Author: Nilanjana Sengupta Publisher: World Scientific ISBN: 981314131X Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 260
Book Description
When after three decades of research Singapore could produce its own water, the little city-state was said to have lost its vulnerability. No longer would every policy have to bend at the knees for water survival. It was finally time to celebrate liberty! When did the same moment come in Bala's life? Was it when in mid-Atlantic he heard of his promotion as Controller of Posts? Or was it when he was appointed by the President as member of the Parliamentary Elections Minority Committee? Or was it at a moment of tragic loss when he realised he had nothing more to lose? Singapore, My Country tells M Bala Subramanion's story, a second generation Indian who lost his father to the Death Railway, witnessed Subhas Chandra Bose at the Padang and later emerged as not only a senior civil servant but the man behind multiple social interventions, living in a fast evolving Singapore. The histories of the man and his nation remain seamlessly intertwined, each peppered with equal doses of endeavour, ingenuity and a sheer will to survive! Contents:My Neighbour is Another LanguageNothing without LabourHow You Wrestled Nippon-go Far into the NightGave Him a CauseRestore this Sun to us and the Waiting GenerationsWe Must Make a People Readership: General readers, students involved in Southeast Asian research, readers interested in South Indians in Singapore, readers interested in Singapore's history, Indian communities in Singapore, postal and philatelic organisations in Singapore.
Author: Jui Lin Yong Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing ISBN: 9780836825466 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 52
Book Description
From a tiny trading post to a bustling global business center -- Singapore is an island city-state, yet one of the richest countries in the world. Join this voyage of discovery and take a closer look at the lives of hard-working, multicultural Singaporeans and the land of shophouses and skyscrapers. Book jacket.
Book Description
From the 1930s to 1965, discussions about modernisation, race and civic responsibility were as common as they are today. The youth of colonial Singapore wrote passionately about these issues, seeking to enkindle the idea of a nation that did not yet exist. The poetry and stories that encapsulate how they saw Singapore have become more, not less, relevant. In Who Are You My Country?, the youth of modern Singapore build on those stories and use them to create a vision for what our post-SG50 nation might look like. As the historical publications were to those students of the past, we hope this anthology will also be to us a shared space for the collective imagination of our Singapore.
Author: Selvaraj Velayutham Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies ISBN: 9812304215 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 251
Book Description
Investigates the Singapore Government's approach to the construction of national identity. This book focuses on the global/national nexus: the tensions between the necessity to embrace the global to ensure economic survival, yet needing a committed population to support the perpetuation of the nation-state and its economic success.
Author: Cherian George Publisher: Ethos Books ISBN: 9811449848 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 347
Book Description
"Think of Singapore instead as the Air-Conditioned Nation—a society with a unique blend of comfort and central control, where people have mastered their environment, but at the cost of individual autonomy, and at the risk of unsustainability." Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited is an anthology of essays on Singapore politics by Cherian George. It draws upon his influential collection Singapore: The Air-Conditioned Nation (2000), on the country's politics of comfort and control, and from Singapore, Incomplete (2017), on its underdeveloped democracy. Updated for the impending transition to a new generation of leaders, this 20th anniversary edition of Air-Conditioned Nation offers critical reflections on continuity and change in Singapore’s unique political culture.
Author: Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh Publisher: Hong Kong University Press ISBN: 9888139312 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
What happens after a country splits apart? Forty-seven years ago Singapore separated from Malaysia. Since then, the two countries have developed along their own paths. Malaysia has given preference to the majority Malay Muslims—the bumiputera, or sons of the soil. Singapore, meanwhile, has tried to build a meritocracy—ostensibly colour-blind, yet more encouraging perhaps to some Singaporeans than to others. How have these policies affected ordinary people? How do these two divergent nations now see each other and the world around them? Seeking answers to these questions, two Singaporeans set off to cycle around Peninsular Malaysia, armed with a tent, two pairs of clothes and a daily budget of three US dollars each. They spent 30 days on the road, cycling through every Malaysian state, and chatting with hundreds of Malaysians. Not satisfied, they then went on to interview many more people in Malaysia and Singapore. What they found are two countries that have developed economically but are still struggling to find their souls.
