The University Socialist Club and the contest for Malaya : tangled strands of modernity /

The University Socialist Club and the contest for Malaya : tangled strands of modernity /

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Bibliographic Details
Imprint:Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, c2012.
Description:347 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Language:English
Series:IIAS publications series. Monographs ; 7
IIAS publications series. Monographs ; 7.
Subject:
University Socialist Club (Singapore) -- History.
University Socialist Club (Singapore)
Students -- Political activity -- Malaysia -- History.
Students -- Political activity -- Singapore -- History.
Student movements -- Malaysia.
Student movements -- Singapore.
Universities and colleges -- Singapore -- Societies, etc. -- History.
Universities and colleges -- Malaysia -- Societies, etc. -- History.
Politics and government.
Student movements.
Students -- Political activity.
Universities and colleges -- Societies, etc.
Malaya -- History -- 1945-
Malaya -- Politics and government -- 1945-
Singapore -- History -- 1945-1963.
Singapore -- Politics and government -- 1945-1963.
Malaya.
Malaysia.
Singapore.
History.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/9143623
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:Loh, Kah Seng.
ISBN:9789089644091
9089644091
Notes:Includes bibliographical references ([325]-335 p.) and index.
Summary:"The book, using a small group of left-wing student activists as a prism, explores the complex politics that underpinned the making of nation-states in Singapore and Malaysia after World War Two. While most works have viewed the period in terms of political contestation groups, the book demonstrates how it is better understood as involving a shared modernist project framed by British-planned decolonization. This pursuit of nationalist modernity was characterized by an optimism to replace the colonial system with a new state and mobilize the people into a new relationship with the state, according them new responsibilities as well as new rights. This book, based on student writings, official documents and oral history interviews, brings to life various modernist strands - liberal-democratic, ethnic-communal, and Fabian and Marxist socialist - seeking to determine the form of post-colonial Malaya. It uncovers a hitherto little-seen world where the meanings of loud slogans were fluid, vague and deeply contested. This world also comprised as much convergence between the groups as conflict, including collaboration between the Socialist Club and other political and student groups which were once its rivals, while its main ally eventually became its nemesis"--Publisher's description.
Table of Contents:
  • Acknowledgments
  • List of Photographs
  • Abbreviations
  • 1. The Socialist Club and the Modernity Project
  • A Post-war Background
  • The Tangled Strands of Modernity
  • Identities of the Socialist Club
  • Contestations over Socialism, Student Activism and Identity
  • Curtailment, Coldstore and the Cold War
  • Convergences of Mobilisation and the Tensions Within
  • Overview of the Book
  • 2. Awake in the Bowl of Night
  • Between the Emergency and Orderly Decolonisation
  • A Mixed Political Club
  • Early Contemplation, Criticism and Misfires
  • A New Tone
  • 3. The Fajar Trial
  • "Aggression in Asia" and the "513 Incident"
  • The Fajar 8, Pritt and Fund Raising
  • The First Shots
  • First Day
  • Second Day
  • Third Day - Game, Set, Match
  • A Breaking Moment for Malaya
  • 4. Visionary of the Nation, Voice of Stifled Malayans
  • "We speak for many stifled Malayans"
  • Organise and Mobilise
  • The Lim Yew Hock Purges
  • The 1959 National Language Seminar
  • 5. A Beacon of Light on the Campus and Beyond
  • Convergences with the Students' Union and International Student Fraternity
  • The Rise and Fall of the Pan-Malayan Students' Federation
  • Joint Activities, Joint Action
  • 6. Frankly Partisan in the Struggle for Student Leadership
  • The Discursive Battle over "Student Apathy"
  • Campus Opponents, Critics and Detractors
  • Contesting Socialism, Critiquing Fajar
  • Storms in the Union over Partisanship
  • "Patrons, Opportunists, Clowns and Clots": The Rise of Rivals
  • 7. The Shadow over the Club
  • The Nodes and Chains of the Communist Discourse
  • The Abdullah Majid Node and Post-Fajar Trial Anxieties
  • The Linda Chen Node and Spotlight on the PMSF
  • The John Eber Node and the London Connection
  • The Cold War Information Order
  • 8. Resisting Malaysia, Swansong for Malaya
  • Singapore Independence: A Bold Rationalist Thesis
  • The 1961 "Basis for Merger" Forum and the Parting of Ways
  • Theorising National Unity, Interrogating Communalism
  • Mobilising Principles, Battling the Leviathan
  • 9. Long Night after Coldstore
  • The Geopolitics of Greater Malaysia and Operation Coldstore
  • After the Purges: Siaran Kelab Sosialis
  • The 1966 Seminar on Communalism and National Unity
  • 10. In Defence of University Autonomy and Student Rights
  • The Sanctity of the University and the Student
  • "A Seething Cauldron": The 1963-1966 Pro-University Autonomy Movement
  • Raging against the Dying of the Light, 1967-1971
  • 11. Entwined Memories and Myths
  • Misspent Youth and the Fajar Boys
  • Countermemories and Staking Claims
  • The Ghosts and Myths of History
  • Conclusion: Modernity in Singapore and Malaya Reconsidered
  • The University Socialists: Biographical Sketches
  • Timeline of Events
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
The Judge Leonard C. and Coralyn B. Reid and Mr. Roy C. and Lulu H. Ingersoll Book Fund bookplate

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