Topic: Navigating Merger, Acquisition, or Takeover? The Lasting Impacts of Operation Coldstore on Singapore
Speaker: Dr. Thum Ping Tjin (“PJ”)
Date: Tuesday, 10th September 2013
Time: 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Venue: Muse House, 22 Marshall Road, Singapore 424858
Abstract:
The historical merger between the Federation of Malaya and Singapore in 1963 has often been attributed to Singapore’s internal political complexities. However, a thorough understanding of the driving forces behind these complexities has remained elusive, with communist subversion commonly accepted as the underlying cause, and Operation Coldstore regarded as the solution. This seminar will challenge these assumptions using newly declassified documents and diverse sources. Dr. Thum will explore the domestic political dynamics that led to Singapore’s merger with the Federation, uncovering the interplay of internal party disputes and shifts in public support that prompted the People’s Action Party’s pursuit of political influence through the ambitious goal of Malayan reunification.
Dr. Thum will also investigate the attribution of communist subversion as a rationale for the merger, despite a lack of conclusive evidence, and will discuss how the negotiation of Operation Coldstore inadvertently laid the groundwork for Singapore’s eventual separation from Malaysia. The talk concludes with an examination of how Operation Coldstore’s legacy continues to shape the contours of Singaporean politics today.
About the Speaker:
The merger of Federation of Malaya and Singapore in 1963 originated from Singapore’s domestic political difficulties. The nature of these difficulties, however, has never been adequately understood; due to a paucity of sources, communist subversion has been generally uncritically accepted as its root, and Operation Coldstore presented as the solution to a security problem. Using newly declassified documents, as well as a mix of vernacular sources, this seminar will analyse the domestic political factors that inspired Singapore’s merger with the Federation. It demonstrates how a combination of internal party strife and a decline in popularity led the People’s Action Party to seek to restore their political authority, via achieving the widely popular but extremely difficult goal of the reunification of Malaya; why – despite a complete lack of evidence for any communist subversive activity – communist subversion was blamed for necessitating merger; and how the process of the negotiation of Coldstore sowed the seeds for Singapore’s separation from Malaysia. It concludes with a discussion of the continuing consequences of how Coldstore continues to define the contours of Singapore politics today.
Thum Ping Tjin (“PJ”) is a Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore; Academic Visitor at the Centre for Global History, University of Oxford, and Co-ordinator of Project Southeast Asia at the University of Oxford. He is a Rhodes Scholar, Commonwealth Scholar, Olympic athlete, and Channel swimmer. His work centres on decolonisation in Southeast Asia, and its continuing impact on Southeast Asian governance, politics, and international relations. Recent publications include “The New Normal is the Old Normal: Lessons from Singapore’s History of Dissent,” in Donald Low (ed.), Singapore Contested: Reframing Debates in the New Normal. Singapore: NUS Press (forthcoming); “Flesh and Bone Reunited As One Body: Singapore’s Chinese-Speaking and their Perspectives on Merger”, Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies Vol 5 (2011 – 12); and two chapters in “Studying Singapore’s Past: CM Turnbull and the History of Modern Singapore” (NUS Press: 2012).
This is what PJ said after he completed the Channel Swim:
“What I did is far smaller in consequence than the challenges people face daily, like working to feed their families, getting married, having children, and saving lives. We all do great things on a daily basis, and it is these things we do that define who we are and how great we are. In short, greatness is within us all… Greatness is what you want it to be. Dream your own dreams and follow them. Whatever your dream, no matter how foolish, no matter how modest, I hope you will pursue it to the very end, and I know you too will find it as gratifying as I did”.
