The Orang Lauts of Singapore

 The BBC has published an interesting article about the Orang Laut of Singapore. Orang Laut is Malay for "people of the sea", and they are the indigenous people of Singapore. While the Orang Laut are culturally similar to Malays, there are also important differences. For example, a popular dish is asam pedas (sour and spicy fish stew), which is not common in Malay culture. Read the article to find out more!

Singapore: the only country forced to become independent

 56 years ago today, Singapore became independent against its will. Happy Birthday, Singapore!

Unique 14th century artefacts found

While on a maritime operation, divers discovered shipwrecks by chance near Pedra Branca. Inside the shipwrecks were ancient artefacts, which shed light on ancient vessels that plied Singapore's waters as early as the 14th century. 

 

Epidemics in Singapore: Polio

The current COVID pandemic feels unprecedented, and is indeed unprecedented in many ways. Yet, there have been many instances where schools were shut due to viruses and disease. Those born in the 1990s or earlier will remember the closure of schools in 2003 due to the SARS virus. 

However, did you know about the polio epidemic in 1948? Polio is a life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus, and causes paralysis by affecting the spinal cord. Three years after World War 2 ended, the epidemic spread worldwide. Here are some accounts of how the US and New Zealand were affected. 

The Rafflesian (Raffles Institution's school magazine) reported on the epidemic. The September 1948 issue described students as being happy at first as the school holidays were extended. Students who were scheduled to take School Certificate classes (probably the equivalent of O levels or A levels) liked the experience of "going to school at home" as they were not under the constant supervision of their teachers. However, when preparing for their final examinations, students generally felt they had been handicapped as "remote learning" was not as efficient. (Imagine trying to learn with the technology back then!) And for once, students hoped they could return to school. 

Source of above article: Facebook post, which drew from Raffles Institution's archives.

It also appears that health screenings and travel bans were common, just as they are in today's COVID pandemic.

Polio would still continue to strike in subsequent years, for effective vaccines were only developed in the mid-1950s. In 1958, Singapore was one of the first countries in the world to introduce live oral polio vaccinations on a mass scale, though a few polio cases continued to be reported into the 1970s. Interestingly, it was only in 2000 that Singapore was finally declared polio-free. 

SUTD students study the Japanese Occupation

In 2017, a group of students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design took a history course. Specifically, they studied the Japanese Occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945.

Many of them interviewed survivors of the Occupation and went to key landmarks of the invasion and occupation such as Changi Beach. Read the report in TODAYonline.

History of Singapore Airlines

In some ways, the history of Singapore Airlines mimics the history of modern Singapore. The main airline serving Singapore underwent several name changes that reflected what was happening geopolitically: it was called "Malayan Airways", then "Malaysian Airways", then "Malaysia-Singapore Airlines", and finally, "Singapore Airlines" in 1972. Also, just like Singapore rapidly moved from Third World to First, Singapore Airlines leapt from obscurity to become a world-class airline. This leap was rapid: for example, in 1977, Singapore Airlines used the Concorde for the Singapore-London route, becoming one of only a few airlines to ever use the majestic aircraft.

The airline has also been central to Singapore's image. Singapore Airlines has a reputation for being efficient, on-time, and delivering impeccable service, exactly what Lee Kuan Yew wanted foreigners to think about Singapore. In fact, Lee Kuan Yew valued a world-class Singapore Airlines so much that he intervened twice when airline pilots went on strike:

In the video, Lee Kuan Yew describes how he talked to the pilots face-to-face and got them to stop their strike. Towards the end of the video, you can hear his famous quote: "Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him or give it up. This is not a game of cards."

Here's an interesting video about the history of Singapore Airlines:

Part 2:

New book on Singapore's history

Fourteen academics have collaborated to produce a book detailing the first fifty years of Singapore's independence. A key focus of the book is how Singaporeans have reacted - and adapted - to PAP government policy changes since 1959. However, the book's focus is very broad, even touching on sensitive topics such as race and religion. There's even coverage of rock and roll.

Check out an article about the book, and if it seems interesting, buy it on Amazon.

Structured Essay Question Guide

Structured essay questions (SEQs) account for 40% of marks in the history paper. As such, it is important to learn how to answer the SEQ section well.

