Essay

This is a brief introduction of the Anti-NS Riots that happened in 1954.

1954 National Service Riots or Anti-National Service Riots was a riot that broke out in Singapore in May 1954 involving a number of Chinese Singaporean students.

In 1954 the British colonial government in Singapore passed the National Service Ordinance, requiring all males aged between 18 and 20 to register by May 1954 for part-time National Service. Those who failed to register would be either jailed or fined. Thousands of secondary students from Chinese schools - many of whom were 20 years old or above as their education had been disrupted by World War II - were influenced by communist ideals and unwilling to defend the colonial government. On the first day of registration, very few students from Chung Cheng High School and The Chinese High School turned up.

On 13 May 1954, 500 students gathered in front of the Government House (present-day Istana) to present their petition to the Governor. Soon the peaceful demonstration turned into a riot when the police were called in to disperse the crowd. The police and the students clashed. About 26 people were injured and 48 students were arrested.

First, our main idea is, "Those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it" by Camus. To prevent history from repeating, we must learn and remember about it. Singapore is a multi-racial society with the Chinese being the majority race, if Chinese Singaporeans decide to riot again, the scene would be terrible. Seeing that a majority of Singaporeans are Chinese, it is best to remember Anti-NS riots to prevent another riot. 

Secondly, we should remember the Anti-NS riots as they will be based on the decisions we make now. If decision makers do not consult history, they make decisions without all of the facts, which is how history repeats. If our government do not know about the Anti-NS Riots, they would not know what would happen if they ignore the Chinese' needs again. Then, they might repeat their own mistakes. We should all learn from our mistakes and know not to repeat them. It may be a damage to Singapore's reputation if there is another major riot since it is famous for being a multi-racial society.

Lastly,  we need to remember to help us understand how our nation, our home came to be. Without the Anti-NS riots, the current government would not understand why the Chinese decided to riot. If we are ignorant of the contemporary and historical experiences of a variety of cultures, then we cannot hope to understand why people, communities or nations behave the way they do or make the decisions they make. However, if we choose to learn and know about our history (Anti-NS riots), we would understand. We would understand why they chose to riot. We would learn from our ancestors and understand. Since we understand, history will then not repeat.

Another main idea is that we should not discriminate against any race or anybody. From source 2 , it shows that the government discriminate against the Chinese by not giving them as many money to run the school as the English-based schools. The government also did not offer as many rewards and opportunities as the other schools, even if the school deserved it, showing that the government preferred the English-based over the Chinese schools. Even though students are also local, they are not given a possible highest education. They 'were very unwilling to defend the colonial government'. This all constitutes one of the many reasons why the Anti-NS riots happened. if the government had not discriminate against the Chinese-educated, perhaps such a misfortune would not had happened. therefore we should not discriminate any races.

One last main idea is that we should all work towards a peaceful solution to any conflict, not justify our means by violence. From Source 4, the Chinese students were at first seeking a peaceful solution to the NS conflict, even though they gathered a lot of people, they were merely trying to show the government the voices of dissent coming from the local Chinses-educated. However, the government not only did not regarded the student body with the appropriate respect and regard, they also caused a huge violent outbreak between the two parties. If they had not done this, the issue might have been resolved without any casualties. Therefore, we should remember this violent incident and work towards to a peaceful solution at any conflict, not resolve them by using violence.

There is a collective wisdom that we deprive ourselves of when we refuse to look back. 

We should never discriminate. 

Violence is never an option.

This is why, we should remember Anti-NS riots.

8 Sources

SOURCE N.O 1

Schoolboys Battle Police (13 May 1954) The Straits Times

SOURCE N.O 2

Before Singapore's independence in 1965, Chinese education in Singapore had progressed mainly due to the contributions of rich Chinese philanthropists. Chinese schools were run by governing bodies that comprised of members selected based more on their prestige than their knowledge of running an educational institution. The British colonial government did not provide funding for Chinese schools. When it came to economic opportunities, the colonial government also preferred rewarding English-educated graduates, thereby causing dissatisfaction among the Chinese-educated segments of society.

