Go back in time with Lee Kuan Yew as he recounts The Battle for Merger

This article is more than 12 months old

Oct 09, 2014 12:07 pm

With Singapore rapidly approaching its 50th year of independence, the reprint of the book The Battle For Merger is a good stepping stone to understand the nation's history.

Launched today (Oct 9) by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean at the National Library Building, the book contains the transcripts of twelve radio talks written and delivered by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

In those radio talks, which took place between Sept 13, 1961 and Oct 9 1961, Mr Lee informed the public about the ongoing political struggle over the merger.

While the context of the radio talks was Merger, the key focus of the radio talks was to expose the communists – who they were, how they operated and what their real aims were in opposing Merger.

DPM Teo said:

“In 2015, we celebrate Singapore’s 50th anniversary. While we only became an independent nation in 1965, our road to independence began earlier, with our attempt to forge a shared destiny with the then Federation of Malaya. On the surface, it was a battle for merger. Below the surface was another deeper, more momentous, more dangerous battle – that between the communists and non-communists in Singapore. The communists and their allies had a larger agenda ... to impose a communist regime in Malaya and Singapore through all means, including subversion, and ultimately, armed revolution.”

Click here to listen to the first radio talk that Mr Lee Kuan Yew gave on the Merger and struggles faced in the lead-up to independence.