Here are some structured essay question notes. While these are based on an old syllabus, there is a lot of overlap between the old syllabus and the current syllabus. The five sets of notes listed below are still very relevant; 90% or more of the content still can be tested.

1. Impact of World War I
2. Communist Russia
3. Nazi Germany
4. War in Europe
5. War in Asia Pacific

There are some notes on Imperial Japan; but this is not in the syllabus as of time of writing. 

Edit: Notes are now hosted on Google Drive instead of Dropbox.

Sources A and B differ. Does that mean that one of them is wrong?

On occasion, one may see a question like one of the three below:

1. "Sources A and B give different accounts of the impact of Hitler's rule. Does that mean that one of them is wrong?"
2. "Sources A and B give different accounts of whether Stalin persecuted Jews. Does that mean that one of them is wrong?"
3. "Sources A says that Hitler faked the burning of the Reichstag,  but Source B says that Hitler did not. Does that mean that one of them is wrong?"

The answer is often no. The sources often are just representing different points of view. For example, it may well be Source A is talking about the economic impact of Hitler's rule, while Source B is talking about the political impact. The political impact could be bad but the economic impact could be generally good. Alternatively, Hitler's rule could be good for most Germans, but bad for the Jews; the sources could be talking about impacts on different groups. Finally, Hitler's rule could be largely beneficial before the war started, but disastrous after the war started, and the sources could be talking about different time periods.

However, it is often important to read the sources carefully, as the answer can sometimes be "Yes, one of the sources must be wrong". For example, for question 3 (the burning of the Reichstag), the reality is that either Hitler set fire to the Reichstag on purpose, or he did not. Therefore, answers of "no" are unlikely to get full credit.

The key to answering such question is to determine whether it is a difference in opinion, or a difference in fact. If it is difference in opinion, then neither of them need to be wrong. If it is a difference in fact (and they are both talking about the exact same thing), then one of them has to be wrong.

Usefulness Source Based Questions

Source A. A cartoon of Stalin which appeared in a British newspaper around 1935.

"How useful is Source A in helping you understand Stalin's rule?"

Usefulness questions are among the toughest questions in the Source Based section. Many weak students tend to write very little for this question, or worse still, nothing at all. You shouldn't be doing this! It is easy to score at least half of the points for the usefulness question, and it is not too difficult to score nearly full marks.

"How?", I hear you cry.

First and foremost, remember the Golden Rule: A source is never completely useful, nor completely useless. As such, your answer should be two sided. That is, you should start your answer with,

"Source A is useful to a large/limited/small extent in ... "

Thereafter, you should have one paragraph explaining the useful aspects of the source, "Source A's usefulness can be seen in... "

After you have finished explaining the useful aspects of the source, go into the other side of the question. "However, the usefulness of Source A is limited. This is because it does not..."

Finally, conclude.

Next, when explaining in what areas it is useful (or not useful), make sure you explain as clearly as possible. To take the cartoon as an example, you could say that "The cartoon is useful in illustrating the authoritarian aspects of Stalin's rule. This is evident from Stalin towering over all the people." Notice the first sentence identifies a specific area of Stalin's rule and the second sentence gives evidence direct from the source (by describing the relevant aspects).
For the "not useful" part of the answer, you might say that it is useful for explaining the political aspects of Stalin's rule, but not the economic aspects of his rule, because it looks like the cartoon was referring to political aspects rather than the economic aspects.

Third, you may wish to comment on reliability by comparing to your contextual knowledge or cross-referencing to other sources of the Source Based Question. In general, the more reliable a source is, the more useful it tends to be. However, even sources that are not very reliable can still be useful, as they can illustrate a particular point of view (e.g. propaganda). When referring to contextual knowledge, be sure to quote specific events (in this case, you could certainly mention that one example of Stalin's dictatorship was that he sent his opponents to gulags, or concentration camps). When cross-referencing to other sources, remember to quote directly from them. It may also be worth examining the provenance of the source. In this case, the fact that the cartoon was published in a British newspaper can either be used to support or challenge its reliability.

These are the main points for answering usefulness questions. If you've grasped them, you should be confident of scoring well in usefulness questions. But the only way to be sure that you've understood these points is to apply them. So practice, practice, and practice usefulness questions until you've got the hang of them. Good luck!

