is e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please consider getting your own copy from ethosbooks.com.sg. ank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History Copyright © Ethos Books, 2021 Copyrights to individual essays and works featured in this book are reserved by their respective authors. ISBN 978-981-14-2038-2 (PAPEBACK) ISBN 978-981-14-9023-1 (EBOOK) Published under the imprint Ethos Books by Pageseers Services Pte Ltd #06-131 Midview City 28 Sin Ming Lane Singapore 573972 www.ethosbooks.com.sg e publisher reserves all rights to this title. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmied, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior wrien permission of the publisher. Permission to reproduce the Merdeka Texts from their respective sources, where necessary, have also been sought and given. Painting on front cover City Dwellers by Hilmi Johandi Cover design by Lamees Rahman Layout and design by Pageseers Services Pte Ltd First published under this imprint in 2021 Typefaces: Linux Libertine, Hiragino Kaku Gothic Std National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Names: Alfian Sa’at, editor. | Faris Joraimi, editor. | Sai, Siew-Min, editor. Title: Raffles Renounced: towards a Merdeka history / edited by Alfian Sa’at, Faris Joraimi, Sai Siew Min. Description: Singapore: Ethos Books, 2021. Identifiers: OCN 1224295805 | ISBN 978-981-14-2038-2 (paperback) Subjects: LCSH: Singapore--Historiography. | Singapore--History. Classification: DDC 959.57--dc23 Contents 1. Introduction 2. “We refuse to recognise the trauma”: A Conversation between Alfian Sa’at and Neo Hai Bin 3. “Merdeka!”: From cacophony to the sound of silence 4. Stamford Raffles and the Founding of Singapore: e Politics of Commemoration and Dilemmas of History 5. e Bicentennial: Of Precedents, Prequels and the Discipline of History in Singapore 6. Why Raffles is Still Standing: Colonialism, Migration and Singapore’s Scripting of the Present 7. Finding Merdeka in a World of Statues: Singapore’s Colonial Pageant Remade and Unmade 8. Malay Literary Intelligentsia and Colonialism: A Stunted Discourse 9. Opening the Bicentennial: Historical Plurality in Sean Cham’s Art 10. “Giving up an aachment to power”: An interview with Jimmy Ong 11. “eatre doesn’t change anything”: Merdeka / / 獨⽴ and the Performance of the Singapore Bicentennial 12. Merdeka Texts 1. Excerpts from Raffles and the British Invasion of Java by Tim Hannigan 2. Excerpt from the Hikayat Abdullah, Chapter 13: “e Treaty with Tengku Long.” (Translated by A H Hill) 3. Excerpts from Tuhfat al-Nafis (e Precious Gi) (Translated by Virginia Hooker and Barbara Watson Andaya) 4. Excerpt from the Hikayat Abdullah, Chapter 14: “Colonel Farquhar Stabbed.” (Translated by A H Hill) 5. Excerpts from “Syair Potong Gaji” (e Ballad of Cut Wages), composed by Tuan Simi in Singapore, 1841 6. Report on Singapore’s Centenary Day celebrations 7. Excerpts from a speech by Subhas Chandra Bose at a military review of the Indian National Army, 5 July 1943 8. Excerpts from Oral History Interview with Dr S Lakshmi and Colonel P K Sahgal (Group Interview) by the Oral History Department, National Archives of Singapore, 21 August 1990 9. “Subh Sukh Chain,” Anthem of the Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind) 10. Dr Paglar’s speech and resolution of 2 January 1945, Syonan Shimbun 11. I Love My Malaya (1954) 12. Petition to e Colonial Governor for National Service Exemption (1954) 13. Singapore Chinese Middle School Students’ Union Manifesto on “May 13 Incident” 14. Aggression in Asia by Poh Soo Kai and M K Rajakumar (1954) 15. Excerpts from the opening address of the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung by Sukarno, first President of the Republic of Indonesia (1955) 16. Excerpts from a speech by the Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, at Malaysia Solidarity Day Mass Rally and March Past on the Padang, 31 August 1963 17. Excerpt from a speech by Mr S Rajaratnam, Second Deputy Prime Minister (Foreign Affairs), at a seminar on ‘Adaptive Reuse: Integrating Traditional Areas into the Modern Urban Fabric,’ 28 April 1984 About the Editors About the Contributors Index