minister and respected to this day as the figure most responsible for shaping Singapore’s development, said in his memoirs that Singapore faced “tremendous odds with an improbable chance of survival. Singapore was not a natural country but man-made, a trading post the British had developed into a nodal point in their world-wide maritime empire. We inherited the island without its hinterland, a heart without a body.”2 In the coming decades, the People’s Action Party (PAP), the dominant political party in Singapore which was co-founded by Lee and his colleagues, would lead the country in its meteoric rise – from a state whose very viability was in severe doubt, to one of the most developed and richest countries not just in the region, but globally. Not all aspects of the city appeared to have developed equally, though. Its wealth reserves swelled exponentially, skyscrapers sprouted from the ground and punctuated the night sky with glass, steel, and light to create a skyline familiar to 1 “Land area of the Republic of Singapore,” Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore. http://www.dbs.nus.edu.sg/staff/details/hugh_tan/Ch4%20Waste-%20and%20Reclaimed%20Land%20p.%2078.pdf 2 Kuan Yew, Lee, From Third World to First (Singapore: Times Media Private Limited, 2000): 19 1 | P a g e 2013-2014 Penn Humanities Forum Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Final Paper, May 2014. Shawn Teo, College of Arts and Sciences 2014, University of Pennsylvania. State of the Arts: Government, National Identity, and the Arts in Singapore many around the world, and its ports linked the new metropolis to other global cities worldwide. Yet some felt that the rapid pace of economic development had come at a significant cost. In particular, Singapore was felt to have become a “cultural desert” – a term which even the PAP itself came to accept as an apt description of the state of the country in the decades after independence. How did this come to pass? This thesis seeks to understand the development of arts and culture in modern Singapore, in particular its relationship with the government and official government policies. As will become clear, to solely describe Singapore as a “cultural desert” vastly oversimplifies a story that is far more complicated, and an arts and cultural scene that is far richer, than the phrase conveys. Due to constraints on time and space available, this thesis cannot – and does not attempt to – provide a comprehensive rundown of all the various cultural and artistic traditions and practices throughout Singapore’s history, or look at all aspects of government policy relating to or affecting those scenes. Rather, this thesis will zoom in on some particularly significant moments and events in the immediate post-independence decades (1965-1990) which may be of interest to the lay reader. This account will also place an emphasis on the personal experiences of those involved in the issues discussed here – artists, policymakers, and civil servants alike. In order to better contextualize the study, a discussion of the conditions under which Singapore achieved independence is necessary. This, after all, was the environment in which Singapore’s political leaders effectively went through a baptism of fire. After independence, their methods of governance and approach towards governing would be heavily influenced by the events surrounding the time of independence. 2 | P a g e 2013-2014 Penn Humanities Forum Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Final Paper, May 2014. Shawn Teo, College of Arts and Sciences 2014, University of Pennsylvania. State of the Arts: Government, National Identity, and the Arts in Singapore Modern Singapore was originally a small fishing village, colonized by the British and turned into a major port. During World War II, the island fell quickly to the Japanese onslaught in one of the worst British defeats in history. After suffering through two years of brutal occupation, the British returned to take control of the island again after the end of the war. Unlike many other colonies, Singapore showed no interest in fighting for its independence with physical violence. Rather, political leaders worked to persuade the British to grant Singapore a merger with Malaya (Singapore’s immediate northern peninsular neighbor), also a British colony. The merger eventually happened in 1963, with Singapore merging with Malaya (along with two other territories, Sabah and Sarawak) to form the Federation of Malaysia. Despite having left direct British control, many British remained in Singapore, including elements of the British armed forces. However, the merger turned sour within the year. Concerns had erupted over what the UMNO (United Malays National Organization) government, seated in Malaysia, saw as the potential unbalancing of the racial populations in Malaysia, which thus far had a significant majority of Malays. Singapore, as an island with a large Chinese majority, threatened to upset this balance upon its entry into the Federation of Malaysia. This was important as UMNO’s position embraced affirmative action for the Malay majority (bumiputras) whereas Singaporean politicians claimed to be in favor of an equal playing field, resulting in a heated debate over whether there should be a “Malayan Malaysia” (a Malaysia centered around Malays as a race) or a “Malaysian Malaysia” (a Malaysia centered around Malaysians, as citizens, regardless of race). Racial tensions had already been rife in the region, and severe riots erupted along racial lines in 1964 in Singapore. 3 | P a g e 2013-2014 Penn Humanities Forum Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Final Paper, May 2014. Shawn Teo, College of Arts and Sciences 2014, University of Pennsylvania. State of the Arts: Government, National Identity, and the Arts in Singapore After the riots, some members of the PAP attributed them to deliberate attempts to stir up grassroots sentiment by Malay extremists from Malaysia. Lee Khoon Choy, for one, stated his belief that the PAP’s electoral victory in the Singaporean constituencies of Geylang Serai, Kampong Kembangan,3 and the Southern Islands (despite those being Malay-dominated areas) against candidates officially backed by UMNO (and having received a visit from the Tunku himself, the leader of Malaysia and UMNO, the day before the election4) contributed to the outbreak of the riots.