Source Based Similarity and Difference Questions

A very common type of question in the Source Based section is similarity/difference questions, also known as comparison questions.

Such questions can be phrased in various ways:

1. To what extent are Sources A and B similar?
2. To what extent are Sources A and B different?
3. In what ways are Sources A and B similar?
4. In what ways are Sources A and B difference?
5. Compare and contrast Sources A and B.

First and foremost, remember to read the question carefully. Some of the questions seem similar, but need to be answered in different ways. For example, "In what ways are Sources A and B similar?" requires you to give only similarities, but "To what extent are Sources A and B similar?" requires you to give both similarities and differences. In general, "To what extent" requires a two-sided answer, while "In what ways" only requires a one-sided answer. Finally, "Compare and contrast" requires a two sided answer.

Next, remember that sources can be compared in several ways:

• Content
• What do the sources actually say?
• Tone
• Is one sarcastic, and the other objective?
• Purpose
• Is one meant to criticize Hitler, and the other meant to rally support for Hitler?
• Is one meant to provide an objective viewpoint of the facts, and the other to provide information regarding a very specific viewpoint? 
• Provenance
• Is one a picture source, and the other a textual source? Is one a speech, and the other a cartoon? Even if both are the same type: is one a government speech and the other a non-government speech? Et cetera.

Third, remember to quote or describe findings from the source in order to support your claims.

Last but not least, if the question starts with "To what extent", remember to conclude with a sentence or short paragraph describing to what extent the sources are similar or different.

Once you do this, you should ace the question.

Reliability Questions

Questions on reliability come out in most Source Based Questions. Moreover, they are typically worth more marks than inference questions as well as similarity/difference questions. As such, it is important to learn how to answer reliability questions well.

The first thing to note is that reliability questions can come disguised in many forms. The most obvious is "To what extent is Source A reliable...". But there are more, for example:

• Do you believe what the source says...
• Does the source prove that...
• Explain whether the source is credible with respect to...

(Usefulness, however, is a separate concept from reliability)

Tip #1:

One important thing to note is that sources are almost never completely reliable nor completely unreliable. As such, you should write at least one paragraph explaining the reliable aspects, and at least one paragraph explaining the unreliable aspects.

Tip #2:

After you have determined the type of source (photograph/text etc), look at the content of the source. Does your contextual knowledge (i.e. the knowledge you have from your textbook and your teacher) agree with that of the source? For example (this example is made up, as are many subsequent examples in this post), suppose you have a source that says:

Source A:

"We have always been very fair towards the Jews." - Adolf Hitler, before the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

You would immediately start by writing 'This source is to a large extent unreliable', because you know from your studies that the Nazis persecuted the Jews. Furthermore, to get good marks, you should immediately support your claim by giving specific, concrete examples. You could say that Jews were required to resign from all government jobs. You could also say that Jews were sent to concentration camps. You could also cross-reference to other sources (i.e. compare Source A to other sources, and see whether the content from Source A is consistent or inconsistent with the content from other sources. For example, if Source B tells you something different, you could point that out by quoting from it.).

Tip #3: 

Also, comment on the purpose. Source A is a quote of Hitler before the 1936 Olympics. Why might Hitler want to make such a statement? Perhaps Hitler may have wanted to portray a positive image of Germany to foreigners so that they would come to Germany. (Trivia: A major boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympics nearly succeeded). It's worth writing this down to cast doubt on the reliability of the source.

Tip #4: 

Don't forget who wrote the source! In this case, it's Hitler. It's not really worth commenting for Source A, but for other sources, it might.

For example:

     Source B: Soviet government photograph of 1933 showing tractors on a collective farm

(Photo is taken from BBC)

Suppose the question was "To what extent does Source B prove that the Soviet Union invested a lot in collectivization?"

You might start off by saying something like "It proves to a limited extent, because from the photograph I can see a lot of tractors, which clearly cost a lot of money..."

But thereafter, you should raise some concerns. In particular, you might want to say "However, I have some doubts about its reliability. This photo was a Soviet government photograph, and the Soviet government was well known for producing propaganda in order to make the country more successful than it really was. Therefore, this could have been staged."

