History Sources and Citation

No     Type of sources   Citation
1 Textual Source 2.45 am -PAP romps home with landslide victory , 1959 May 31 , The Straits Times, Page 1
2 Tan, Kevin, ( 2008 ) Marshall of Singapore: A biography. Singapore :  Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
3 Textual Source Tan, Kevin, ( 2008 ) Marshall of Singapore: A biography. Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
4 Pictorial Source Leading the PAP government after it had been sworn in at City Hall ( June 1959 ) A page from Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs Singapore Story. Taken 23 August 2014
5 Textual Source Yawning Bread. ( 29 May 2009 ) Fifty Years Of PAP rule. Retrieved August 23, 2014 from http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2009/yax-1032.htm
6 Textual Source The day of decision , 1959 May 30 , The Straits Times , Page 1
7 Textual source PAP versus the rest , 1959 April 27 , The Straits Times , Page 6
8 Textual Source Advertisements Column 1 , 1959 26 April , The Straits Times , Page 11
Source 1:

Source 2: A record 194 candidates contested the 51 seats in the 1959 elections. To everyone's surprise, the PAP contested all the available seats. These elections were epoch-making in serveral ways. First, it was the first time no nominated or official seats were reserved for the Legislative Assembly- the increase in the number of elected seats from the 1955 elections, from 25 to 51, was more than double. Secondly, a record thirteen political parties took part in the elctions. Finally, for the first time, voting was compulsory and the voter population increased from 300,292 in 1955 to 587,797 in 1959. After a blistering campaign, full of mud-slinging and rhetorical duels, the PAP won a landslide victory, claiming fourty three seats. The remaining eight seats went to the Lim Yew Hock's new party, the Singapore People's Alliance ( SPA ) , three seats to the UMNO-MCA Alliance and one to independent A.P.Rajah.

Source 3:

SOURCE 4:

Source 5: May 1959 was a time when Singapore was still a British Crown Colony, but agreement had been reached in 1957 for Singapore to enjoy internal self-government, with the British responsible for external affairs, internal security and defense. A new constitution would come into effect with internal self-governance, under which the Legislative Assembly would comprise 51 elected members, and only elected members. In this respect, it would differ from previous Legislative Assemblies that had always included members appointed by the Governor.

Source 6: Today is Singapore's day of decision. Nearly 590,000 voters go to the polls today, in the most important election to date to choose their Government for the next five years. As political parties and independents last night rounded off their intensive and bitter polls battle, the atmosphere was tense and expectant. More than half the electorate will be voting for the first time. It will be their votes primarily that will decide the election. All the major parties claim to approach the polls with confidence. But there is still a widespread feeling that the break-down in the negotiations for the united front against the PAP has jeopardised chances of success for the more moderate parties. Many voters opposed to the PAP were still undecided up to last night about what other party they should vote for. Confusing the issue, observers say, is the presence of 34 independent candidates in different decisions.

Source 7: One hundred and ninety-four candidates are to contest the May 30 general elections that will launch Singapore upon its future as a fully self-governing City State. But for the successful objections against four other nominees (including Mr. Lim Koon Teck, a former Assemblyman and one of the S.P.A. leaders), the total would have agreed almost exactly with the number forecast on nomination eve. Two hundred candidates have been expected.

Source 8:  Breakdown and key to the abbreviations
This is a breakdown of the candidates and their political parties and a key to the abbreviations.
PAP- People's Action Party..... 51
SPA- Singapore People's Alliance..... 39 
Lib-Soc -Liberal Socialists ..... 32
IND-Independents..... 35
CP-Citizen's Party..... 5
WP-Workers Party..... 2
UMNO-United Malays National Organisation..... 8
MCA- Malayan Chinese Association..... 5
LF-Labour Front..... 3
KURA-Katong United Resident's Association..... 2
PR-Party Ra'ayat..... 4
PMIP-Pan-Malayan Islamic Party..... 3
SMU-Singapore Malay Union..... 3
MIC-Malayan Indian Congress..... 2

Minutes for History Investigation Meetings

Minutes for Meeting on 21 August 2014 
Day/Date: Thursday, 21 August 2014 
Venue: Computer Lab 4 @CCHMS 
Members present: Annabelle, Natalie and Xi Wen 
Member(s) absent: Ling Ling 
Reason(s) for absence: Went for MSP 

Issues discussed/ Tasks completed:
1. Completed Compare and Contrast. (Annabelle) 
2. Found Pictorial and Textual sources from the internet and shared them with each of the group members via email. (Xi Wen & Natalie)
Action plan:
1. Check the 1st blogpost on C&C 
2. Cite the sources found and classify them into pictorial and textual sources

