Historyogi Post (99): Containing communism, remembering Indian railway labour & General Ridout's road
"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy." - Rabindranath Tagore.
History to usher in 2024
Welcome to another year of learning and making history. We have two new podcast episodes to usher in 2024. Learn more about Anglo-American cooperation and engagement in Malaya and Singapore during the Cold War. Understand the largely forgotten contributions of Indian labourers who built the Malayan railways. Zoom through a handy summary of Concorde’s service to Singapore and learn about the General behind Ridout Road.
Podcast
#32 – Arc of Containment: UK & US engagement in cold war Malaya & Singapore (with Ngoei Wen-Qing): When we think about Southeast Asia during the Cold War, we usually think just about Indochina and the Vietnam War. But British counterinsurgency strategies and engagement with nationalist elites in Malaya and Singapore also influenced America’s anti-communist policies in the region. I spoke to Associate Professor Ngoei Wen-Qing from the Singapore Management University about his book Arc of Containment. We discuss why Britain and America shared ideas on containing communist threats in Southeast Asia and how Singapore and Malaya managed the transition from British imperialism to American hegemony during the Cold War.
#33 – Temple Tracks: The history of Indian labourers in the Malayan Railways (with Vineeta Sinha): When we think about the history of Indians in British Malaya, their work in the rubber estates usually comes to mind first. But Indians also helped construct, operate and maintain the Malayan Railways that stretched across the peninsula and connected Singapore as well. Along with the tracks came numerous Hindu temples and shrines that shaped Malaya’s religious landscape. I spoke to Professor Vineeta Sinha from the National University of Singapore about her new book Temple Tracks. We discuss the history of Indian labourers in the Malayan Railways, their role in religion-making via temple construction, and how these railway temple stories symbolise the contributions of Indians in developing colonial Malaya and independent Malaysia.
Digging Deeper
Singapore Airlines Concorde: The full story (Mainly Miles): Did you know it was once possible to fly from Singapore to London in under 10 hours? In the late 1970s, British Airways (BA) and Singapore Airlines (SIA) jointly operated Concorde flights which included a stopover in Bahrain. The one-way fare was S$4,298 (around S$10,700 today) from Singapore to London. However, the project was beset with numerous political difficulties as countries such as India, Malaysia and Indonesia were wary of granting overflight permissions for the Concorde. While regular services eventually took off in 1979, BA and SIA announced they were suspending it in November 1980 due to rising fuel costs. The Concorde itself was permanently retired in 2003. Read More
This Month in History
Housing and Development Board is established (Feb 1, 1960): On this day, the PAP government established the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to provide public housing for the state's rapidly growing population. Headed by Lim Kim San, the HDB set out to build low-cost apartment blocks (above). Unlike the kampongs and urban slums, HDB units were equipped with utilities, plumbing and refuse disposal facilities. Flats were rented out for $20 per month and 1682 were built by the end of 1960. The HDB replaced the colonial era Singapore Improvement Trust, which built less flats in 12 years than HDB did in three. By 1970, 36 percent of Singaporeans were living in HDB flats.
Singapore allows US troops to visit for R&R (March, 1966): During this period, Singapore concluded an agreement with the US Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs William Bundy to allow American troops stationed in South Vietnam to visit the island for Rest & Recreation. The first batch of 100 American officers arrived later that month. Singapore maintained a restrictive policy on any publicity surrounding the programme and other business activities relating to the Vietnam War, but the Barisan strongly opposed the Vietnam War. Graffiti, flyers and posters with anti-American slogans soon appeared on the streets, leading the government to enact the Punishment of Vandalism Act which criminalised such acts of political protest and mandated caning as a potent deterrent.
MacDonald House bombed by Indonesian saboteurs (Mar 10, 1965): On this day, a bomb exploded at the MacDonald House building along Orchard Road at 3.07pm. The explosion killed three people: 2 staff from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, which was housed within the building, and a driver from the Malaya Borneo Building Society. Thirty-three people were also injured in the blast. The bomb was planted by Indonesian commandos as part of the Konfrontasi with Malaysia, which Singapore was then part of. Two marines were later caught, convicted and executed for the bombing. Angry Indonesians ransacked the Singapore embassy in Jakarta and ties only improved after PM Lee Kuan Yew scattered flowers over the marines' graves as a gesture of goodwill.
Down Memory Lane
Ridout Road: This road is named after Major-General Sir Dudley Howard Ridout, who served as General Officer Commanding the Troops in the Straits Settlements from 1915 to 1921. He previously served in the Boer War in South Africa and trained at the Royal Military College of Canada. His major contribution while stationed here was setting up a bureau to oversee political intelligence collection, espionage, and the surveillance of potential subversives. This evolved into the Special Branch and eventually the Internal Security Department (ISD). Over a century later, Ridout’s name achieved new prominence after a controversy arose over Cabinet ministers renting colonial bungalows along the road.
Quotable Quotes
“For the past few years we have tried to evolve a Singapore society, rugged, self-reliant and disciplined. These principles have been the theme of our message to all the people in the Republic. But from day to day we seem to hear less of these slogans. What we see, of late, is not a rugged, self-disciplined society as we are hoping for, but moral decadence among our youths. They imitate the western hippies. They take to drugs. We realise that our small country, without any natural resources, depends solely on our human resources for our development. We depend on our youth because youth is the backbone of any national development. I do not know where the fault lies. Is it because our life depends solely on materialism or that the implementation of our education policy has deviated to the extent that students show no respect for teachers while the children show no respect for their parents? Where does the fault lie? There is the theory that drug addiction is the result of activities of anti-national elements, especially the communists whose aim is to destroy our youth by the use of drugs and hippism so that in the long term our youth has no future.”
Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office Haji Ya'acob Bin Mohamed, 22 February 1977