Tip #5: 

Comment on typicality. You could also say, "Moreover, Source B is only one photograph. It only shows what happened in one part of the Soviet Union, and may not be representative of the entire country (and the USSR was the largest country in the world)."

However, I would not spend too much time talking about typicality because not a lot of credit is given for it.

Source Based Questions: Study All Sources

Very often, students encounter a question which says, "Study all sources. To what extent do the sources tell/show us that ... ?" This part normally has the highest weightage of all source based questions. In fact, it's not uncommon for "study all sources" questions to be worth up to 30% of the total allocation to source based questions. As such, it is important to nail the question. Here are some tips to answer such a question.

• Remember to use all sources. This sounds obvious, but you will be surprised at the number of people that only use one or two sources!
• This is a "to what extent" question. It is highly unlikely that all the sources will help to show the assertion! It is also unlikely that none of the sources will help to show the assertion. What is much more likely is that around half of the sources will help to show the assertion, while the other half will give evidence against the assertion.
• State clearly which sources support the assertion. This must be done unequivocally (without any room for doubt), e.g. "Source A supports the assertion as..." or "Source B does not support the assertion as..."
• Besides stating clearly which sources support/do not support the assertion, remember to explain why. When explaining why, you should obtain the key idea from the source. Furthermore, directly quote words/phrases from the source (if it is a text source) or describe the source (if it is a picture).
• In order to score full marks, it helps to comment on the reliability of at least one source. If the source is very reliable, it will certainly count as strong evidence in supporting the assertion given in the question. Think of it as a "star witness". On the other hand, unreliable sources are like shoddy witnesses. That said, there is no need to comment on the reliability of every source - that would take away valuable time from the other questions. I emphasize again that commenting on the reliability of the source should be done only if you have the time. You may gain one mark from a valid comment, but if you lose three marks from being unable to finish the paper, it would not be worth it.
• Last but not least, give a conclusion. Your conclusion should clearly answer "to what extent". Note that in answering "to what extent", you should not simply count the number of sources that agree or disagree with the assertion. A common mistake is to say, for example, "The sources show that Hitler's economic policies were bad to a large extent, because three sources say that they were bad and one source says they were good." Instead, give a more reasoned analysis. For example, provided this is supported by the evidence, you can say that "Hitler's economic policies were good for the Aryans (white people) but bad for the Jews and other minorities." Then illustrate how the sources which show good effects of Hitler's economic policies show that Aryans benefited, while sources which show negative effects tend to focus on minorities. Alternatively, you can say that "Hitler's economic policies were good when he first came to power but bad when the war started...". Then support your claim in a similar fashion. In short, it is often worthwhile to see whether the assertion is true in certain ways, but false in other ways. That could give you top marks for source based questions.

Enough of plain talk. Let's take a look at an actual example, which I've come up with below. The photo is taken from TIME, which in turn took it from a private collection. But for the purposes of this question, let's just assume its provenance was a Nazi propaganda newspaper. To make sure this article isn't too long, I've only illustrated what to do for one source (though it will be easy to generalize to questions involving multiple sources). 

Q: To what extent do all sources show that Hitler was a well-liked leader?

Source B: Photograph of Hitler from a propaganda newspaper in 1937.

Suggested answer (my comments in italics):

The sources show to a small/large extent (choose small or large, depending on what the other sources say. But it's not important for our purposes today).

...

Source B supports the assertion because it shows that Hitler was adored by a considerable number of Germans. (main point of the picture) The photo shows hundreds of Germans eager to meet him and giving him the Hitler salute. (use details from the source). One might therefore think that he received a significant amount of support from the population.

However, one must not be took quick to draw too strong an inference from Source B because it was published in a propaganda newspaper. The crowds could have been arranged by the Nazi government, and even if it were not pre-arranged, the crowds might only contain the most fanatic of Nazi supporters. (comment on reliability)

...

Historic trails in Singapore

The National Parks board has many maps of trails for which one can have a leisurely stroll on.

What's this got to do with Singapore history, you may ask? Well, a couple of those are history related.

• Ann Siang Hill Park and Telok Ayer Green - Pioneers Trail 
• Empress Place, Esplanade Park and War Memorial Park – Monument Trail 
• Fort Canning Park - Ancient History Trail 
• Fort Canning Park - Colonial History Trail 
• Heritage Roads of Singapore

All these should make for a good two or three days walk, if one takes in all the sights slowly. Good idea for a DIY learning journey too!

