Saturday, March 04, 2006
Time to Let Dissidents' Tales Out of the Closet
I was surprised to see a further article about the Detention-Writing-Healing forum in the Straits Times. It even went on to associate Rajaratnam's funeral with the ex-detainees' public forum. Even more suurprising, it was written by the Deputy Political Editor, Chua Mui Hoong. To add weight, she is sister of Chua Lee Hoong, former intelligence analyst (see Straits Times 12 Oct 2002 article by Yeow Kai Chai 'Koh Beng Liang's Debut Poetry Collection...').
'Time to let Dissidents' Tales Out of the Closet' (Straits Times Insight page, 3 Mar) sounds like a serious 'all-clear' signal to start discussing seriously about the political turmoil of the 50s & 60s. Decisions were made then - some rather draconian. Faustian and Machiavellian deals were struck - some perhaps unwisely. Undoubtedly mistakes littered the road to independence and economic development. After over three decades, I suppose it is probably time to discuss and dissect the era in order to learn from the errors of that generation's victors and losers. It has to be done before the last of them leave the nation permanently. Once they cannot answer and defend themselves, it will be too late to make sense of the era. Discussion after their departure becomes a futile exercise that will be more about using history to justify competing political philosophies.
For those interested in the Chuas, here are two of the webpages I came across:
'ST columnist Chua Mui Hoong say freedom of press in Singapore should be improved!' from the Useless Rantings blog; and
'Climate control in the Singapore Press' by Eric Ellis which appeared in The Australian on 21 June 2001 and republished on the Singaporeans for Democracy website.
As is evident from the website addresses, they are definitely anti-government in tone - not something that can be considered unbiased sources.
'Time to let Dissidents' Tales Out of the Closet' (Straits Times Insight page, 3 Mar) sounds like a serious 'all-clear' signal to start discussing seriously about the political turmoil of the 50s & 60s. Decisions were made then - some rather draconian. Faustian and Machiavellian deals were struck - some perhaps unwisely. Undoubtedly mistakes littered the road to independence and economic development. After over three decades, I suppose it is probably time to discuss and dissect the era in order to learn from the errors of that generation's victors and losers. It has to be done before the last of them leave the nation permanently. Once they cannot answer and defend themselves, it will be too late to make sense of the era. Discussion after their departure becomes a futile exercise that will be more about using history to justify competing political philosophies.
For those interested in the Chuas, here are two of the webpages I came across:
'ST columnist Chua Mui Hoong say freedom of press in Singapore should be improved!' from the Useless Rantings blog; and
'Climate control in the Singapore Press' by Eric Ellis which appeared in The Australian on 21 June 2001 and republished on the Singaporeans for Democracy website.
As is evident from the website addresses, they are definitely anti-government in tone - not something that can be considered unbiased sources.