Before the establishment of Nanyang University in 1955, the highest level of Chinese language education in Singapore was offered by the Chinese middle schools (the equivalent of secondary schools and junior colleges today). These schools were strongly influenced by political developments in China. When China became a communist country, communism exerted a strong influence on the Chinese-educated community

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1202_2006-07-28.html

SOURCE N.O 3

                 Retired lawyer agrees to share his view on 1950s Chinese students’ movement

Retired lawyer Lim Chin Joo talked about his turbulent student days to mark the anniversary of Singapore's May 13, 1954 incident. That day, Chinese middle school students clashed with riot police for the first time. The group was making its way to Government House, now the Istana, to hand a petition to the governor seeking exemption from conscription.

http://ifonlysingaporeans.blogspot.sg/2012/05/may-13-1954-breaking-his-silence-on-day.html#sthash.s2ayoqu3.dpuf

SOURCE N.O 4

Thousands of students coming from Chinese secondary schools were very unwilling to defend the colonial government and hence were not present on the first day of the registration. These students, many of whom were aged 20 and above were influenced by communist ideals and on 13 May 1954, 500 students gathered in front of the government house (our Istana as of 2013) to present their petition to the governor.

http://www.thesmartlocal.com/read/5-riots-that-rocked-singapore

SOURCE N.O 5

By July the Singapore Chinese Middle Schools Students' Union had begun planning a campaign of agitation against the government. The Lim Yew Hock government moved first, however, dissolving seven communist-front organizations, including the student union, and closing two Chinese middle schools. This touched off a protest sit- in at Chinese high schools organized by Lim Chin Siong that ended in five days of rioting in which thirteen people were killed. Troops were brought in from Johore to end the disturbance, and more than 900 people were arrested, including Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan, and Devan Nair. The British approved of the Singapore government's tough action toward the agitators, and when Lim Yew Hock led a delegation to London for a second round of constitutional talks in March 1957, the Colonial Office proposed a compromise on the internal security issue.

http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-11798.html     

SOURCE N.O 6

http://alicia-historyblog.blogspot.sg/2008/07/historyd.html


SOURCE N.O 7



http://alicia-historyblog.blogspot.sg/2008/07/historyd.html

SOURCE N.O 8

http://easy-to-remember-history-riots.blogspot.sg/2011/06/more-picture-on-rioting.html

Script Details

Total meeting time: 4 hr

1^st Meeting
1.    Date: 18 August 2014 Monday
2.    Time: 9am-10am 1 hr
3.    Venue: Com Lab 4 CCHMS
4.    Members present: 4 ( Lin ZiZheng, Yip Pui Ka, Wu Zhen, Berneece Tee )
5.    Members absent: 0
6.    Issues discussed: Discuss the distribution of work and how we should start
7.    Plan of action:

Pui Ka and Berneece – Create blog and surf web for sources related to topic

ZiZheng and Wu Zhen – Do C&C section and help out in looking for sources only after finishing the section.
8.    Pui Ka and Berneece creates blog and sends the blog to all member’s email and starts on finding the first source on the web

9.    ZiZheng and Wu Zhen started on C&C, the similarity section, using google docs, and send the document to all members 

2^nd Meeting
1.    Date: 19/8/2014 Tuesday
2.    Time: 1.30pm-2.30pm
3.    Venue: Com Lab 4 CCHMS
4.    Members present: 4 ( Lin ZiZheng, Yip Pui Ka, Wu Zhen, Berneece Tee )
5.    Members absent: 0
6.    Issues discussed: Discuss format of writing for the C&C section and types of sources acceptable for topic and look at some examples of other groups’s work (by teacher)
7.    Plan of action:
ZiZheng and Wu Zhen – finish the C&C similarity section and starts on the difference section
Pui Ka and Berneece - continues to procced on finding the next few sources.
8.    Pui Ka and Berneece finds 5 more relavant sources

