Eight sources

Political instability:

• Anti national service riots in 1954

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Title of picture: Anti national service 

Place where you took the picture: In Chung Cheng High School 
Date taken: 13 May 1954

Source of picture: http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/independence/ref/riot54.html where the first line stated,

  "this picture  shows students from Chung Cheng High School held a demonstration to protest against National Service."

This picture also shows the scene of clash between the police and the students.

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• Election in 1955

Title of picture: 1955 election

Picture taken by: Kevin Khoo, Assistant ArchivistSource of picture: http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/article/david-marshall-first-chief-minister 

This picture shows "A jubilant David Marshall, following his election as Chief Minister in 1955."

Racial Tensions:

• Maria Hertogh Riot in 1950

Title of picture: Maria Hertogh

Place where you took the picture: Around the supreme Court
Date taken: 11 December 

Source of picture: en.wikipedigooa.org/wiki/Maria_Hertogh_riots
This picture shows that the crowd, Muslims, were enraged by the Court's Rejection of the appeal.The brevity of the hearing convinced the gathering that the colonial legal system was biased against Muslims.The mob (largely consisted of Muslims) moved out to attack any Europenas and even Eurasians in sight. They overturned cars and burnt them.

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• Race Riots in 1964

Title of picture: Race  Riot in 1964
Source of picture: http://www.mha.gov.sg/isd/ct.htm

This picture shows The ISD, together with the Police helping to contain a volatile situation.When Singapore was in Malaysia, we experienced serious Sino-Malay riots in 1964, instigated by outside forces.Over 500 people were injured and 36 lives were lost in the clashes between Chinese and Malays.

Internal Self government:

• Student riots in 1956

Title of picture: Students Riot in 1956
Date taken: 24 october 1956

Source of picture: From the history textbook, " Singapore from settlement to nation pre-1819 to 1971"  by Marshell Cavendish page 162

This shows a group of student protesters, mainly from the Singapore Chinese Middle School Students'

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• Progress to Self government(Merdeka Talks)

Newspaper article on the changes made to Singapore after the 1955 elections:
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19570412-1.2.53.aspx

* As there is copyrighted issue, we can only paste the link so that you can view it

Title of article: The New Singapore. Heres the report that lays Island's way to self government

 Title of newspaper, page number: The Straits  Time, page 6

Retrieved (Date – Month Day, Year) from Source: 12 April 1957

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• Hock Lee Bus riot in 1955

 

Title of picture: Hock Lee Bus Riot

Place where you took the picture: workers gathered at the company's depot in Alexandra and sat in front of the gate 

Date taken: 23 April 1955

Source of picture: http://superhumans98.blogspot.sg/

This picture shows the group of workers from the Singapore Bus Workers Union preventing the bus form leaving the garage and crippled the city's entire transport system. They were protesting against the poor working conditions, long working hour and low pay.

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• Election in 1959

"... We have no personal future apart from your future. Your joys and sorrows are ours. We share the same future, be it good, indifferent, or bad. It is our duty to see that it is a bright and cheerful future."

 Title of speech: The start of internal self government in Singapore

 Retrieved (Date – Month Day, Year): 3 June 1959

.Last name of interviewer: Lee Kuan Yew

Taken place: Padang

This speech was made after he PAP won 43 out of 51 seats in the legislative Assembly in the 1959 and he became the first prime minister in the states of Singapore. He declared the start of internal self government to the 50000 people assembled at Padang

Why should we remember Singapoer in the 1950s and early 1960s

Based on our research, we grouped our 8 sources that we think is important to remember into 3 key groups, which are political instability, self-government and racial tension. Firstly, for the self-government, we found 4 sources on this topic, which are the merdeka talks, the 1956 students riots, the 1959 elections and the hock lee bus riots. For example, the merdeka talk is important as we should remember how our forefathers help to pave the way for the attainment of full self-government. If we did not have the merdeka talks, we could probably never have gained full internal self-government from the British and we might not have achieved the Singapore we are living in today. Also, the hock lee bus riot is important for Singapore as it tells us how a strike in the early days could easily lead to a serious riot and that we should not repeat the same mistake again. We are very fortunate that Singapore now has progressed a lot and had become a safe and riot-free country. When we think back about the incident, perhaps if the people were more calm and were willing to settle their disputes in a more proper and effective way, the strike would have been prevented.Hence, we should remember how Singapore progressed to self-government.

  Our second main key group is the racial tensions.There were 3 sources that we found on this topic, which are the Maria Hertogh riot and the race riots.The Maria Hertogh riot is one of the main events that we should remember in singapore’s history. Due to this riot, now we have numerous laws to prevent such events to ever recur again, from the Sedition Act, to the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act, to the Penal Code and its punishments for hurting others’ racial and religious sensitivities, to the recently revised Public Order Act. Our police force now  are also much better trained to deal with unrest, and are more racially diverse as compared to colonial times. In general for these 3 sources, the overall message that we should remember that it is important to get along with other races well and this is why we commemorate racial harmony day every 21 july. It is a day for us to appreciate what we have today, to reflect on Singapore’s success on being a racially harmonious nation, built on a rich diversity of culture and heritage. It is the introduction of Racial Harmony Day, that students are able to recognize the terror of Singapore’s past and come to realize that racial tolerance and harmony are essential when living under a multi-ethnic roof. Therefore, we should speak in one voice as citizens of Singapore, rather than from a colored perspective as members of the different ethnic and religious communities.

