Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: The British had their hands full managing political developments in Southeast Asia after World War ii.Across Malaya and Singapore, the war let loose various sociopolitical forces, opposed to the return of the status quo ante bellum.Personalities in these lands-some more vehement than others-campaigned for change.A number resorted to armed conflict.Seeking to preserve their interests, British officials dealt with these challenges in diverse ways.They responded to violence with violence.They promulgated draconian legislation to repress those deemed hostile to British interests.They initiated constitutional reform and cultivated local allies to effect a peaceful transfer of power.In undertaking all of these measures, British policymakers sought to assert control over developments and create postcolonial outcomes they would accept.What eventuated, though, did not always adhere to British aspirations.Southeast Asian politicians and revolutionaries had objectives they wanted to pursue, and were unrelenting in applying pressure on British officials to accede to their ambitions.They also turned on their local opponents.Communist insurgents applied brutal force against perceived informants and class enemies.Noncommunist Malayan and Singaporean politicians also employed the repressive political and security instruments they inherited from the British against their local adversaries.Although historians have examined these matters in some detail, much can still be gleaned from new approaches and new source materials about the postwar histories of Malaya and Singapore.The two books under review will enliven scholarly debates of those subjects.
Author: S.R. Joey Long
Institution: National University of Singapore
Language: Dutch
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2736064388