A revisionist death in Singapore
SINGAPORE - The passing of Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam,
Singapore's best-known opposition politician, may not have been
psychologically seismic enough to prompt Singapore's middle classes
to search their souls, but it did offer an insight into how
Singaporean institutions simultaneously constructed and sanitized
his life for national memory.
Certainly, the manipulation of personal narratives by the state
and its apparatuses is not new, a nation-building process that
constructs heroes and demons for citizens to revere and
despise.
To this end, the way the Singapore media and some members of the
government chose to interpret the live and ideology of JBJ, as he
is fondly referred to, is a reflection of how it sees opposition
politics, society and, ultimately, the Singapore nation.
Reading through the numerous media reports of plaudits and
memories that various prominent people have of JBJ, and the way his
death was covered, it is clear how he was posthumously
reconstructed: as a fighter, a man of idealism and passion, and one
who never gave up no matter how insurmountable the obstacles or
opponents.
Comments in the national broadsheet, The Straits Times, included
quotes from the dominant People's Action Party (PAP), one lawmaker
observing that "He was like the Chinese doll, the bu dao
weng - you knock him down, he comes back, you knock him down,
he comes back up again."
Another PAP parliamentarian noted, "I have admiration for people
like him, a person who never gives up, a person who suffered for
his convictions, and who goes down fighting all the way." Why he
needed to be knocked down over and over again, or go down fighting,
was expediently left out of the reports.
A columnist of the same newspaper noted that "when both your
friends and political enemies use the same descriptions of you, you
can be sure they are true. In Mr Jeyaretnam's case, sincerity,
tenacity and courage are words many have used to describe him."
Other words that could have been cited include social justice,
human rights, martyr and PAP hegemony, but you didn't see them used
in the media.
In a way, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's silence about JBJ's death
has been the most honest reaction so far. The mutual dislike
between the two men was real, with Lee infamously promising to
leave his rival on "bended knee". Lee's lack of a condolence
message may seem uncharitable to some, but it is, at least, a
dignified stance and more importantly spares JBJ's family and
Singaporeans a public display of crocodile tears.
Of course, if the construction of JBJ is but a careful
cherry-picking of the man's beliefs and actions, then his persona
may have been turned into an ideological site to fulfill a specific
purpose. In Singapore's politics, despite the country's economic
success and material affluence, the one nagging concern amongst
citizens and politicians alike has been the price of that
success.
Political apathy, ignorance of national history, over-dependence on
the state, and crass materialism winning out over idealism have all
been perennial tropes in countless public forums and conferences
dealing with local politics. The flight of talented Singaporeans
overseas, adding to the estimated 150,000 already abroad, is
another side-effect of economic success.
JBJ had always been the embodiment of idealism, but he was often
portrayed as naive and full of rhetoric against the
better-grounded, pragmatic and dependable - and ruling - PAP. As an
idealist, JBJ was seen by the authorities as unsuitable for the
technocratic demands of modern-day governance. It was precisely the
authorities' response to his idealism and passion for what he
believed in that made him a walking, talking reminder for
Singaporeans to stay out of politics. As the embodiment of
idealism, he was deemed politically irrelevant.
Now, after his death, when his response is no longer possible, this
embodiment can be fashioned for the purpose of nation-building. It
was never the case that JBJ was irrelevant, rather he was
inconvenient. Now that the negative connotations that came with his
idealism are purged, leaving only opaque words like sincerity,
tenacity and courage, the man can now be rehabilitated for national
memory. We can now co-opt his idealism and passion for our own
agenda.
And so we sanitize him. We speak of him as a fighter, but not what
he fought for - pluralist democracy, human rights and press
freedom. We speak of his great struggles, but not what he struggled
against - PAP hegemony, authoritarianism, the use of punitive
lawsuits in politics and so on. He was a fighter in a vacuum; he
struggled against the unspoken; and JBJ is well on his way to
becoming an abstract museum artifact in the halls of our national
memory.
All nation-building projects are exercises in cognitive dissonance
on a grand scale. Cognitive dissonance comes about when one's
beliefs do not match reality, resulting in a modification of these
personal beliefs because reality is harder to change than beliefs.
And so too with nation-building: historical events and
personalities cannot be totally erased, but they can, and often
are, redefined and reinterpreted to match the beliefs and values of
dominant interests.
If this were to happen to JBJ, then Singapore's loss would be
aggravated. We would not only have lost the man, but also his
values. We would have allowed his life, his struggles, and his
beliefs to be redefined and reinterpreted by the very institutions
he confronted.
Terence Chong is a fellow at Singapore's
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
1. Jeyaretnam, a lawyer, served as an MP for the Workers' Party of
Singapore from 1981-86, and again from 1997-2001. He was a
continual barb in the flesh of the ruling People's Action Party. In
the course of his political career, he faced numerous court cases
involving defamation suits and other charges, which led to his
disbarment, disqualification from contesting elections, and
bankruptcy, from which he was discharged last year. He leaves two
sons and four grandsons.
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