Labour formation, identity, and resistance in HM Dockyard, Singapore (1921-1971)

International Review of Social History

Volumn 51, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 415-439

  Khiun, Liew Kai ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33750842134     PISSN: 00208590     EISSN: 1469512X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020859006002549     Document Type: Review

References (100)

1. David Howarth, Sovereign of the Seas: The Story of British Sea Power (London, 1974), p. 333. Howarth provides a useful description of the working conditions of British civilian dock workers in the nineteenth century.
2. Catherine Lim, Or Else, The Lightning God and Other Short Stories (Singapore, 1980), p. 30.
3. Catherine Lim, Or Else, The Lightning God and Other Short Stories Ibid., pp.22-38.
4. Literally translated as "story-play", Kathakali is a seventeenth-century theatre genre that has its origins in Kerala. Considered a popular "people's theatre", Kathakali incorporated the Hindu epic tales of Ramayana and Mahabharata, which are played out by masked performers representing gods, demons, and humans. See David Bolland, A Guide to Kathakali: With the Stories of 35 Plays (New Delhi, 1996).
5. The historiography of the socio-economic legacy of the Singapore dockyard is far from comprehensive. Admiralty records pertaining to the base's industrial relations are scattered and consist mostly of more general reports and correspondence. Furthermore, the records of the Singapore government and of the successors to the various armed services unions, crucial in furnishing a more comprehensive account, remain inaccessible.
6. See Malacom H. Murfett, John N. Miksic, Brian P. Farrell, and Chiang Ming Shun, Between Two Oceans: A Military History of Singapore from First Settlement to Final British Withdrawal (Singapore, 1999).
7. See James Neidpath, The Singapore Naval Base and the Defence of Britain's Eastern Empire, 1919-1941 (Oxford, 1981).
8. See W. David McIntyre, The Rise and Fall of the Singapore Naval Base, 1919-1942 (London, 1979).
9. Darren Seow Tien Ghin, "A Naval History of Singapore: the Syonan-to Episode, 1942-1945" (Honours thesis, National University of Singapore, 2001).
10. Charles Gamba, The Origins of Trade Unionism in Malaya: A Study in Colonial Labour Unrest (Singapore, 1962), pp. 211-213.
11. See Lee Kuan Yew, From Third World to First: The Singapore Story, 1965-2000 (Singapore, 2000).
12. For recent works see Sam Davis et al. (eds), Dock Workers: International Explorations in Comparative Labour History, 2 vols (London, 2000),
13. and Kenneth Lunn and Ann Day (eds), History of Work and Labour Relations in the Royal Dockyards (London [etc.], 1999).
14. Mary Hilson, "Labour Politics in a Naval Dockyard: The Case of Karlskrona, Sweden c. 1880-1925", International Review of Social History, 46 (2001), p. 342.
15. Roger Morris, "Government and Community: The Changing Context of Labour Relations, 1770-1830", in Lunn and Day, History of Work and Labour Relations, p. 21. Murfett has listed several categories of British military base worldwide according to their operational functions. They are as follows: the main support areas (Australia, Canada) - Sydney, Vancouver; operational naval bases - Aden, Bombay, Colombo, Freemantle, Karachi, Kilindini, Trincomalee, Auckland, Brisbane, Hong Kong, and Singapore; and advanced naval bases (Indian Ocean) - Addu Atoll, Andaman Islands, Bahrain, Mauritius, and Masirah Islands - (Pacific) - Brunei, Port Darwin, and Manus;
16. Malcolm H. Murfett, In Jeopardy: The Royal Navy and British Far Eastern Defence Policy, 1945-1951 (Oxford, 1995), p. 3.
17. Frederick Cooper, On the African Waterfront: Urban Disorder and the Transformation of Work in Colonial Mombasa (New Haven, CT, 1987).
18. Thongchai Winichakul, "Writing at the Interstices: Southeast Asian Historians and Postnational Histories in Southeast Asia", in Abu Talib Ahmad and Liok Ee Tan (eds), New Terrains in Southeast Asian History (Singapore, 2003), p. 17.
