Episode Details

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. In Part 2, I assess the most intriguing part of Albert Winsemius’ work in Singapore, which never made it to his United Nations report. Privately to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, he urged that political action must precede economic reforms if industrialisation were to succeed. First, the statue of Raffles must not be removed. Second, the government must eliminate the communists.

Part 1 | https://youtu.be/hE4GDHUNWMM

Part 2 | https://youtu.be/s65-wpq0dfo

00:00 Recap of Part 1

02:03 Industrialisation as a Political Issue

05:11 Winsemius & Lee Kuan Yew

06:59 Unions & Strikes

10:53 Workers in Family Businesses

12:58 Labour to be Patient

14:22 Foreign Employers the Best

15:02 The Leftists

15:48 The UN Report

17:40 Political Advice 1: Keep Raffles

18:56 2: Eliminate the Communists

19:41 The PAP Split

21:34 Operation Coldstore

22:59 Politics was Overriding

24:23 Other Experts in Singapore

27:22 The Most Consequential Expert

Loh Kah Seng, ‘Albert Winsemius and the Transnational Origins of High Modernist Governance in Singapore’, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-1556-5_4

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. This is Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian, and I speak to people on their memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

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Write to lkshis@gmail.com if you have any of these stories:

• Old places or kampongs.

• Communities – their way of life & culture.

• Childhood & schools.

• Work or business.

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