3^rd Meeting

1.    Date: 20/8/2014 Wednesday

2.    Time: 8am-9am

3.    Venue: Com Lab 3 CCHMS

4.    Members present: 4 ( Lin ZiZheng, Yip Pui Ka, Wu Zhen, Berneece Tee )

5.    Members absent: 0

6.    Issues discussed: Discuss about the distribution of work and go through page 3 of individual booklet

7.    Plan of action: Wu Zhen – starts on the minutes section, the 2^nd blog post ZiZheng – finishes up the difference section on his own

Pui Ka and Berneece – Decides which sources is relevant and which are not

ZiZheng – finish C&C section

8.    ZiZheng finishes the difference section and thus the C&C section

9.    Wu Zhen wrote the minutes of the first 3 meetings.

4^th Meeting
1.    Date: 27/8/2014 Wednesday
2.    Time: 10.30am-11.30am
3.    Venue: Com Lab 4 CCHMS
4.    Members present: 4 ( Lin ZiZheng, Yip Pui Ka, Wu Zhen, Berneece Tee )
5.    Members absent: 0
6.    Issues discussed: Discuss distribution of work for the rest of the posts and the due date
7.    Plan of action:

Wu Zhen - stops script job and helps to sort through sources.

Pui Ka and Berneece – finish deciding which sources to use

ZiZheng – post 1^st blog post and helps to sort through sources

8.    ZiZheng posts 1^st blog post on the blog

5^th Meeting
1.    Date: 3/9/2014 Wednesday
2.    Time: 8am-9am
3.    Venue: Com Lab 4 CCHMS
4.    Members present: 4 ( Lin ZiZheng, Yip Pui Ka, Wu Zhen, Berneece Tee )

Wu Zhen late for 45 minutes
5.    Members absent: 0
6.    Issues discussed: Discuss due date and what to finish at home for each person
7.    Plan of action:

Wu Zhen – Finish up minutes and post it and in charge of looking through all the posts and edit if necessary

Pui Ka and Berneece and ZiZheng – Post 3^rd blog post and finish the essay

How similar are sources A and B? C and C

SIMILARITY

Both sources, A and B are similar in content in the political repression by the British government.

Source A states that “when I was first elected and appointed Chief Minister, I was told I had no office, no clerk, no thambi” and “I had to threaten to bring a desk here and set up here or in my flat before I could get an office!”

This suggests that the British government does not show David Marshall any respect, despite the fact that he is the Chief Minister of Singapore and ought to be given the rightful respect, by not even granting him an official office and that he needs to force them into giving him an office at all.

Similarly in source B, “Chinese students ignored the government's official closure of their schools”

This suggests that the Chinese students did not even care about the recognized fact that their school had been shut down by the government and treated their school as still being open, and the government did not repent and treated this case with indifference.

Hence, both sources A and B are similar in content in the political repression by the British government.

DIFFERENCE

Sources A and B are different in content in what the people in Singapore wanted to achieve.

Source A states that the people in Singapore opposed the government as they wanted independence while source B states that the people in Singapore wanted a change in the current setup that governs their present educational setup.

Source A states “Merdeka! People of Singapore!”

This suggests that the local people wanted Singapore and the Singaporeans to not be only satisfied with their present status as under the dominion rule of external powers, but aspire to the complete freedom of Singapore, as the ‘Merdeka’ is independence in Malay.

.In contrast, source B states “Out on the streets, Chinese students ignored the government's official closure of their schools, and in a repeat of the previous year locked themselves into their classrooms, where they established their own revolutionary curriculum.”

This suggests that the people wanted an adjustment to their ongoing English-based academic system, to one that was aware of the needs and rights of the local people, not one under the influence of foreign powers.

Therefore, Sources A and B are different in content in what the people in Singapore wanted to achieve.