Politics and loss in Philip Jeyaretnam's Singaporean fiction

[Introduction]: Singapore’s Philip Jeyaretnam has now published two well-reviewed novels, a linked collection of short stories, as well as individual stories and reflective essays. This substantial literary achievement is more remarkable, given his relative youth, the controversial political circumstances of his paternal family, and his full-time career as a lawyer at the Singaporean Bar. Moreover, for Singaporeans, creative writing in the English language is, as pointed out in an editorial in the Straits Times newspaper, “a young flowering, struggling in new soil.”(1) In contemporary Singapore, politics and livelihood impinge on creative artists and their output as much, if not more than, other developed countries. It is the purpose of this paper to consider each of Philip Jeyaretnam’s major published works in turn for their insights into their author’s world view, and the social milieu in which he functions, the place where he chooses to live and work. The analysis draws on the key basic assumptions set out by Altick and Fenstermaker in The Art of Literary Research (1993), firstly, that to understand the meaning of a text, it is necessary to know as much as possible about its creator, the author; and secondly, that authors and texts are products of particular social and historical contexts.(2) In the case of Philip Jeyaretnam’s work, it is argued that the triumph of managerialism, the sheer economic progress, and the monopolistic political process in Singapore have prompted the author to convey a profound awareness of cost to individual human lives, in terms of loss of intellectual diversity and even destruction of spiritual values. He is especially disturbed with the “very shallow form of materialism” that holds full sway, with what even the officially-oriented Straits Times has acknowledged as “a kind of national ideology that is expressed in a relentless efficiency to ensure material well-being.” (3) Whilst uneasy with the label of “political writer”, Philip Jeyaretnam nonetheless recognises that it is impossible to avoid political themes if the subject is the people of Singapore and how they think and feel , because of the formative and pervasive role of government in Singaporean society. (4) In a plea for civil rather than official society, he suggests that there can be legitimate commitments to, and passionate visions of, Singapore which are other than those espoused by the incumbent government, and which involve participation by a broad range of the population. Indeed, for the literary critic, Dudley de Souza, Philip Jeyaretnam’s creative work heralds the ‘emergence of a kind of Singaporean consciousness...”(5

From Kulim to Singapore: Catherine Lim's literary life

The publication in 1993 by Heinemann Asia of a volume of stories entitled The Best of Catherine Lim emphasised the significant contribution which this talented author has made to recent Singaporean fiction. The 1993 edition contains work from five of Catherine Lim's previously published collections, from Little Ironies (1978) to Deadline for Love (1992), and reflects the confidence which her publishers usually have in her capacity to draw a strong local reading audience. In fact, a Catherine Lim book is quite capable of attracting sales of 20,00O copies in a first edition

Diaspora and identity in the fiction of K S Maniam

[Introduction]: Emmanuel Nelson has truly observed that the “haunting presence of India” lies at the core of diasporic fiction by writers of Indian descent, together with the “anguish of personal loss” that an awareness of India engenders. (1) In any consideration of diasporic fiction, terms like exile, alienation, nostalgia, despair, dislocation, abandonment, and disintegration come readily to mind. In the case of distinguished Malaysian Indian writer, K S Maniam, the list can be augmented by reference to a profound sense of futility, and the absence of any personal sense of contemporary national identity. In 1984, Maniam poignantly reflected that the life of his particular community in Malaysia was “a straining towards achievement that does not end in fulfillment.” (2) This human gap between what could be and what is constitutes the actual fate of diaspora in Maniam’s fiction. The prospects for diaspora are, in short, very limited. This paper treats Maniam’s novels and short stories as documents of cultural knowledge, both of the South Indian community in Malaysia and of nation-building in Malaysia itself. Maniam’s fiction is also assessed in light of V S Naipaul’s concern that diasporic writers should strive to create a self in their own words, to assert their own voice in the country where they live, and so refuse to accept cultural or personal extinction. (3) The paper outlines the consequences of that refusal, especially Maniam’s inability to relate to a particular Malayo-Muslim definition of the nation. The paper also draws out the writer’s preference for a dynamic and multi-faceted Malaysian culture grounded on metaphysical and humanistic assumptions, as well as a post-colonial state graciously informed by its diverse cultural heritage

