Je ya vinci code

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Archiving J B Jeyaretnam's papers Subscribe
From: FreshBread May-11 11:29 am
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Archiving J B Jeyaretnam's papers for posterity

The late J B Jeyaretnam (JBJ) was an important figure in Singapore's political history from the 1970s to his passing last year. Now that he's gone, what does one do with his papers and other objects that represent his life's work?

Against all odds, Jeyaretnam won the Anson by-election in 1981, becoming the first opposition politician to break the People's Action Party's (PAP) monopoly of parliamentary seats since the mid 1960s. His victory set in motion a series of reactive changes to the PAP's behaviour, leading to the many features of Singapore's political scene today, such as defamation suits and Group Representation Constituencies, further reinforcing other repressive habits like tight controls over the media.

Together with Chiam See Tong, Jeyaretnam was the face of dogged opposition to the PAP for a decade until new leaders emerged in the 1990s.

For many years J B Jeyaretnam tirelessly spread his message about the government's oppressive style by selling books at street corners. Picture from The Economist


It must be obvious that his notes and letters, representing as they do his thoughts, obstacles and battle plans, are a rich mine for future historians. Even simple objects like an election poster could be part of future exhibitions, to inform another generation of Singaporeans of this man's role in defining Singapore.

So where should they go to now?


International Institute of Social History

Yesterday, I met Emile Schwidder and Eef Vermeij of the International Institute of Social History, based in Amsterdam. Partly funded by the Dutch government, the institute is interested in archiving material relevant to their mission. As I understand it, they are in contact with the Jeyaretnam family about JBJ's papers, though final agreement has not yet been reached.

The institute catalogs all the material it receives, removes all rubber and metal elements, e.g. paper clips, packs them in acid-free boxes and stores them its own climate-controlled warehouse. The catalogs will be put online, and they have even started a project to digitise material starting with some really significant ones like the manuscripts of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Access to the papers for research will be liberal, but subject to agreement with the family, who will remain owners of the material. This means that certain papers may be held as confidential for a long while.

The institute also loans out material for exhibitions around the world. One of the most interesting next year will be material relating to Henk Sneevliet, who around 1914 founded a workers' union that eventually became the Indonesian Communist Party. In 1920/21, he was sent by Vladimir Lenin as Comintern representative to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, which he helped set up. He's mostly forgotten by Indonesians, especially after the communists' failed putsch in 1965, but the Chinese are interested and have contacted the institute to loan the material. Henk Sneevliet had a Chinese name: Ma-ling.

Other stuff the Chinese government might not (yet) be so interested in would be the materials from the 1970s' "Democracy Wall" movement and around the time of the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.

The institute also has many other items relating to communists in Indonesia, particularly before and after the 1965 events. Other growing collections relate to the Burmese opposition movement and social movements in Nepal and the Philippines.

One particularly moving item they have is the blood-stained shirt of Lean Alejandro, a student activist who campaigned for democracy. Alejandro was shot and killed in 1987, aged 27, and the gunmen are still unidentified. For a story on this brave young man, see UP activist Lean Alejandro remembered 20 years after killing.


Appeal

Currently, JBJ's materials are lying in various boxes in different locations -- I can imagine it's going to be a lot of work sorting them out. But this may be dwarfed by a bigger problem: Since he was with the Workers' Party for some of the most important years of his political life, much material may be there... if they are still there.

Meanwhile, this is an appeal to anyone who has material related to JBJ to contact his elder son Kenneth Jeyaretnam. It could be old copies of The Hammer published at the time when JBJ was secretary-general of the Workers' Party, election posters, banners or flyers. It could be letters, photographs or news clippings... anything like that. They will help flesh out the memory of the man and enable future generations to better understand his role and significance.


National Archives

But what about our National Archives? some readers might ask. Isn't that what they are supposed to do?

I would have thought so too, but one cannot but wonder whether they are even interested. That said, I understand that they recorded about 60 hours of oral history from JBJ, so it's not as if they are totally ignoring his legacy.

Yet, even if our National Archives are interested, I can't help but wonder how they are going to handle the material once they have received them. Speaking just for myself, not for the Jeyaretnam family, questions that arise are: Will there be open access? Will some materials mysteriously disappear? Will confidential material remain confidential, especially if the information therein proves politically useful to the ruling party?

It is a sad reflection of the corruption that has crept into our country's institutions that we instinctively ask such questions. We all know that lines have been blurred between state, government and ruling party. In fact, it is part of JBJ's legacy that we have been shown this.