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  • Living with Myths in Singapore ed. by Loh Kah Seng, Thum Ping Tjin, Jack Meng-Tat Chia
  • Shzr Ee Tan
Living with Myths in Singapore
Loh Kah Seng, Thum Ping Tjin & Jack Meng-Tat Chia (eds)
Singapore: Ethos Books. 2017, 326 pp.

Measuring some 326 pages and brimming with 24 information-rich chapters with the bonus item of a prefatory comic by Mya Gosling, Living With Myths in Singapore is critical and timely in its arrival: it makes for an important interrogation of fact-finding, narrative-making, propaganda-construction and personal storytelling in a current disturbing period of global post-truth in the early twenty-first century. The book is compiled and edited by a team of three historians who ostensibly wear the hats of academics. But the relatively brief and highly readable chapters collated within, featuring a wide range of subjects, voices and writing styles, make this tome a comfortable fit on any bookshelf of the curious Singaporean and/or enthusiast of Southeast Asia. At the same time, the volume tackles more universal themes of how stories are made and unmade with enough flair, variety and richness of detail to interest the general reader.

At the heart of this ambitious enquiry lies an almost self-conscious querying of the act of writing itself, to which the various authors also apply some degree of reflexivity. Rather than try to pin down an absolute version of the truth, one seeks instead to find out how these various versions are made and remade, at the expense of fact, or in self-fulfilling prophecy, or critical questioning of the self. Indeed, as post-modern arguments for different perspectival takes on authenticity and experiential positions prescribe—there is never a single reality. Thum posits in his Introduction that

while it is tempting to do so, this book is not all about myth-busting. It is more interested in the role that myths play in everyday life. … It is not so much that myths are half-truths – although they often are – but rather that they are widely held. … This book examines why and how myths in Singapore have the mysterious ability to explain difficult issues and allay anxieties about the future. It considers the social implications of myths, and also different ways of interpreting history and society.

And so the enquiry begins, with a four-fold tetraptych themed around four legends: ‘The Singapore Story’, ‘Third World to First’, ‘Vulnerability and Faultlines’ and ‘A Deficient People’. [End Page 169]

In the first section, Thum himself kicks things off by challenging notions of vulnerability, meritocracy and development commonly held in understandings of not-quite-fully postcolonial Singapore. This is followed by Mark Baildon and Suhaimi Afandi’s revisiting of history as a subject taught in Singapore schools, while Christine Han problematizes the broader functions of ‘values’ and ‘citizenship’ education. Gwee Li Sui debates the reflected and reflexive presence of national narratives across repertoires of Singaporean literature, while Terence Lee unpacks the strategic, state-endorsed branding of Singapore as a ‘global media hub’.

In the second section on the myth of national development, Philip Holden revisits early usage of the term ‘The Third World’ from once-socialist perspectives in Singapore, while Ho Chi Tim picks apart governmental approaches to post-war social welfare. Seng Guo-quan revives ideas of the late Singaporean political economist James Puthucheary as an alternative to the People’s Action Party’s paradigm for authoritarian-capitalist governance, while Lee Kah-Wee unravels the making of moral subtleties in re-examining contentious ethics behind the building of casinos. Rounding off the segment is Arthur Chia’s research on deconstructing large state-endorsed campaigns on innovation and smart technology.

The third section on national fault lines begins with Gareth Curess’ repositioning of labour movements as anti-colonial movements during the 1950s and 1960s, followed by Teo Soh Lung’s clarification of incidents behind the deautonomization of the Law Society during the 1980s. Ian Chong’s chapter on democratic governance in South Korea and Taiwan makes for an interesting comparison—through invoking alternative approaches—with Singapore’s developmental journey so far taken by the PAP. Tackling the hot-button issues of race and religion directly...

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