Colliding Worlds

Gerald de Cruz

Description

Spanning the years from the 30s to the 80s, Rojak Rebel is an illuminating portrait of a passionate idealist. Through a crazy paving of anecdotes and essays, Gerald takes the reader into the flow of his variegated world. Whether it is an evocation of his childhood days in Katong or a recounting of his escapes from the Japanese and the Communists, his is a fascinating, sometimes touching, story told with wit and eloquence. Rojak Rebel was first published in 1991.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique

Informations

• Publié par: Marshall Cavendish International
• Date de parution: 10 avril 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789814634915
• Langue: English

Extrait

2009 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited
Photographs courtesy of Mrs Judith Prakash

Published by Marshall Cavendish Editions
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196

First published 1993 under the title Rojak Rebel by Times Editions Pte Ltd

All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Request for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited, 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196. Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone]. E-mail: [e-mail] .
Website: www.marshallcavendish.com/genref

The publisher makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents of this book, and specifically disclaims any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose, and shall in no events be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Other Marshall Cavendish Offices:
Marshall Cavendish Ltd. 32-38 Saffron Hill, London EC1N 8FH, UK Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 99 White Plains Road, Tarrytown NY 10591-9001, USA Marshall Cavendish International (Thailand) Co Ltd. 253 Asoke, 12th Flr, Sukhumvit 21 Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Times Subang, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Batu Tiga, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of Times Publishing Limited

National Library Board Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data
De Cruz, Gerald, 1920-1991.
Colliding worlds : memoirs of a Singapore maverick / Gerald de Cruz. - Singapore :
Marshall Cavendish Editions, c2009.
p. cm.
ISBN-13 : 978-981-261-870-2 eISBN : 978 981 4634 91 5
1. De Cruz, Gerald, 1920-1991 - Anecdotes. 2. Singapore - History.
3. Communists - Singapore - Anecdotes. I. Title.
DS610.63
959.57 - dc22 OCN316406849

Printed in Singapore by Craft Print International Ltd
The Author

GERALD DE CRUZ, also known as Haji Abdul Karim Abdullah, was born on 20 February, 1920. Starting out as a journalist with The Straits Times in 1940, Gerald was later drawn into communism. In 1948, when a shooting war against the Malayan Communist Party started, he fled Singapore, finally landing in Britain. He was to spend six years in Britain caring for the intellectually disabled, a period he described as his happiest and most fulfilling .
In 1956, at the request of David Marshall, Gerald returned to Singapore to be the Organizing Secretary of the Labour Front Government. In the sixties, under the PAP government, he helped set up the Political Study Centre in Singapore to educate civil servants on world affairs and local political changes. The year 1968 was to mark another watershed in his life-he became a Muslim. From 1975 to 1985, Gerald was actively involved as a training consultant in the Sarawak Foundation, a government-sponsored body which provides scholarships for its people.
A well-known journalist, first with The Straits Times , then with the New Nation and The Sarawak Tribune , Gerald de Cruz was the author of Facing Facts in Malaya (1952), Politics and Everyman Today (1963), and Nationalism and Communism (1970). He died in 1991 at the age of seventy-two, and is fondly remembered by many who recalled his sharp wit and his capacity to care for others.
Contents
PREFACE by Judith Prakash
FOREWORD to Rojak Rebel by Dennis Bloodworth

The Explosions That Shook and Changed My Life
My Singapore Childhood
The Menagerie That Was My Home
A Victory for God, Mrs Grundy and Marital Fidelity
Adventure at Sea
The Butchers of Singapore
Flirting with Death in a POW Camp
Agnes de Souza, The Indomitable Lady
I Travel 1,000 Miles on Errand of Mercy
Having a Bash at the British
Why I Joined, and Left, the Malayan Communist Party
The Biggest Thief in Malayan Politics
Escape from Singapore
Staring Death in the Face
Night of Fear in Karachi
Belly Dance by the Baghdad Express
A Closed and Lethal Border Bristling with Machine Guns
The Acropolis and Richard Slansky s Fabulous Offer
The Path to Rome
Using Time to Purchase Immortality
Interlude in Rome
Expulsion from Prague
British Insularity-A Pertinent Example
Flying the Flag of Freedom at Osborne House
Affirming the Humanity of Our Handicapped Children
Spiritual Food for the Osborne House Boys
Growing Up on the Football Field
My Six-Year Campaign in Britain for Malayan Freedom
David Marshall, Singapore s Unique Chief Minister
The Salvaging of Lulu
Secret Encounter with Lee Kuan Yew
He Pulled out a Gun and Shot the Van Driver Dead in Washington, D.C.
The Dadah Queen of Singapore
My Little Man Was All Wire and Whipcord
Making Thugs of Our Children
Ecstasy-The World s Best Tonic
How I Love Puasa
Conscious Evolution-The Next Step Forward?
Adventures in Life-Why I Became a Communist
Adventures with People-The Communist Party Chiefs
Adventures with Youth-The Girl in the Confessional
Women s Lib Motto: Trust in God; SHE will provide.
Preface

