History has never been more alive in Singapore, as we can see from new books on our political notables to works containing the voices of those who had been silent, from the interest shown by both the participants as well as young Singaporeans born after the period.
The Makers and Keepers of Singapore History does not join this growing chorus of voices and noises. It is, rather, a meditation on the making of history, and often on the difficulty of the making. It begins at the cusp of history, where past and present meet. Every book on the past has to negotiate with the present – to find the archival sources which are located somewhere, possibly behind a gate and keeper; or to locate the elusive participant who will throw light on a major gap in our historical knowledge, and convince them to speak. So much of the research on history is predicated upon the present that it is important, and timely, to examine the gates which stand between researchers and the information they seek. The contributors to this book, including a diverse group of historians, social scientists, film-makers, and public intellectuals, reflect on their encounters with the gatekeepers, and how they have or have not been able to enter or circumvent the gates.
This book is about three types of gates, the first of which are the front gates, the local state archives in Singapore. Access through these gates is strongly mediated by the influence of the makers of Singapore history: the political elites who have charted the historical course in the last half-century. The makers have a controlling influence on the gatekeepers of the archives, which often remain closed to most researchers. The second type of gates are the side gates. Researchers rebuffed at the front gates are often able to find archival sources on Singapore history in the foreign archives, for instance, in Britain, the United States and East Asia. At the side gates, the makers of Singapore’s pasts are rendered at least partially impotent. The final set of gates exist not in institutions but in the mind, determining whether a participant decides to speak or remain silent. Due to the controlling influence of the makers of history, these memory gates have long hampered oral history work in Singapore. But they are also starting to slide open, as both defeated politicians and ordinary Singaporeans begin to articulate their experiences. The growing body of academic and public histories in recent years is a sign of these unlocking memory gates, which has important implications for the continued shutting of the front gates.
TO BE UPDATED
