COMMUNISM AND CHINESE CHAUVINISM? RE-EXAMINING THE NANYANG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ UNION ACTIVISM, 1956-1964

Abstract

In Singapore’s mainstream histories, the historical activism of the Nanyang University Students’ Union (NUSU) is painted predominantly in the hues of Communism and Chinese chauvinism. This thesis seeks to challenge the abovementioned narrative by re-examining the NUSU activism through restoring the students’ historical agency and exposing the power knowledge nexus embedded in the state orthodoxy. The central argument of this thesis is two pronged. First, while NUSU subscribed to leftist idealism, its ideological inclination did not automatically translate to communist membership. Second, NUSU activism demonstrated a real presence of an emerging national consciousness via its pursuit of Malayanisation to promote national unity. Moreover, a study of NUSU activism yields more significant results when one recognises the severe power imbalance between the state and students, and that the nation’s past constitutes an important legitimising tool to perpetuate the governing People’s Action Party’s on-going hegemony.