ALMOST 18 YEARS after he died, it is still difficult for me, as his daughter, to be dispassionate about the life and work of Gerald de Cruz. It was only five years ago that I mustered the emotional stamina to listen to the voice recordings made by him for the Oral History Department.
When the first edition of a collection of my father s writings was published under the title Rojak Rebel , there was some criticism. Some people thought that a few of the impressions were inaccurate and asked me to arrange for corrections to be made. As these were not factual inaccuracies but rather, differing views on certain events, I declined. The impressions were after all those of the person who wrote them and it was not for me to change those views. Most of the criticism was levelled at the title of the book. Rojak Rebel was very kindly proposed by my father s old and dear friend, Dennis Bloodworth. I had no hesitation in accepting it because it encompassed the many differing roles that he played in the political, social and national movements of his time. On reflection, however, I have to admit that the title implied a certain gadfly behaviour which did not fully reflect my father s personality and certain beliefs which he held dear, the foremost of these being his belief in the equality of human beings. When the publishers of this new edition suggested that the title of the book be changed, I agreed.
My father was brought up in an environment whose own members considered there was a difference between a fair complexioned Eurasian and a darker skinned one; when distinctions were made between Eurasians on the basis of Portuguese as opposed to other European ancestry; when being associated with the British and working as their clerks and assistants gave Eurasians a false sense of comfort and superiority. Outside this milieu, my father had to understand his relationship with the Chinese, Malays and Indians with all of whom he struck a chord of commonality through early interaction. From very early in his life he realised that his Eurasian status did not provide him kinship with Europeans or a passport to opportunity.
Gerald de Cruz was caught up by the fervour for independence and self-determination, having been the subject of many instances of humiliation by his colonial masters, first the British and then the Japanese. Even the Catholic Church, to which he belonged and in which in his youth he intended to progress as a priest of the faith, punished him for his enquiry and curiosity. The church he attended at that time, the Church of the Holy Family in Katong, had a European priest. My father made several efforts to seek answers to burning theological questions. Each time, he was rebuffed by the priest who told him that his role was not to question but to obey. My father persisted. Exasperated, the priest threw him out of the church.
Unlike many Eurasians of his time, my father was quintessentially Asian and, in particular, Singaporean. He made it his ambition to play a part in freeing Singapore from the yoke of colonial rule. In his quest, he sought inspiration from a variety of nationalistic movements ranging from the pacifism of Gandhi and the militarism of Subhas Bose to the communism of Lenin. Essentially, however, he abhorred violence and abjured seeking political change through violent means.
Although he was an early participant in the Malayan Democratic Union and the Malayan communist movement, my father did not possess the concentrated and focused vigour and unquestioning obedience to superior authority which communism demanded. It was no surprise that in a few years his enchantment with communism evaporated. Gerald de Cruz was a nationalist and a patriot whose only goal in those early days was the independence of Singapore and Malaya. This political motivation was strengthened by the cruel excesses he witnessed and experienced under Japanese military rule.
The momentous events of the 1930s and the 1940s shaped my father s thinking. In later years, his life and energies were devoted to looking after mentally retarded children, to the establishment of trade unions, to the training of young people and to journalism. As readers of this collection will quickly realize, one of my father s most brilliant gifts was his ability to communicate with others.
My father made more than one effort to write his memoirs. The pressures of daily life and the subsequent incapacity arising from two strokes, however, prevented substantial work on this task. If he had collated all his papers and started the process of writi