19. C.J.W-L. Wee, "Our Island Story: Economic Development and the National Narrative in Singapore", in New Terrains in Southeast Asian History, ibid., pp. 142-146.
20. National Archives of Singapore [hereafter NAS], oral interviews, Father Alfred Fortier, A0001031/Reels 1-2.
21. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London [etc.], 2004), p.17.
22. Makarand Paranjape, "Displaced Relations: Diasporas, Empires, Homelands", in Makarand Paranjape (ed.), In Diaspora: Theories, Histories, Texts (New Delhi, 2002), p. 3.
23. Donald C. Gordon, The Moment of Power: Britain's Imperial Epoch (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1970), p. 78.
24. Lennox A. Mills, British Rule in Eastern Asia (Oxford, 1942), p. 19.
25. From Secretary of Admiralty to Admiral Roger Keys, "Supply of Labour to the Singapore Dockyard", Public Record Office, London, [hereafter PRO] ADM 298/1097/65, 1924.
26. From Secretary of Admiralty to Admiral Roger Keys, "Supply of Labour to the Singapore Dockyard", 1924.Ibid.
27. From Secretary of Admiralty to Admiral Roger Keys, "Supply of Labour to the Singapore Dockyard", 1924.Ibid.
28. From Secretary of Admiralty to Admiral Roger Keys, "Supply of Labour to the Singapore Dockyard",1924. Ibid.
29. Syed Hussein Alatas, The Myth of the Lazy Native: A Study of the Image of the Malays, Filipinos and Javanese from the 16th to the 20th Century and its Function in the Ideology of Colonial Capitalism (London, 1977). Most Europeans had ambivalent perceptions of the ethnic Chinese as the hyper-capitalist race, among which industry and greed dominated. In comparison, Indians were seen as a source of cheap and docile labour, amenable to discipline and management.
30. See Charles Hirschman, "The Making of Race in Colonial Malaya: Political Economy and Racial Ideology", Sociological Forum, 1 (1986), pp. 330-361, 347.
31. Ann Stoler, Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's Plantation Belt, 1870-1979 (New Haven, CT, 1985), pp. 6-9.
32. Ann Stoler, Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's Plantation Belt, 1870-1979 Ibid., p.9.
33. PRO, ADM 1/28400, "Answers to Questions in Admiralty Letter", CE III/C.E.56868/63 of 12 November 1963.
34. PRO, ADM 1/28400, "Report on Strike in the HM Naval Base, Singapore", 20 March 1964.
35. The Straits Times, 5 January 1926.
36. John W. Humphrey, Geographic Analysis of Singapore's Population (Singapore, 1985), p. 13.
37. See also Brenda S.A. Yeoh and Lily Kong (eds), Portraits of Places: History, Community, and Identity in Singapore (Singapore, 1995).
38. There is no statistical information available on the exact number of those providing support services around the military bases. Admiralty officials estimated that about 9,500 locals were either directly employed privately by the European staff or indirectly catering to their domestic needs in the British military installations in Singapore; PRO, ADM 116.6195, C.E. 13020/53 of 24 February 1962, "Phasing of rundown".
39. This is based on an estimate of the size of the entire Indian population; in some of the available records the Malayalees were lumped together with their South Asian counterparts. See Agnes Fung Li Ning, "Growth of Settlements in Rural Singapore" (Honours thesis, National University of Singapore, Department of Geography, 1975), p. 17.
40. According to the 1961 Indian population census, the population density in Kerala was one of the highest in the country, skyrocketing from 176 people per square mile in 1836 to 1,127 per square mile in 1961. The state also had the third highest rate of unemployment in India (behind Delhi and West Bengal). Kerala's workforce was only 33.31 per cent of the total population, while the national average was 43.98 per cent. See Census of India, 1961, vol. 1 (Delhi, 1967), p. 78, pp. 735-736.