Author: Lee Kuan Yew Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd ISBN: 9814561762 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 586
Book Description
The Singapore Story is the first volume of the memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, the man who planted the island state of Singapore firmly on the map of the world. It was first published in 1999. In intimate detail, Lee recounts the battles against colonialists, communists and communalists that led to Singapore’s independence. With consummate political skill, he countered adversaries, sometimes enlisting their help, at others opposing them, in the single-minded pursuit of Singapore’s interests. We read how he led striking unionists against the colonial government, how over tea and golf he fostered ties with key players in Britain and Malaya, of secret midnight meetings in badly lit rooms, drinking warm Anchor beer with a communist underground leader, of his purposeful forging of an alliance with communists to gain the support of the Chinese-educated masses. Readers will find inspiration in his tenacity as he fought for the people’s hearts and minds against first the communists and later the communalists – in parliament, on the streets and through the media. Drawing on unpublished Cabinet papers, archives in Singapore, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, as well as personal correspondence, he gives us a vivid picture of how others viewed him: determined (“Lee will bluff, bully and blackmail up to the eleventh hour”), motivated (“Choo knew I sweated blood to master Hokkien”), ambitious (“He would think himself as legitimate as I was to be the leader of Malaya”), dangerous (“Crush Lee! Put him inside”). It is a sometimes controversial yet strangely consistent portrait of this Asian statesman. These experiences and his dealings with the political leaders were to shape his views and policies, which have had a major impact on Singapore and the region.
Author: Lee Kuan Yew Publisher: Harper Collins ISBN: 0060197765 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 65
Book Description
Few gave tiny Singapore much chance of survival when it was granted independence in 1965. How is it, then, that today the former British colonial trading post is a thriving Asian metropolis with not only the world's number one airline, best airport, and busiest port of trade, but also the world's fourth–highest per capita real income? The story of that transformation is told here by Singapore's charismatic, controversial founding father, Lee Kuan Yew. Rising from a legacy of divisive colonialism, the devastation of the Second World War, and general poverty and disorder following the withdrawal of foreign forces, Singapore now is hailed as a city of the future. This miraculous history is dramatically recounted by the man who not only lived through it all but who fearlessly forged ahead and brought about most of these changes. Delving deep into his own meticulous notes, as well as previously unpublished government papers and official records, Lee details the extraordinary efforts it took for an island city–state in Southeast Asia to survive at that time. Lee explains how he and his cabinet colleagues finished off the communist threat to the fledgling state's security and began the arduous process of nation building: forging basic infrastructural roads through a land that still consisted primarily of swamps, creating an army from a hitherto racially and ideologically divided population, stamping out the last vestiges of colonial–era corruption, providing mass public housing, and establishing a national airline and airport. In this illuminating account, Lee writes frankly about his trenchant approach to political opponents and his often unorthodox views on human rights, democracy, and inherited intelligence, aiming always "to be correct, not politically correct." Nothing in Singapore escaped his watchful eye: whether choosing shrubs for the greening of the country, restoring the romance of the historic Raffles Hotel, or openly, unabashedly persuading young men to marry women as well educated as themselves. Today's safe, tidy Singapore bears Lee's unmistakable stamp, for which he is unapologetic: "If this is a nanny state, I am proud to have fostered one." Though Lee's domestic canvas in Singapore was small, his vigor and talent assured him a larger place in world affairs. With inimitable style, he brings history to life with cogent analyses of some of the greatest strategic issues of recent times and reveals how, over the years, he navigated the shifting tides of relations among America, China, and Taiwan, acting as confidant, sounding board, and messenger for them. He also includes candid, sometimes acerbic pen portraits of his political peers, including the indomitable Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, the poetry–spouting Jiang Zemin, and ideologues George Bush and Deng Xiaoping. Lee also lifts the veil on his family life and writes tenderly of his wife and stalwart partner, Kwa Geok Choo, and of their pride in their three children –– particularly the eldest son, Hsien Loong, who is now Singapore's deputy prime minister. For more than three decades, Lee Kuan Yew has been praised and vilified in equal measure, and he has established himself as a force impossible to ignore in Asian and international politics. From Third World to First offers readers a compelling glimpse into this visionary's heart, soul, and mind.
Author: Shirley Geok-lin Lim Publisher: NUS Press ISBN: 9971694581 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 705
Book Description
A comprehensive historical anthology of English-language literary works from Singapore. It attempts to place the texts that have imagined the territory and the people who are now recognizably Singaporean in a historical narrative, to be read, studied, critiqued and treasured.
Author: Nilanjana Sengupta
Author: Jui Lin Yong
Author: Winston Toh Ghee Wei
Author: Selvaraj Velayutham
Author: Cherian George
Author: Tom Plate
Author: Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh
Author: Lee Kuan Yew
Author: Lee Kuan Yew
Author: Shirley Geok-lin Lim