Singapore Milestones

How were distances measured in early Singapore? In miles. Moreover, there were many large stone markers around the island. The starting point was the old General Post Office (where the Fullerton now stands). That would be mile zero.

Roads one mile away from the General Post Office would have a stone saying "one mile". Likewise there would be "milestones" at various points two miles away from Post Office, and so on. The granite marker below (recently discovered) represents a point on a road that was three miles (around 4.8km) away from the post office.

Example of a Singapore milestone (source).

By now, you should be guessing that Bukit Panjang's Ten Mile Junction gets its name from the fact that it was ten miles away from the GPO.

This Straits Times article gives more information. Click on the below picture for an interesting map which shows the location of all previous milestones!

Jerome Lim has published an excellent article about such milestones, which includes a photo of the 13.5 milestone marker at the old Sembawang Gate.

Ideas for Learning Journeys

The Straits Times has released an article showing five heritage trails in Singapore.

1. Queenstown (the library, as well as Alexandra Village)
2. Little India (Indian temples)
3. Toa Payoh (old HDB flats)
4. Tiong Bahru (Tan Tock Seng's grave, etc)
5. Kampong Glam (Malay history)

All these are good suggestions. I just have one personal favourite I'd like to add on (a schoolbus or car is advisable): a road trip tracing the battle of Singapore, from the arrival of Japanese soldiers to the surrender of the British.

Start from the Lim Chu Kang jetty, close to where the Japanese first made their inroad into Singapore.

Source: Tails from the Lion City

Then, pass by Tengah airbase and go to the southern ridges, where you can see some of the old cannons built along the shore. Contrary to popular beliefs, these cannons could be (and were) turned around during the Japanese invasion, but were generally ineffective.

Climb Bukit Chandu. It was around here that the Battle of Pasir Panjang was fought. Lieutenant Adnan Saidi bravely led a team of 42 people in resisting the Japanese onslaught, even though his platoon was greatly outnumbered and outgunned. Take a look at Reflections at Bukit Chandu, a museum contained within an old colonial era bungalow, near the top of the hill itself. The museum is open from Tuesdays to Sundays.

Source: NHB website

Then make your way to Bukit Timah, where the British valiantly made a counterattack on 14th February 1942. End in the Ford Motor Factory, where the Japanese surrendered.

Source: Memories at Old Ford Factory website

By the way, the table on which British General Percival surrendered to Japanese General Yamashita is currently in the Australian War Memorial (Canberra, Australia). The Singapore government has wanted to bring it back to Singapore, but naturally, the Australians prefer to keep it in Australia.

Edit: CNN has an interesting suggestion. Start from British colonial mansions in Sembawang, then travel through the green heart of Singapore (e.g. MacRitchie Reservoir Park, where you can see Lim Bo Seng's resting place, among other things), then end in the south (similar to what I suggested). The writer did the walk through Singapore's north-south axis on foot, but it is probably better to use some form of motor transportation.

Inference Questions: Source Based

Here are some useful resources to answering inference questions in source based. These questions tend to be the easiest.
To start off, Pearson has a good guide. It tells you what examiners are looking for. (Do not worry that the actual content of the sources is not related to the Singapore syllabus. In Secondary 3 and 4 Social Studies, you may be required to answer source based questions on topics that were not directly taught. In the past, the examiners have given pictures about a conflict called the Falkland Islands War , and pictures of a US-China conflict, and asked students to make inferences about them. These are just two examples)
Here's another good example.

After reading these resources, you should have a clear idea of the requirements of scoring full marks: make appropriate inference(s) and support them with evidence.

I welcome contributions from readers.

Source Based Questions

Often students are confused by Source Based Questions (SBQ) as it is new to them. In particular, lower secondary students sometimes they give up on the SBQ section, trying to compensate by doing better on other sections e.g. those requiring you to memorize facts.

Don't do this! It is rarely a wise strategy. In upper secondary history, SBQ will comprise 30 marks out of 50. That's a whopping 60% of your grade. Even if you decide not to take history, you will still have to take Social Studies. There, source based questions will comprise 70% of your total grade.