41. Census of Malaya, 1947, p. 79;
42. Sandhu, Indians in Malaya, p. 237.
43. Report on the Census of Population, 1957 (Singapore, 1964), p. 70.
44. PRO, ADM 1/28400, "Answers to Questions in Admiralty Letter", CE III/C.E.56868/63 of 12 November 1963.
45. Suresh Menon identified two Hindu temples, two Christian churches, a Muslim mosque, and two syncretic religious missions frequented by the Malayalee community in the vicinity of the naval base. See Suresh Menon, "Role of Religious Institutions and Associations in a Malayalee Neighbourhood" (Honours thesis, National University of Singapore, 1975/76), pp. 16-24.
46. The two main temples were the Bala Subramaniam Holy See Temple, located within the naval base, and the Shiva Krishna Temple, located along the Sembawang main road. From his interviews, Menon found that even though the Holy See Temple was closer to where the labourers lived, it was not often patronized by the Malayalee community, especially during the Onam festival. He also found that Malayalee Hindus had a greater tendency to conduct religious activities in their own homes than in the public sphere. Suresh Menon, "Role of Religious Institutions and Associations in a Malayalee Neighbourhood" Ibid., p. 20.
47. Suresh Menon, "Role of Religious Institutions and Associations in a Malayalee Neighbourhood" Ibid., p. 23.
48. Suresh Menon, "Role of Religious Institutions and Associations in a Malayalee Neighbourhood" p. 23.Ibid.
49. For more details, see Suresh Menon, "Role of Religious Institutions and Associations in a Malayalee Neighbourhood" ibid., ch. 3, pp. 27-37.
50. Suresh Menon, "Role of Religious Institutions and Associations in a Malayalee Neighbourhood" pp. 27-37. Ibid.
51. Although Onam could be regarded as part of the celebration of the start of the harvest season, its mythology involves a Dravidian epic that harks back to the end of the golden age of Kerala, when its ruler Mahabali was cast down to Patala, the underworld, by Vamana, the dwarf incarnation of Vishnu. The latter, conceding to the appeals of the Mahabali subjects, allowed the defeated monarch to return once a year, the time of the visit being fixed in the first Malayalam month (between August and September). Census of India, 1961, vol. 7: Kerala: Fairs and Festivals of Kerala (Delhi, 1966), p. 5.
52. Census of India, 1961, vol. 7: Kerala: Fairs and Festivals of Kerala 1966), Ibid., p. 24.
53. PRO, ADM 1/28400, "Appendix F: Lessons learned from the Strike and General Observations", 6 December 1963.
54. Paul Gilroy, There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack (London [etc.], 2002), p. 24.
55. Aside from several oral history records from the National Archives of Singapore, there are no available official records on labour relations in the naval dockyard under the Japanese. Under such circumstances, one can rely only on the oral testimonies of several former dockyard personnel who worked for the Imperial Japanese Navy during this period. These scattered accounts might reflect only a minority and so might not represent the dominant view. Nevertheless, I believe that these graphic accounts provide a rare glimpse of workers during Japan's occupation of Singapore.
56. Yoji Akashi, "The Japanese Occupation of Malaya", in Alfred McCoy (ed.), Southeast Asia under Japanese Occupation (New Haven, CT, 1985), p. 59.
57. Cheah Boon Kheng, "The Social Impact of the Japanese Occupation of Malaya (1942-1945)", in Southeast Asia under Japanese Occupation ibid., p. 82.
58. See Paul Kratoska, The Japanese Occupation of Malaya: A Social and Economic History (London, 1998).
59. Paul Kratoska, The Japanese Occupation of Malaya: A Social and Economic History 1998).Ibid., pp. 85-86.
60. NAS, oral interviews, Heng Chiang Ky, A000152/08-9.
61. Ibid. See too NAS, oral interviews, Sansui bin Haji Taman, A000193/01-3.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid.
64. The Straits Times, 18 September 1940.
65. PRO, ADM 1/28400, "From Singapore to Commonwealth Relations Office", no. TOO, 7 October 1963.
66. PRO, ADM 1/28400, "Report on Relations with the NBLU", 0256/33/59, 23 November 1959.
67. Report on Relations with the NBLU", 1959.Ibid. Extracts from Sir William Goode, United Kingdom Commissioner in Singapore, to Colonial Office, 3 September 1959.
