Kok Chiang Tan - My Nantah Story

Tan Kok Chiang in his book My Nantah Story: The Rise and Demise of the Peoples University , describes this memorable event by quoting quite extensively from Pan Kuo Chu, who was directly responsible for organising the occasion, and academic Yao Souchou. According to Yao, the Governor of Singapore, Sir William Goode, who was to officiate the ceremony, arrived two hours late and only unveiled the commemorative plaque at seven in the evening.

With the Governor gracing the occasion, it would appear that Nanyang University was fully supported by the British colonial government. This was not so, especially at the beginning. As Kok Chiang so amply and clearly describes in his book, the university faced many obstacles, right from the day it was conceived. It is the detailed description of these obstacles and persecution that forms almost his entire book. Kok Chiang may not consider himself to have completed a full and comprehensive story of Nanyang University, but what he has written covers an important and also a major aspect of Nantahs history.

After World War II, some Chinese community leaders in Singapore had already begun discussing the need to establish a private university using Chinese as the medium of instruction. In 1950, the Hokkien Association bought a piece of land in Jurong on which to build a university that many dreamed of. About a year later, a well-known multi-millionaire businessman, Tan Lark Sye, publicly proposed that a university be built. He started the ball rolling by giving a large donation and called upon the Chinese community to donate. Rich and poor, from business tycoons to rickshaw pullers, not only from Singapore but also Malaya and other parts of Southeast Asia, responded generously.

By quoting very extensively from statements and speeches made by Tan Lark Sye, who became the founding chairman of Nanyang University, Kok Chiang explains elaborately the rationale for forming the university. Firstly, it was to be an apex of the Chinese education system, which has long been sustained with private funds from the Chinese community, and to enable those mainly from the Chinese secondary schools who qualified to continue their education at university level. Secondly, it was to help preserve the Chinese language and culture that the Chinese have always been proud of but which was facing a serious challenge from the dominant colonial English language and culture.

Nanyang University was formed under the Company Act and enrolled its first batch of students in 1956. It was popularly upheld as a true peoples university. Therefore, it was no surprise that thousands wanted to attend its inauguration, thus causing the massive traffic congestion mentioned above. But, unfortunately, even before its formation, Nantah was opposed by the likes of Sir Sydney Caine, Vice Chancellor of University of Malaya, Sir John Nicoll, the Governor of Singapore, and Malcom MacDonald, the British High Commissioner for South East Asia, among others. They all echoed the position taken by the Colonial Office.

But there were also well-known people supporting it, although not so many. Among them were Tan Cheng Lock, a respected Chinese leader in Malaya, Han Suyin, an internationally renowned novelist, and David Marshall, one time Chief Minister of the Labour Front government in Singapore. But after Marshall resigned, his successor, Lim Yew Hock, with the government he led, did not share Marshalls enthusiasm. Even the self-proclaimed socialist PAP government led by Lee Kuan Yew also expressed disfavour towards the existence of the Peoples University.

The main argument of those who opposed Nanyang University was that it would cater exclusively to Chinese students with a Chinese language education background, and thus would not help in the government effort to create the so-called inter-ethnic unity. It was strongly implied that any new university should be open to students from all ethnic groups and should preferably be modelled on the University of Malaya, which was formed in 1949, and teaching in the English language. They opined that already having one university was enough and feared the danger that the proposed Nanyang University could become a breeding ground for communists or pro-communist activists.

But the United States government had a different idea from the British colonial office. It argued and managed to convince the latter that the new university should and could be turned into an effective anti-communist institution. Thus, almost immediately after, the Colonial Office changed its mind and all those who opposed the conception of Nanyang University made a volte-face. Malcom MacDonald and a few others made symbolic financial contributions to the university. That also explains why Governor Goode was willing to officiate its inauguration.