Thursday 4 September 2014

Riots In Singapore

1.
Pictorial Source
The riot, Maria Hertogh



2.
Textual Source
Life of Maria Hertogh ( Nadra )
  http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_508_2004-12-23.html  



3.
Textual Source
Significant & Consequence



4.
Pictorial Source
Hock Lee bus riot


5.
Pictorial Source
Hock Lee bus riot


6.
Pictorial Source
National Service riot


7.
Textual Source



8.
Textual Source
1964 Race Riot







RIOTS IN SINGAPORE DURING 1950s TO EARLY 1960s




11 December 1950 -- Maria Hertogh Riot


1. The Riot, Maria Hertogh (Pictorial Source)


British and Malay troops, with fixed bayonets,were in support with Singapore police last night in efforts to quell the rioting which broke out in the afternoon after the appeal in the case of Maria Hertogh is being heard.



Two Europeans, two Chinese and a Eurasian were fatally injured and more than 100 people - Europeans, Eurasians, Chinese and Indians - were wounded in the Muslim rioting which gripped a section of Singapore city yesterday afternoon and last night. 





2.  Textual source :  Life of Maria Hertogh( Nadra)                                                            http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_508_2004-12-23.html

Maria was the third child of seven children that Adeline Hertogh bore. She was baptised Maria Huberdina Hertogh by her Dutch-Eurasian parents. The Japanese invasion of Java during World War II saw Maria's father become a prisoner-of-war in 1943. Struggling alone and having just given birth to her sixth child, Adeline gave Maria to the care of a family friend, Che Aminah binte Mohamed, on 1 January 1943. The process was witnessed by Adeline's brother, Soewaldi. Maria was brought to Bandung, raised as a Muslim and given the name Nadra bte Maarof at her circumcision a year later.



Aminah and Maria moved to Jakarta for one period but soon returned to Bandung, where Aminah's fluency in Japanese enabled her to work as an interpreter for the Japanese military police. In 1947, fearing that Maria's Dutch background made her vulnerable during the Indonesian War of Independence, Aminah and Maria fled to Terengganu, Malaysia. She grew up in Aminah's hometown Kemaman, Terengganu, where Aminah was highly regarded. Studying at Chukai Malay Girls' School, Kemaman, Maria also was trained in Koran reading outside school hours by an ustazah.





3. Textual source : Significance and consequences 
      http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_83_2005-02-02.html


The riots highlighted the insensitive way the media handled religious and racial issues in Singapore. The British colonial authorities also failed to defuse an explosive situation when emotional reports appeared in the local press of the custody battle accompanied by sensational media photographs of a Muslim girl in a Catholic convent.



Although the rioters were mainly Malays, they included a large number of foreigners including Indian, Pakistani and Indonesian Muslims. Added to this, the mainly Malay Police Force appeared to sympathise with the Muslim rioters and displayed some measure of deliberate inaction and defection during the riots. Gurkha Police Riot Squad Detachment, constituting at least 149 men were unfortunately not utilised and were in fact withdrawn at critical locations.
As a result of this historic event, the Government of Singapore, upon independence in 1965, instituted legislation against racial discrimination. It became an offence to incite racial and religious hatred in Singapore. The local media exercised greater discipline in the coverage of sensitive issues. National integration and nation-building took top priority in the formulation of government policies.



12 May 1955 – Hock Lee Bus Riots



4. Pictorial Source
 Daily SG: 11 Dec 2012 | The Singapore Daily




5. Pictorial source


http://sghardtruth.com/2011/11/04/headlines-that-shook-


singapore-since-1955-by-remenber-singapore

Protesting against long hours, poor benefits and working conditions, the workers of Singapore Bus Workers Union (SBWU) organised a peaceful demonstration on 23 April 1955.

Large number of drivers were dismissed by Hock Lee Bus Company, who in turn protested by locking themselves in the garages at Alexandra Road. Soon, students from Chinese middle schools took sympathy of the drivers and joined in the protests. The government viewed the strike as pro-communist and anti-colonial.



13 May 1954 – National Service Riots


6. Pictorial source
http://www.thesmartlocal.com/read/5-riots-that-rocked-singapore#sthash.GChwnuI1.dpuf 

b2ap3_thumbnail_9_Pl_9_Intake_AUG_16_1954.jpg
The 1954 National Service Riots, also known as Anti-National Service Riots was a riot that broke out in Singapore in May 1954, which involved a number of Singaporean Chinese students




24th October 1956--Chinese middle school riots




7. Textual source
  http://www.thesmartlocal.com/read/5-riots-that-rocked-singapore#sthash.GChwnuI1.nlbUFEf3.dpuf 
24 October 1956 – Government told parents to persuade their children to return home after many of them camped to organize meetings and demonstrations. Most of the students refused to budge. On the same day, the pro-communist leader Lim Chin Siong, held a workers’ meeting and after it ended, some of the workers joined the students in creating disorder. The government issued an ultimatum on the same day for the schools to be vacated.
26 October 1956 – Police entered the schools and forced the students out using tear gas. The students moved to the city and rioted for 3 days.



1964 Race Riot


8. Textual source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_race_riots_in_Singapore
Various reasons have been cited for the riots. Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak blamed ethnic Indonesian and communist Chinese provocateurs.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and several foreign observers attributed the riots to agitation by Syed Jaafar Albar and other elements of the ultra-nationalist faction in the UMNO.

The riots occurred during the period when the People's Action Party (PAP) and UMNO relations were severely strained after the PAP challenged the UMNO in the March 1964 Malaysia federal election. PAP ran on the campaign slogan of Malaysian Malaysia, a political philosophy different from UMNO's pro-Malay or Malay-dominance political philosophy.


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