The Battle for Merger
Lee Kuan Yew
Singapore: National Archives of Singapore & Straits Times Press, 2014
ISBN: 9789814342773

The Battle for Merger charts the crucial years of 1961-1962, when the PAP government was in a precarious position and the future of Singapore was hanging in the balance.

This commemorative book retains the authenticity of the transcripts of Lee Kuan Yew's twelve radio talks and appendices, which are exact reproductions of the original 1962 edition.

Complete with nostalgic photographs of historical events as well as painstaking reproductions of secret letters and codes, this book also includes new material to give a comprehensive coverage on the intriguing subject of merger between Singapore and Malaysia.

This publication contains the following:
1. A new message from Lee Kuan Yew that reveals the former prime minister's hindsight on merger
2. A comprehensive essay by Associate Professor Albert Lau that provides the historical background to merger
3. Concise notes to key players, places and events
4. MP3 audio recordings of the twelve radio talks in English, Mandarin and Malay

The battle for merger is a story worth retelling. This book is for all who want to understand what was at stake during those tumultuous times. Reading this would be akin to reliving the sensational moments created by Lee Kuan Yew's timely revelations during the twelve radio broadcasts. It tells of how the Old Guards stood up and fought back against the communists and later the communalists, of how they refused to be cowed and thus won the confidence of that generation, which went on to help build modern Singapore.

Malaya's Early Music Scene: Musika: Arena Muzik Silam Di Malaya
Azlan Mohamed Said
Singapore: Azlan Mohamed Said, 2013
ISBN: 9789810737641

Many archival photographs are included in this insider's account of Malaya's music scene 1900-1965, a period of close Malaya/Singapore interchange. The first section overviews the history of Malay music, traditional songs and the early 20th century's Bangsawan opera, and gramophone and radio music. This music scene and Japanese policy 1942-45 and the 1945-65 developments in Radio Singapura, in cinema and entertainment hubs and at functions are then described. Inset photographs and biographical summaries are given for some 90 artistes and performers, and the role of musical groups noted. With bibliography, online database and index. Bilingual in Malay.

Voice of Malayan Revolution: The CPM Radio War Against Singapore and Malaysia, 1969-1981
Wang Gungwu & Ong Weichong (eds.)
Singapore: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, 2009
ISBN: 9789810836399

Voluminous works - popular and academic - have been written on how the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) lost the shooting war in the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960). But much less has been said on what happened thereafter. By 1960, the CPM's "long march" from the Malayan interior into Southern Thailand was complete. In a sanctuary far from the writ of the Malaysian and Thai governments, the CPM reorganised, reviewed their strategy and bided their time. In 1968, inspired by the Cultural Revolution in Red China and events in Indochina, the CPM sought for a second time to establish a "People's Republic" in the Malay Peninsula. From 1968 to 1989, the Malaysian security forces and the CPM once again confronted each other in jungles of the Malaysian-Thai border in what was known as the Second Emergency.

In an attempt to subvert the populations of Malaysia and Singapore and win them over to their revived revolutionary cause, the CPM embarked on a clandestine radio war. From a Chinese military base in Hunan, China, the CPM's underground radio network transmitted under the codename Project 691 and on the airwaves as "Suara Revolusi Malaya" or "Voice of Malayan Revolution" (VMR).

This edited volume, for the very first time, reproduces a selection of those broadcasts. These hitherto classified transcripts of the Internal Security Department, Singapore, are supplemented with an introductory essay and chapter introductions that seek to situate the selected documents against the revolutionary events of the 60s and 70s not only in Singapore and Malaysia but the whole of Southeast Asia. This selection is accompanied by a CD containing all available transcripts of VMR broadcasts made form its very first broadcast in 1969 to its very last in 1981.

Far from being a spent force, the CPM had the capacity and resources to revive their ideological struggle against the newly emergent post-colonial states of Malaysia and Singapore for another 12 long years. This edited volume is part of that story.