PREFACE

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Alfian Sa’at was my student when I was teaching at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Over the past 20 years, I have enjoyed watching many of his plays and bought several of his books of poetry and short stories. He is one of those rare intelligent, thoughtul, independent voices critiquing Singapore’s history and society. I have always been a supporter of his art and his philosophy.  Recently, Yale-NUS perfunctorily cancelled Alfian’s university course on "Dialogue and Dissent", and I was angry at the university's inept handling of this matter. I was also very dismayed how our Education Minister Ong Ye Kung’s made unfounded criticisms on Alfian Sa’at.

 

One of the reasons I enjoyed Alfian’s play Merdeka, is that it devotes one of the scenes to the 1954 Fajar Trial where the police arrested several university medical and arts students, charging them with sedition for advocating decolonization from Britain. The lawyer who was involved in their defence was a young law graduate, Lee Kuan Yew. I am quite close to this episode because in 2004, I had obtained a Singapore Film Commission grant to write a film script based on this Fajar Trial. Unfortunately, the Infocomm Media and the National Arts Council decided not to fund the filming of this screenplay. No reason was given.

 

MERDEKA

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Merdeka is an intellectual play exploring controversial aspects of Singapore history. It is played by an ensemble cast, each taking turns to talk about one episode of Singapore’s past. By probing in greater depth, Alfian challenges many of our conventional views. For example, Singapore was not a quiet fishing village before the arrival of Stamford Raffles. To gain a legal foothold in Singapore, Raffles rather deviously appointed a more amenable ruler by installing Tengku Long as Sultan Hussein Mohamed Shah, the ruler of Johor. This manoeuvre would trick the Sultan into signing over the rights of governing Singapore to the British East India Company. Other memorable scenes include the stabbing of William Farquhar which is depicted in a farcical manner. Another exciting scene is the Chinese High School students submission of a petition to the British authorities to excuse Singaporeans from doing national service for the colonial masters to whom they felt no loyalty. They were unexpectedly assaulted by the police resulting in violent clashes, and the students had to bar themselves inside their school. This segment is evocative of the recent violent demonstrations by the Hong Kong students against the authorities. A tentative love scene between two of the student demonstrators was most alluring, and the audience was hoping against hope that something might materialize, but sadly nothing happened.

 

PERFORMERS

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I have followed Brendon Fernandez’s acting career for many years, and he does not disappoint. Indeed, all six members of the ensemble cast: Umi Kalthum Ismail, Ghafir Akbar, Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai, Chong Woon Yong, Zee Yong, and Brendon, displayed incredible versatility and virtuosity in their acting. When the actors asked the audience to respond to “Merdeka”, the entire audience shouted out the words with gusto. We all wanted to join in their freedom fight!