1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910466924203321

Autore

Ramakrishna Kumar

Titolo

Original sin? : revising the revisionist critique of the 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore / / Kumar Ramakrishna

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Singapore : , : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, , 2015

©2015

ISBN

981-4620-44-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (vi, 167 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

959.504

Soggetti

Detention of persons - Singapore

Political prisoners - Singapore

Electronic books.

Singapore Politics and government 1945-1963

Singapore History 1963-1965

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- INTRODUCTION. The "Alternate" Challenge to the Singapore Story as Context -- 1. Government Sources: Who Uses Them, and the Alternates' Unarticulated Ideological Outlook -- 2. Was there Really a Dangerous Communist United Front? -- 3. The Curious Case of Lim Chin Siong -- 4. Why "Was Operation Coldstore Driven by Political and Not Security Grounds?" is the Wrong Question -- Conclusion: The Enduring Need for a Singapore Story 2.0 -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sommario/riassunto

"Revisionist" or "alternative" historians have increasingly questioned elements of the Singapore Story - the master narrative of the nation's political and socioeconomic development since its founding by the British in 1819. Much criticism focuses especially on one defining episode of the Story: the internal security dragnet mounted on 2 February 1963 against Communist United Front elements on the island, known to posterity as Operation Coldstore. The revisionists claim that Coldstore was mounted for political rather than security reasons and actually destroyed a legitimate Progressive Left opposition -



personalized by the charismatic figure of Lim Chin Siong - rather than a dangerous Communist network as the conventional wisdom holds. Relying on both declassified and some previously unseen classified sources, this book challenges revisionist claims, reiterating the historic importance of Coldstore in helping pave the way for Singapore's remarkable journey from Third World status to First in a single generation.