Comet in our Sky: Lim Chin Siong in History. (Book Reviews).

COMET IN OUR SKY: Lim Chin Siong in History. Edited by Tan Jing Quee and Jomo K. S. Selangor Darul Ehsan (Malaysia): INSAN 2001. xxii, 170 pp. (B&W photos.) US$10.99, paper. ISBN 983-9602-14-4.

Comet in our Sky brings together a collection of twelve essays and memorials offering a multi-faceted view of the life and times of Lim Chin Siong, a charismatic left wing union leader and politician in 1950s and 60s Singapore, whose political career was first curtailed and then cut short by arrests and detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA). Divided into two sections, the volume opens with four longer essays that offer more detailed and scholarly assessments of Lim Chin Siong's contributions. The second section consists of eight shorter remembrances, many from friends and acquaintances of Lim Chin Siong who were also politically engaged in Singapore and Malaya during this period. The combination of perspectives works very well. While multiple pieces cover similar common themes and descriptions of key events in the life of Lim Chin Siong, each author brings a distinctive vision to his account of the man and his times. The result for the reader is a sense of continually fresh insight that no single au thor or essay would be able to offer.

The opening essay, by T.N. Harper, places Lim Chin Siong in the context of Singapore's dynamic political environment following World War II. Harper argues that the usual portrayals of Singapore society of this period, as dominated by apolitical Chinese businessmen and a small conservative English educated elite, ignore the cosmopolitan intellectual environment fostered through night schools, cultural self-strengthening movements, and a growing awareness of anti-colonial struggles elsewhere. Although students and other young people were often attracted to ideals now labeled leftist, Harper stresses the diversity of these views and the absence of any concrete evidence for a well-organized leftist movement. Initially allied with Lee Kuan Yew in the founding of the People's Action Party (PAP), Lim Chin Siong's continued involvement with leftist student and union activism threatened the more conservative British and Chinese establishment, as well as Lee Kuan Yew's own political base. Ultimately, Harper argues, Li m's fate was sealed by Britain's continued reliance on powers of detention without trial, with the covert acquiescence and support of Lee himself. This latter point is further documented by evidence from colonial records cited in Greg Poulgrain's essay.

Readers who are less familiar with events during this period of Singapore's history might prefer to begin their reading with the second lengthy essay by Tan Jing Quee, which chronicles Lim Chin Siong's life in a more biographical form. Tan depicts Lim's political awakening as a Chinese Middle School student moving from student protests (and expulsion) to working as a union secretary and organizer. A gifted and impassioned orator in Hokkien, Lim's connections to the Chinese educated masses attracted the attention of Lee Kuan Yew, whose English educated faction needed the support of the Chinese educated and the left. Tan's essay details clearly both the events and the myriad competing forces that shaped Lim Chin Siong's political career. By focusing on Lim himself, Tan reveals the evolution of a political activist whose career began with close ties to the largely Hokkien speaking masses, but whose leftist political perspective encouraged broader connections. Despite the constant labeling of him as a Chinese cha uvinist and communist, Lim increasingly employed first Mandarin and then English in his speeches, as he allied himself with leftists from multiple ethnic and national backgrounds. Lim's internationalist vision is further portrayed in the essays by S. Husin Ali and A. Samad Ismail, where Lim is praised for his support of Malay language, literature and culture.

It is impossible to describe individually the many fine essays in this volume in such a short review. By combining these essays in a single volume, the editors have contributed to what T.N. Harper calls an awareness of alternative pasts, an awareness that calls into question the inevitable distortions of official histories told from the vantage point of the victors.