Studying Singapore's Past: C.M. Turnbull and the History of Modern Singapore

Chapter 3: Mary Turnbull's History Textbook for the Singapore Nation

Mary Turnbull’s History Textbook for the Singapore Nation 65 3 ~ Mary Turnbull’s History Textbook for the Singapore Nation Kevin Blackburn IN 1977, MARY TURNBULL WROTE THE FIRST general history textbook for the new Singapore nation that did not view its history as a small part of the history of Malaya. Previously, history textbooks used throughout Singapore and Malaysia catered to a common history taught for the two countries. In contrast, her general history, called A History of Singapore, 1819–1975, traced the development of Singapore, not as part of Malaya, but as a distinct nation with its own history separate from that of Malaya.1 She was ahead of the Ministry of Education of Singapore’s own textbook on Singapore history. This official government textbook did not appear until the new subject of Singapore history was introduced in schools during 1984. The Ministry of Education’s two-volume work, called Social and Economic History of Modern Singapore, drew extensively on the chronology and themes that Turnbull had developed. This chapter traces how history was taught in Singapore schools before the publication of Turnbull’s general history, then proceeds to evaluate the influence of Turnbull’s Singapore history textbook over the education system of Singapore and the generations of school students who have drawn upon it to formulate their ideas about Singapore and its past. 65 66 Kevin Blackburn The “Malayanisation” of the History Curriculum in Singapore Turnbull was not the first historian to attempt to write a history of Singapore , but her history was the first conceived as a history textbook for the newly emerging Singapore nation-state. As Singapore moved towards selfgovernment in 1956, the journalist and historian Harold Frank Pearson attempted to write a similar general history called A History of Singapore.2 After Singapore was granted self-government in 1959, Pearson revised and updated his work, turning it into Singapore: A Popular History, 1819–1960. According to its publisher, Eastern Universities Press, the book was meant “for the student reader”.3 Pearson’s history did not see Singapore as an emerging separate nation-state. In his 1961 history of Singapore, Pearson wrote of how he believed he was tracing the history of Singapore as “a vast international city and port” not that of a possible new nation.4 He concluded in 1961 with the words: “It lies now with this new generation to ensure that Singapore becomes one of the great city states which have left their mark on the history of the world.”5 Albert Lau in his historiographical review of the writing of Singapore history observed that at the time, Pearson’s work “failed to inspire further works on Singapore’s general history”, and that “by 1963, Singapore was reunited with the Malayan mainland in a larger Malaysia and the immediate rationale for a separate history faded”.6 It was not surprising that Pearson’s general history of Singapore meant “for the student reader” was not followed up, as it was out of tune with the Singapore history curriculum. The syllabus at the time was conceived in terms of an emerging Malayan nationalism in which the pasts of Singapore and Malaya were indissoluble.7 After the 1957 declaration of independence of Malaya, Malayan nationalism came to the fore in ideas asserting the Malay, Chinese, and Indian races of Malaya and Singapore shared a common identity as Malayans with a loyalty to the country they lived in.8 Future political merger between Malaya and Singapore into a form of federation was seen as overwhelmingly likely. The idea of Singapore being an independent nation-state was thought improbable.9 The framework of the history curriculum in Singapore was laid down at this time, and would not substantially change until the early 1980s.10 Independence for Malaya and coming self-government for Singapore meant replacement of a history curriculum that emphasised the rise of the British Empire with one that was more in accord with Malayan nationalism.11 In 1957, Kennedy Gordon Tregonning, then a Mary Turnbull’s History Textbook for the Singapore Nation 67 lecturer in History at the University of Malaya, changed the way the study of history in Singapore and Malayan schools was taught when he helped overhaul the old history curriculum based on the history of the British Empire. He published his own textbook for the new syllabus, World History for Malayans: From Earliest Times to 1511. Tregonning...