HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA: EXAMINING THE MAY 13TH ANTI-NATIONAL SERVICE PROTEST

Abstract

High school dramas often draw much attention. Fraught with controversy, high school dramas range from simple boy-girl relationships to gang fights, often causing trouble for teachers and authority figures. However, when an understanding and empathic figure steps in, misunderstandings are often resolved and raging youthful hormones calmed. Like other high school dramas, the May 13th Anti-National Service (NS) Protest has been a controversial subject as historians debate and portray differing aspects of the demonstrations. Eschewing current historiography that either portrays the "May 13th Incident" (as the protest is commonly known) as Malayan Communist Party-led (abbreviated as the CPM) subversion or an innocent spontaneous grassroots event, this thesis will present the May 13th Incident as a high school drama that was scripted by three key playwrights: the colonial authorities, the CPM, and the Chinese Middle School students. Central to this thesis is the declassification of state intelligence documents that has presented a golden opportunity to evaluate and examine the full range of primary sources to obtain a clearer perspective of the May 13th Incident. This thesis thus seeks to be an understanding and empathic voice in the highly charged discourse, positing that all the playwrights played essential roles in scripting the drama on 13 May. This thesis also contends that it was the dramatic protest climax - the overreaction by colonial police - that united the masses in Singapore against the colonial government and accelerated Singapore's independence quest, cementing the May 13th Incident's place in Singapore history. It is the author's desire that this examination of the May 13th Anti-NS Protest would be a step forward in reconciling opposing perspectives and achieving a common appreciation for the dramatic events of 13 May, 1954 in Singapore's history annals.