Parameters of Malaysian identity in the novels of Lloyd Fernando and K S Maniam

This paper focuses on the works of two leading Malaysian novelists, Lloyd Fernando and K S Maniam, of Eurasian and Tamil descent respectively. Both of these men have published two novels to date, and both have developed themes pertinent to the identity of the land in which they live, and the peoples who live there, those whom the inimitable Dennis Bloodworth once termed the “mythical Malaysians.” The novels by Fernando and Maniam confirm that the parameters of Malaysian identity were, and remain, communally defined and exclusionist. In the contemporary world of nation-states, not all colonization is externally inspired

Malaysian landscapes in the fiction of K S Maniam

[Introduction]: In his prolific output of fiction, including two published novels and numerous stories, K S Maniam has explored and revealed a range of Malaysian landscapes for the people who live there. Whilst acknowledging that “landscape” is an elusive concept that is difficult readily to define, this analysis accepts Victor Savage’s broad approach to landscape as a “living process “ which involves “the total sensually perceptible features of a person’s experience at a particular place and time.” (1) For Maniam, the landscapes are variously natural and cultural, exterior and interior, childlike and adult, a rich panorama. Accordingly, the paper examines such dimensions of landscape as physical settings, memory, dream, and imagination, mind and personality, margins and shadows, as well as institutions from plantation to coffee shop. Through all these settings, Maniam has furnished a vital and authentic Malaysian mosaic. This paper considers the significance of this mosaic through a thematic study of Maniam’s fictional output to date, i.e. from 1976 to the present. The American author, Joyce Carol Oates, has observed that “all artists know either consciously or instinctively that the secret intention of their life’s work is to rescue from the plunge of time something of beauty, permanence, significance,”(2) and so it is with Maniam as literary artist, and with Malaysia as place and experience. This analysis also draws on the key basic assumptions set out by Altick and Fenstermaker in The Art of Literary Research (1993), firstly that to understand the meaning of a text, it is necessary to know as much as possible about its creator, the author, and secondly that authors and texts are products of particular social and historical contexts.(3

Emergent voices in Singaporean fiction in English

[Introduction]: Singaporean Literature in English is plentiful, vibrant and diverse, reflecting the central role of the English language in the public discourse of the city-state. Although English is but one of four official languages in Singapore, in practice it is the predominant linguistic medium in a city-state committed to modernisation, economic growth, and social integration. For Singapore’s political elite, English serves as Singapore’s ‘working language,’ as well as an essential bridge between its Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian inhabitants. This healthy condition owes much to generations of literary pioneers since the late 1940s, after the foundation of the then University of Malaya in Singapore. However, a national literary tradition cannot rely forever on the efforts of pioneers, even when most of them are still productive. The consolidation of a tradition and establishment of a distinctive literary genre now depends on the emergence of new, younger voices. Fortunately, there are many now writing in Singapore, including Daren Shiau (Heartland), Alfian Sa’at (Corridor), Claire Tham (Skimming), and Tan Hwee Hwee (Foreign Bodies). This paper examines principal social and cultural themes in the fiction of these emergent voices, and makes particular reference to their preoccupation with youthful identity, their irreverent style, their views of the Singaporean urban landscape, and their sense of a Singaporean future. This analysis also draws on the key basic assumptions set out by Altick and Fenstermaker in The Art of Literary Research (1993), firstly that to understand the meaning of a text, it is necessary to know as much as possible about its creator, the author, and secondly that authors and texts are products of particular social and historical contexts. The works of all four young authors, all of them born since Singapore’s independence in 1965, are testimony to the continued hybridity of contemporary Singapore beneath the sheen of globalisation

Bureaucratic change in further education: Impacts of the White Paper 'Training for Jobs' on non-advanced further education in England and Wales, 1984-89.