  Lastly for political instability, the key event that took place was the anti-national service riot and the 1955 elections. The Chinese students were unwilling to serve the government, who did not respected them. Comparing back then and now, we do not have people protesting against the government for anti-national service. Hence, this riot is important to Singapore as it features what happened when national service was first introduced. It also shows us that Singapore in the early days was still insecure and not so peaceful, so we must treasure what we have now in Singapore, the peace and safe country where everyone can live in with no worries.

Through these sources, it clearly shows why it was important to remember these events that happened in the early years when Singapore is still under control by the British. It was because of our forefathers’ hardwork and perseverance that we get to enjoy the Singapore that we are living in now; the clean, safe and peaceful country.

Journal of group meetings

First meeting:

Present: All (Dilys, Crystal, Vera, Joanne)   

Absent: Nobody                                

Date and Time :18/8 from 9am to 10am

In this meting, Dilys and Joanne found the answers for the compare and contrast question while Crystal and Vera discussed on the possible events that we should remember.Together, we shortlisted and discussed on the three topics that we are writing for our Inquiry Question : Why should we remember the 1950s and early 1960s today. We eventually decided on three topics, of which they are : Racial tension, Political Instability and  Internal Self-Government. That was all that we have discussed for today and we each will be researching on more information regarding the respective topics. We will be meeting once again to discuss and collating our findings on 24/8 from 8pm to 10pm. 

During this meeting, we met with some problems such as Dilys and Joanne disagreeing with the points on the differences butt fortunately, they help each other by understanding their individual's points of view and together, work on it to find a way to solve it. Vera and Crystal were also stucked on the last topic. They did not know wad other sub-topics to include as the questions only stated "between 1950s and early 1960s, which was quite tough as most things happened in the year 1965 . However, 1965 was not considered as early 1960s. Hence, they consult our history teacher, Ms Sng, and together, they thought of the last point which was internal self government.

Second meeting:

Present: All (Dilys, Crystal, Vera, Joanne)   

Absent: Nobody                                

Date and Time :25/8 from 12pm-1pm

In this meeting,we all had to research respectively on each of the three topics and post it onto our own Google document using the time we had between the first meeting and the second meeting.We found links and pictures during our own time outside of class and discussed in the chatroom of Google document where we decided to all meet up on Sunday night from 8pm-10pm. We decided and finalized on our findings and came to a decision to upload our findings during our second meeting.During our second meeting, we decided that we each would find 2 sources and post it online during our 1 hour lesson. Dilys posted the source related to race riots and the 1955 elections, Vera posted the source on Maria Hertogh and the 1959 Singapore election where Singapore fought for self-government. Crystal posted on Anti National Service riots and Hock Lee Bus riots. 

We met with some misconception in this meeting. After finding all the sources, we went to consult Ms Sng if it as aright. Unfortunately, she clarified with us that we were only supposed to paste the sources and did not have to elaborate on it.We were very disappointed as we had spent lot of efforts on finding those information. For once, we felt like giving up as we did not understand what was going on but with the encouragement from every member, we persevered and calmed ourselves down by thinking that we could use those information for our essay. Another thing was as we have many test this week, we are unable to do this project and were short of time. I think we can better work on our time management and not take this project for granted.

Now, we have left with the essay. We will have to discuss it through Whatsapp and one person will start writing while the rest will edit and touch on on it, We would also have to tie up the lose end by the dateline, which is on  5 September 2014. 

Comparison of sources

HOW SIMILAR ARE THE SOURCES?

Similarity section

Both sources, A and B, are similar in content in that both have difficult times in 1956.
This can be seen in source A where" Last year, this time, in the month of March: a time of agony."
This show that the people were helpless during this period of time when they,especially the Chinese, faced extreme suffering
Similarly, source B states that " From early April until the end of December 1955, Singapore witnessed a staggering 260 labour stoppages, walk-offs, go slow and sit-down-if we exclude Sundays, that means more than one labour protest every working day"
This shows that the people were unhappy and unsatisfied with the government, but they still had to endure all this and this proves that it was a tough time for the people.

Difference section

Both sources, A and B, are different in content in the outcome of what the people were fighting for. 

In Source A, they are fighting for freedom while in source B, they are fighting for rights for their education curriculum.
Source A, states that "Merdaka!people of Singapore!"
This shows that David Marshell was fighting for Singapore's independence from the British, they wanted to be free.
In contrast, source B states that" 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 shows that the chinese students were fighting for their rights  for their own educational curriculum.