Minutes for meeting on 22 August 2014 
Day/Date: Friday, 22 August 
Venue: Computer Lab 3 @CCHMS 
Members present: Annabelle, Natalie, Xi Wen and Ling Ling 
Member(s) absent: NIL 
Reasons for absence: NIL 

Issues discussed/ Tasks completed:
1. Writing of introduction for 300-word essay (Annabelle) 
2. Further search for sources (ALL) 
Action plan:
1. Complete 300-word essay
2. Insert sources

Minutes for meeting on 25 August 2014 
Day/Date: Monday 25 August 2014
Venue: Computer Lab 4 @ CCHMS
Members present: Annabelle, Natalie, Xi Wen and Ling Ling
Member(s) absent: NIL
Reasons for absence: NIL

Issues discussed/ Tasks completed:
1. Typed the essay (Annabelle)
2.Added the sources (Natalie,Ling Ling and Xi Wen)
3.Discussed on how to improve our essay (All)
Action plan:
Complete the HI Investigation Blog and ensure it is ready for submission (ALL)

History Investigation Essay: 1959 Singapore General Elections

1959 Singapore's First Fully Democratic Election The 1959 Singapore Legislative assembly general election was held in Singapore on 30 May 1959 to choose the members of the Legislative assembly of Singapore.This election was different from the previous elections as all the seats were completely determined by the population as per the new Constitution of Singapore of 1959. In previous elections,some seats were chosen by Singapore's colonial authorities. The candidates were nominated on 25 May while the actual polls were held on 30 May 1959.There was a total of 194 candidates. 35 candidates were independent while the remaining 159 candidates were fielded by 13 political parties. The People's Action Party won the general elections with 43 out of 51 seats.The People's Action Party became the ruling party of Singapore and currently still is the ruling party of Singapore.The 1959 election is strongly linked to Singapore's gain of self rule that followed after.Although the locals have more control over the Singapore, there are still some affairs that are under British control for example, external affairs and external defense. There are also some affairs that is under shared control like internal security.

I learnt that PAP was the political party that the more organised and suited to govern Singapore.As many sources showed that the voters voted PAP as it was the most organised,united and they had very little disagreements between their members out of the 13 parties, PAP was the one whom won majority of the votes.Thus this shows that PAP were very goal oriented and strive to achieve independence in Singapore as they did not spend their efforts on unnecessary stuff.Even though there were a lot of political parties that contested,PAP on the election as they had many supporters and impressed many of the locals.

I can see that in 1959, Singapore was slowly progressing to become an independent country. From the sources, I can infer that Singapore progressed from limited self-government 1955 to internal self-government 1959.Thus, this shows that Singaporeans had more control over the main aspects in Singapore and that there will be fair governing of Singapore.

I am able to infer that more people were interested in the election that will be able to grant Singapore internal self governance. There were more candidates and political parties that formed and contested in the 1959 elections compared to the 1955 elections. As there was a total of 13 contesting parties and 194 candidates in the 1959 elections compared to the 6 contesting parties and 79 candidates in 1955 elections. Therefore, this shows that more people wanted Singapore to be independent and be free from the British rule,thus, stepped forward to achieve that goal by forming their own political parties to contest in the elections.

Compare and Contrast of Sources

How similiar are sources A and B? Both sources A and B are similiar in content about the political repression by the British government. This can be seen from Source A," I had no office, no clerk, no thambi. And oh they couldn't give me any office- it took a long time-government offices were extremely overloaded- and there was a lot of difficulty." This shows that although David Marshall had a high political status, he still did not have any due respect from the government as the British did not provide and were reluctant to give him the things he needed that are required for a conducive working enviroment. He went through obstacles to obtain his rights as a high political person. Which shows the disagreement with the British Government and the newly-appointed local officials. Similarly Source B states that,"Out on the streets, Chinese students ignored the government's official closure of their schools," This shows that the locals were deprieved of their education. The British Government has taken away the rights of the citizens which resulted in disagreeement with the cietizens and the British Government.Thus, this shows thats the British Government politically repressed the locals.

Both sources A and B different in about what the locals hoped to achieve. Source A states that the locals wanted independence while in source B states that the locals wanted a different education system. Source A states that,"Merdeka!People of Singapore!" "Merdeka" means independence. This suggests that the locals wanted independence.In contrast, Source B states that," Out on the streets, Chinese students ignored the government's official closure of their schools, and in a repeat of the previous year locked themselves into their classrooms,where they established their own revolutionary cirriculum." This suggests that the locals were against the British government's education system and wanted a different education system. Both sources A and B both show the difference in what the locals wanted to achieve.