Connie

A month ago I decided to focus on my writing and ignore all the excitement around me. I was determined; very determined not to celebrate Christmas. But I forgot all that promise to myself and carried away by the joy of my sister Caddy’s first book, since she set up a publishing house I bought myself a ticket to Perth to attend the launch. That is best decision I made. The weather is great – mild and sunny. I made my sisters happy. And I have escaped the rush, the crowd, the madness, the train break-downs. Here I am sitting in the upstairs room, in my sister Celine’s house and writing without any distractions. It is a beautiful space, large and sunny. The large window frames the lush green and colour of the garden outside.

Saron, Margie and Mary at Banteay Seri

Cambodia is famous for its ancient temples, like Angkor Wat and a civilization which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. But more recently it became known for its tragic “killing fields”.

This tragedy, on a staggering scale, was perpetuated by Pol Pot, who became leader of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. Modelled along Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, he conducted deadly purges to eliminate the members of the “old society” – the educated, the wealthy, Buddhist monks, police, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and former government officials. All of Cambodia’s cities were forcibly evacuated and forced into slave labor in Pol Pot’s “killing fields. This experiment resulted in the deaths of approximately 21 percent of the Cambodian population. In all, an estimated 1,700,000–2,500,000 people died under his leadership. He also led a genocide against western culture and capitalism.

But now it is a Cambodia, learning to live again; learning its traditional silk weaving, its ceramics, and other crafts. It is a country populated by young people and people who grew up in its refugee camps. Saron, our guide in Siem Reap, for example, spend 14 years in a refugee camp.

Saron,(http:facebook.com/saron.soeun) has an amazing grasp of the Cambodian history, its triumphs and its tragedies, and his stories enriched our experience of Siem Reap and the temples.

Banteay Seri: serene and peaceful and

“still unravish’d bride of quietness,

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian…” (Keats)

Here is my favourite temple in Siem Reap, remarkable for its beauty, its delicate and fine decorations which had mostly withstood the test of time, and its more human scale. After a visit to the massive Angkor Wat Temple, Banteay Seri is a  surprise and a delight. The name Banteay Seri means “ Citadel of the Women” ( had nothing to do with women though and was commissioned by a man to honour the Lord Shiva) or  the “Citadel of Beauty”.

Banteay Seri alas, achieved notoriety in 1923 when Andre Malraux, de Gaulle’s Minister of Culture, who should have known better removed (stole?) four apsaras from the temple. Fortunately he was caught immediately.

Here we go. Dana and I went Tangs today to enjoy the Elephant parade. And what fun we had.  

I visited three temples last week when I visited Siem Reap and I was awe struck by the magnificence of its architecture, the scope of the engineering ingenuity, the craftsmanship, the grace, the beauty…it was amazing. I just saw three and there are almost a thousand temples, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, the world’s largest single religious monument. – the most significant site of Khmer architecture, the largest preindustrial city in the world,the size of modern Los Angeles. Just imagine that and it was built almost a 1,000 years ago.

Angkor in Cambodia was the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries.

There is something very delightful about seeing one’s books on the shelves, anywhere, even if it is on one’s own shelf. But imagine my surprise and delight when I spotted a book that some friends and I worked on at the end of a year long civil society project, at the Siem Reap airport. Sitting on the shelves at the “Monuement Books” is a copy of “Building Social Space in Singapore: The working Committee’s Initiative in Civil Society Activism”, published in 2002.

Seeing that book again reminded me of that year of hard work, passion and the belief that individuals can make a difference to the development of their society. In that book we recorded a very unique and important initiative – the coming together of activists on a common platform – in the history of civil society activism in Singapore. No such mobilisation of grassroots organisations had been attempted in Singapore since independence.

The book, its title clearly visible, against a red background, is on the right

I am attempting to write, what some people call, an “autobiographical history’ which links the personal and the general, the individual and the social and political. This is my story but also Singapore’s story and stories of people I know – the social, cultural and political life that we had experienced through the years beginning from independence. I was old enough when Singapore became independent and to participate in the first elections.

There are many books on Singapore – the PAP stories; Mr. Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore; the anti PAP books, books by opposition party members and dissidents. I am interested, in a very modest way, to write the experience of becoming a Singaporean from my perspective and the perspective of others like me, who had lived in Singapore and experienced the changes of the past 50 or so years.

