Feb 16, 2012 - ST Forum
PROFESSOR Kevin Blackburn is right when he says that the
ceremony here to mark the fall of Singapore is less evocative
compared to similar war remembrances overseas ('Story behind the
story on the fall of Singapore'; yesterday).
How Singaporeans and Malayans behaved before, during and after
the Japanese Occupation had its origins in the 1930s, the decade
before the outbreak of World War II.
It may be difficult for Prof Blackburn's generation or outsiders
to understand the complex factors that shaped the attitudes of
Singaporeans and Malayans then, who are now in their twilight
years.
Before the Occupation, we were a British colony and the local
predominantly Chinese population were not regarded as citizens,
regardless of where they were born.
The Chinese were not homogenous in attitudes and orientation
because they were shaped by the schools they attended. Schools with
English as the medium of instruction were vastly different in
orientation, purpose and curriculum from Chinese-medium
schools.
English-medium schools aimed at turning students into
pro-British Anglophiles, and political and social awareness were
muted or discouraged.
Chinese-medium schools inspired allegiance to China and were
hotbeds of anti-colonial, leftist ideology.
Chinese-educated Singaporeans and Malayans were intensely
anti-Japanese because of Japanese atrocities in China, and
enthusiastically raised funds for the Chinese cause.
By contrast, the English-educated were passive or politically
indifferent.
It was not an accident that the anti-Japanese guerillas during
the Occupation were predominantly recruits from Chinese-medium
schools.
These stark differences created culturally divergent groups
within the Chinese, whose boundary collapsed only relatively
recently.
So, today's survivors who remember the searing agony of the
Japanese Occupation were most likely those who were
Chinese-educated, and off the radar of the social or political
mainstream.
Dr Ong Siew Chey