Therefore, you should be spending more time on source based questions, not less. How then can you master SBQ? Below is what I find most students forget:

Golden Rule: Marks are given on quality, not just quantity

You can write as long as you want, but if your answer doesn't have a certain quality, you won't be scoring high marks.

Take a look at page 65 of this document issued by MOE. (If you are looking at the page numbers, it's page 54).

Question 1(a) reads: "Study Source A. What can you infer..."

Notice that to score 4 marks, all you have to do is to write three high-quality sentences.
Sentence 1: Something you can infer from the picture (Europeans lived comfortably)
Sentence 2 and 3: Describe details in the picture which allow you to make the inference (e.g. huge house)

In contrast, you can describe the photo as much as you want and only get 2 marks.

This brings me to my next point:

Understand what kinds of questions that can be asked, and how to get to the highest level

There are different types of source based questions. If you are a lower secondary student, note that the kinds of questions you may get asked at the lower secondary level differ from school to school. (However, differences are slight, and once you reach the upper secondary level, you will all be preparing for the national examination.)

These kinds of questions generally revolve around the following:

• Inference
• Similarity/Differences
• Utility (How useful is the source...)
• Reliability (How reliable is the source...)
• Study all sources. To what extent do...
• Sources A and B differ. Is one of them wrong?

All (or almost all) schools will require you to learn inference, similarity and differences at the lower secondary level. Some schools may want you to learn how to answer utility, reliability, and "study all sources" questions. If you are in such schools, try to do your best as it is good preparation for O levels. If you master them in lower secondary, it will certainly make Secondary 3 and 4 easier. But if you can't master such questions at the end of Secondary 2, don't panic.

In subsequent posts, I will give tips as well as a general strategy on how to answer some of these questions. There is a general strategy to attempt such questions.

(Comment: The hyperlinks in the bullet points above will bring you to posts which talk about such strategies).

Update: Click here for a structured essay question guide for upper secondary students

Hitler's manifesto fetches US$43,750

Apparently Adolf Hitler's manifesto Mein Kampf has sold for US$43,750. The sheer amount of interest in his possessions is noteworthy.

Food for thought: Should we be surprised that Mein Kampf fetched so much, since Hitler was such a notorious person? Or was it because of Hitler's notoriety that Mein Kampf fetched so much? Or something else?

The legacy of Lee Kuan Yew

Shortly after Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away, a young person shrugged his death off. "What has Lee Kuan Yew done for me?"

Well, you may not realize it, but your life has been affected in many ways by him. Whether you like him or not, your life has been undeniably shaped by him. Take a look at your Secondary Two history textbook or syllabus. (http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/humanities/files/history-lower-secondary-2014.pdf)

Perhaps an illustration of his impact on your daily life may help too.

1. You wake up in the morning in your HDB flat. Hmm... HDB? In 1960, Mr Lee Kuan Yew deployed Mr Lim Kim San to build public housing for all. Previous attempts at public housing in the form of SIT (Singapore Improvement Trust) was nowhere as successful.
2. You have a glass of water with breakfast. Don't take the drinkable tap water and reliable electricity supply for granted! (http://www.eco-business.com/news/lee-kuan-yew-the-architect-of-singapores-water-story/)
3. Next, you walk out of the HDB flat and greet your neighbours. Are all of your neighbours the same race as you? No. You get to encounter Chinese, Malay, and Indian neighbours due to Lee Kuan Yew's policy of preventing racial enclaves. For example, in a HDB neighbourhood, a maximum of 84% can be Chinese, and a maximum of 22% can be Malay. See http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10296p.nsf/PressReleases/C515273FA068DD58482576DD00169155?OpenDocument
4. You take the public transport to school. Lee Kuan Yew realized that an all-bus system was inadequate, and decided to start the MRT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_%28Singapore%29)
5. Next, you're at school. Who made Singapore's schools so good that they are a magnet for foreign students from all over the region? Take a look at this article: http://sekolahsg.com/lee-kuan-yew-meant-foreign-students-singapore/
And so on and so forth...

All this is not to say that Mr Lee's rule was without controversy. Indeed, there were some questionable policies such as the Graduate Mothers policy. However, do not forget his long lasting legacy, and the many good things he has done for us.