In his book “Identity, Culture and the Postmodern World”, Madam Sarup writes about this particular genre of “autobiographical history’ as a writing that explores the autobiographical self and its place in history; it is an attempt at an autobiography which understands the self as a product of history and class … [and race]. It is a self-conscious construction of a narrative at different levels, a narrative that deals with change, both personal and social, historical and [political].

At the moment I am like a detective looking for clues, little pieces of jigsaw puzzle – stories, memories, anecdotes about our lives. I ask myself, how did I become who I am? What are our influences? What is it like experiencing life in Singapore?

If anybody has interesting anecdotes do share them with me and allow me to include them in my book.

I have been working on a book about my experiences and my perspectives on the political and social history of Singapore and how the political and social events impacted on the everyday lives of Singaporeans. The question that keeps coming up, while writing, is: what is motivating me to write this book? Why am writing it?

David Brooks gave me the answer and I quote the concluding sentence of his article “It is not about you”. I am liberated and inspired by what he wrote.

“Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself.” David Brooks writing in the New YorK Times

We are living a Shakespearean tragedy – actually a couple of them: Lear storming about ingratitude, Cassius in Julius Caesar plotting and the nobles of Rome alarmed by the arrogance and ambition of those in power.

Thought for the Day

“We two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage:

When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: and we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too,
Who loses, and who wins; who’s in, who’s out;
And take upon ‘s the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies; and we’ll wear out,
In a walled prison, packs and sets of great ones
That ebb and flow by the moon.”
- William Shakespeare, King Lear, 5.3.9

A sign in front of One Fullerton

• “…and the reserves were Singapore’s ammunition for a rainy day.” He noted that in difficult times, countries which did not have such firepower have been forced to borrow money and this has often shaken confidence in the country. If this happened to S, the minister warned, the exchange rate would depreciate, inflation would rise and the cost of living would go up. Vivian Balakrishnan. PAP

• The GRC system has become “like a rubber band, quite elastic…” Low Thia Khiang, WP.

• · ‘Our system has the brain on turbo power and the heart on a hospital drip’. Hazel Poa. National    Solidarity Party.

• · ‘It is not Mr Chiam who walks out of Potong Pasir … it is the spirit of Potong Pasir that walks    into Bishan and Toa Payoh.’ Benjamin Pwee, SPP. Today, May 1, 2011.

• · ‘… Can you go back to the conservative puritanical values of the old days? That’s not Singapore anymore.’ Mr. Goh Chok Tong, Today, April 30^th 2011.

• “If the Parliament consists of nothing but one party, then you can have a first-rate Government, but the Parliament is a bit weaker. We have , over the years, tried to evolve a system which allows the PAP to win elections overwhelmingly and yet you have voices which are against the PAP in Parliament.” Mr. Goh Chok Tong, Today , April 30^th 2011

• …the PAP’s policies are ‘the rising tide. … All boats have risen, but not equally. It depends on your ability, it depends on your diligence, it depends on your educational standards because worldwide it’s widening.’ Mr. Lim Swee Say, PAP. Today, May 1, 2011.

• Mr. Goh recalling the racial riots in 1964: “I could not take the bus home. The streets were all completely clogged … cars, buses … all locked together. So I walked … home.’ Goh Chok Tong. Today, May 1, 2011.

• “We all know that in the real world unfortunately, life is complex and difficult. Life is made up of difficult choices.” …  “When you lack substance , it is like a vase – very pretty but no flowers” BG (NS) Tan Chuan Jin, PAP

·

• Mr. Ong, PAP candidate in Aljunied GRC, “told the crowd that he always makes it a point to shake hands of low-wage workers while on the campaign trail.” The Straits Times, May 4 2011.

• “ We have nurtured you, educated you, given you every help to do well. We cherish you. We cheer for you. We want you to succeed, because Singapore belongs to you. You will be Singapore .” PM Lee Hsien Leong. (ST. May 6, 2011)

• · … “It will make our ministers’ salaries truly world-class, and not out of this world.” Chen Show        Mao, WP candidate Aljunied GRC. (ST. May 6 2011)