68. Report on Relations with the NBLU", 1959. Ibid.
69. PRO, ADM 1/28400, "Answers to Questions in Admiralty", Letter CE III/CE56868/63 of 12 November 1963.
70. The Straits Times, 20-21 August 1930. Another minor strike at the naval base took place in September 1936 after 71 coolies at the site downed tools for a few hours in support of a general strike by municipal sanitary workers.
71. The Straits Times, Ibid., 17 September 1936.
72. PRO, CO273/568D. 133/30, 13 November 1930.
73. The Straits Times, 29 October 1946.
74. PRO, CO953/43/4/3, R.H. Oakley, Controller of Labour, Singapore, "Report on Labour Unrest in Singapore during the period 1-15 October 1946", 29 October 1946.
75. PRO, ADM 1/23524, ref. no. AS/11/52, 1 May 1952.
76. PRO, ADM 1/24666, "Award by Arbitrator in Reference between NBLU and the Lords Commission of the Admiralty", 11 March 1953, p. 3.
77. PRO, ADM 1/23524, F.W. Moltenshead, U.S.E. (C), 10 November 1952.
78. Ibid., Memorandum on the Present Labour Situation in HM Naval Base, Singapore, November 1952.
79. The Straits Times, 31 January 1956 to 3 February 1956.
80. The Straits Times, 17 February 1956.
81. PRO, ADM 1/28400, From the Commodore Superintendent to the C-in-C Far East Station, "Report on Relations with the NBLU", 23 November 1959.
82. Report on Relations with the NBLU"1959. Ibid.
83. PRO, ADM 1/28400, Civil Establishment Branch IV, CE 58334/61, 19 December 1961.
84. Ibid.
85. PRO, ADM 1/28400, "Strike Report: Day to Day of Major Events", 6 December 1963.
86. The Straits Times, 28 October 1963.
87. NAS, 000784 Access: Ahmad bin Ismail. Reels 1-2.
88. See the interview with Michael Fernandez in Liew Kai Khiun, "Raised Voices and Dropped Tools: Labour Unrest at the Harbour and Naval Dockyard in Singapore, 1952-1972" (MA thesis, National University of Singapore, 2003), pp. 199-202.
89. PRO, ADM 1/28400, "Industrial Attendance during Strike", 11 December 1963.
90. Industrial Attendance during Strike", 1963. Ibid., p. 133.
91. Industrial Attendance during Strike", 1963. Ibid., p. 136.
92. Lee, From Third World to First, p. 60.
93. Moves to merge the two unions were initiated in 1966 in the presence of the labour minister Jek Yuen Tong, as part of efforts to negotiate with the British at a joint level; The Straits Times, 13 May 1966.
94. The Straits Times, Ibid., 17 May 1966. The delegation was formed after the 30,000-member Singapore Federation of Services Union organized a rally to protest against the British government's "meagre" pension scheme for the 1,000 civilian staff due for retirement; ibid., 28 March 1966. For a detailed breakdown of wage scales by individual grades and vocation see Newsletter of the National Trades Union Congress, 12 January 1966.
95. Backdated to 1965, the agreement provided wage increases to employees ranging from a minimum of $130 for an unskilled worker to a maximum of $1,200 for the most senior technicalgrade employee. Daily rated workers were also to be converted to monthly rated staff. The Straits Times, Ibid., 13 January 1966.
96. These negotiations lasted until the eve of the formal pullout in 1971, when fierce contentions emerged regarding the priority given to local workers over foreigners, as well as the frequency with which workers could draw their pensions. Meanwhile, the government and the unions took efforts to establish courses to retrain these workers for jobs in civilian industries. Most of the affected workers were from the Air Ministry and the army, and they had few commercial skills that could be used elsewhere.
97. See Melanie Chew, Of Hearts and Minds: The Story of Sembawang Shipyard (Singapore, 1998).
98. PRO, OD 39/79. Transcript of speech given by the Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, at the Dockyard Workers' National Day celebration dinner, 21 March 1967.
99. Paul Gilroy, Between Camps: Nations, Cultures and the Allure of Race (London [etc.], 2004), p. 13.
100. The Straits Times, 1 November 1971.