The Scripting of a National History – Singapore and Its Pasts (Hardcover)

The Scripting of a National History studies the constructed nature of the history endorsed by the state, blurring the distinction between what happened in the past, and how that past is made to be understood. The People's Action Party (PAP) government's unbroken mandate to rule has come in no small part from how it explains its lineage and record to the electorate. The power invested in various aspects of Singapore's history is thus examined in a consideration of the politics of both the past and present. This book traces state discourses on Singapore history from the decision in the immediate independence period to recognise the nineteenth-century British acquisition of the island as its founding moment, to the 1980s and 1990s' 'Asian values' stage where an essentially Confucian heritage was recognised, as well as to an emphasis on the history of racial fragility and harmony in response to the threat of terrorism in the twenty-first century.