This thesis considers the impacts of legislation introduced by the British government in 1984 to restructure the administration of non-advanced further education (NAFE) in England and Wales. The White Paper Training for Jobs proposed to transfer a substantial proportion of responsibility for the delivery of NAFE away from local education authorities (LEAs) to the Manpower Services Commission (MSC), involving the transfer of a proportion of LEAs' block grant to the MSC's annual budget for the purposes of NAFE delivery. The thesis examines the impacts of the White Paper by recourse to three themes. First, the revision of the policy innovation as a consequence of resistance by local authorities and their national associations to the policy as framed, and the subsequent renegotiation of its terms. Second, the bureaucratic impacts of the policy change, principally the restructuring of local working relationships which it necessitated. Third, a consideration of its impacts upon local NAFE planning procedures, the target of the policy shift. Central to the thesis are the relative bureaucratic characteristic of, and the operational relationship between, the MSC and LEAs, and the effect of these upon the development and delivery of NAFE policy. These themes are set in the context of an historical overview of vocational education and training in England and Wales, and a theoretical perspective which considers Training for Jobs as an illustrative example of decision-making and policy implementation in practice. It presents evidence for the argument that these processes should be perceived as a continuum in which actors at all levels play a part in the policy process, rejecting more simplistic 'top-down' approaches to the issue

Permutation Entropy And Statistical Complexity Analysis Of Turbulence In Laboratory Plasmas And The Solar Wind

The Bandt-Pompe permutation entropy and the Jensen-Shannon statistical complexity are used to analyze fluctuating time series of three different turbulent plasmas: the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in the plasma wind tunnel of the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX), drift-wave turbulence of ion saturation current fluctuations in the edge of the Large Plasma Device (LAPD), and fully developed turbulent magnetic fluctuations of the solar wind taken from the Wind spacecraft. The entropy and complexity values are presented as coordinates on the CH plane for comparison among the different plasma environments and other fluctuation models. The solar wind is found to have the highest permutation entropy and lowest statistical complexity of the three data sets analyzed. Both laboratory data sets have larger values of statistical complexity, suggesting that these systems have fewer degrees of freedom in their fluctuations, with SSX magnetic fluctuations having slightly less complexity than the LAPD edge I_sat. The CH plane coordinates are compared to the shape and distribution of a spectral decomposition of the wave forms. These results suggest that fully developed turbulence (solar wind) occupies the lower-right region of the CH plane, and that other plasma systems considered to be turbulent have less permutation entropy and more statistical complexity. This paper presents use of this statistical analysis tool on solar wind plasma, as well as on an MHD turbulent experimental plasma

Is it civic duty? An exploratory study of factors that influenced the public's decision to download the NHS COVID-19 app

Background/Aims The UK Government piloted a COVID-19 digital contact tracing smartphone app on the Isle of Wight, England, in June 2020 in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus. This study aimed to investigate the factors that affected the decision to download the app among individuals in the Isle of Wight. Methods Online questionnaires were distributed over social media to the sample population. Quantitative data were analysed, both descriptively and using a Chi-square or Fisher’s test. Qualitative data were analysed through content analysis. Results Overall, 74.2% of participants downloaded the COVID-19 app, citing compliance, protection and fighting the pandemic or returning to normal as their main reasons. There was a significant negative correlation between having concerns about the app and downloading the app (P=<0.01). Concerns were split into the three themes of privacy/data security concerns, technology issues, and increased complacency. There was a significant negative correlation between being in a COVID-19 high-risk group and downloading the app (P=0.042). Conclusions Concerns about the COVID-19 app, particularly in terms of its security, significantly affected whether participants were likely to download it. The results provide insight into factors influencing mass public health behaviours and can form the basis for future research into app-based interventions