THE ENRIGHT AFFAIR (1960): STUDENT ACTIVISM AND THE POLITICS OF CULTURE IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

In November 1960, Singapore was rocked by a quick succession of public conflicts between the PAP government and British writer-academic D.J. Enright over his criticisms of the former's cultural policies, and then with the students of the University of Malaya who mobilized in response to what they saw as a violation of university autonomy and academic freedom. Referred to and remembered as the 'Enright Affair', it was a significant event in the history of Singapore between the Second World War and independence in 1965, and of the institution that stands today as the National University of Singapore. This study examines the Enright Affair as a prism which highlights issues cf historical significance pertaining to cultural and political development in Singapore, and the development of the University. Firstly, the triggers and causes of the Affair are discussed to illuminate the political concerns of the PAP in the early years of self-government, which made a response to the criticisms of its cultural policies by a British expatriate politically expedient. Secondly, the Affair is situated in the broader context of the issues and concerns besetting Malaya and Singapore in the post-war years, which compelled the irextricability of the cultural dimension from the PAP's politics. The Enright Affair also permits the exploration of the rise of student politicization atd activism in the University of Malaya in Singapore and the direction and tenor of rdations between the PAP and the university. In particular, it illuminates two principal e;pressions of the students' activism - participation in the search for a Malayan culture, aid the zealous defence of the university's autonomy in the face of governmental irrerference. This study concludes by examining how the Affair is remembered and the significances and neanings that have been attached to the event, which in turn is revealing about the Sngapore 'present'