The Tan Cheng Lock Papers consist of documents covering all aspects of Tan Cheng Locks public life.The most important files are those relating to his leadership of the Malayan Chinese Association during its formative period, the early years of the UMNO-MCA Alliance and the role he played in the struggle for Malayas independence. The Tan Cheng Lock Papers is a valuable source for the study of Malaysian history for the period immediately before and after independence. Tun Dato Sir Tan Cheng Lock was a Malaysian nationalist and founder of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA). A fifth generation Chinese Malaysian, his great great grandfather migrated to Malacca from China in 1771. Tan Cheng Lock was a successful businessman in the Malayan rubber, tapioca and gambier industries. He was the Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlement from 1923 to 1934 and became Unofficial Member of the Governors Executive Council from 1933 to 1935. He founded the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) and became the first president for the period 1949-1958. In 1952, Tan Cheng Lock and the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) under Tunku Rahmans leadership contested the election as partners. In 1953, he brought MCA into the national coalition Alliance together with UMNO, working towards the independence of the Federation of Malaya, which subsequently incorporated the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) in 1955. He was best remembered for his contributions in the business and political arenas and his work for integrating the Chinese and the Indian communities to the nascent Malayan society. Back to Collection The Ismail bin Dato Abdul Rahman Papers consist of 16 folios of 800 documents, dated from 10 February 1938 to 7 December 1982, of his private and personal correspondences, diary, notes, memoir, copies of Siaran Akhbar and few photographs of him and his family. Tun Dr Ismail, a medical doctor trained in Singapore and Melbourne, entered Malaysian politics in 1951 when he was elected vice-president of the United Malays National Organisation, the dominant Malay political party. An active participant in the negotiations that led, in 1957, to the independence of Malaya, he served in various government offices during the last days of colonial rule before being sent as his country's first ambassador to the United States and representative to the United Nations, from 1957 to 1959. Returning to Malaya, Tun Ismail was successively minister of external affairs, internal security, and home affairs but resigned because of ill health in 1967. He came into his own in 1969, however, when, recalled to government after the serious racial riots of that year and the consequent suspension of the parliamentary process, he did much to defuse racial tensions and to lead the country back to normalcy. He was appointed deputy prime minister in 1970 and died in office three years later.
The David Marshall Private Papers consist of Workers Party documents, election documents, documents relating to his term as the Chief Minister, letters showing his stand on Merger/Independence issues as well as news clippings. The Papers also include photographs and video/audio cassettes on his interviews. David Marshall is best known as Singapore's First Chief Minister. He was born in Singapore to a Jewish family in 1908. In 1937 he was called to the bar (Middle Temple) and became one of the most famous criminal lawyers of Singapore. In April 1955, he won parliamentary elections for Singapore's first elected government on the Labour Front Party ticket to become Singapores first Chief Minister. He resigned in June 1956 after failing to negotiate better terms for Singapore's self-rule in London after which he visited China and managed to help many Jews to leave China. He wrote letters to his brother detailing his visit. In 1978, at the age of 70, he was offered the job as Singapore's ambassador to France, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland until 1993, when he returned to Singapore. He died of lung cancer in 1995. Back to Collection
The Papers consist of documents relating to Johore Bahrus Town Planning, events leading to Singapore Traction Companys (STC) strike in 1955, Unions request for wage increase for STCs daily rated workers as well as clippings on biography and photographs.
S. Q. Wong (or Wong Siew Qui) was a well-known personality in Malaysia, a pioneer lawyer, a successful businessman and a community leader. He was the son of Wong Ah Fook, the immigrant carpenter who built palaces for the Sultan of Johor. S. Q. Wong was born in Singapore on 23 October 1888. He studied at Raffles Institute and later went to Middle Temple (Cambridge University) to study law. He was called to the British Bar in 1910. He later returned to Guandong as the Supreme Court Judge. Owing to the uncertainty of the political situation in China, he returned to Singapore to practise law. In 1915, he set up Cooper & Wong Partners. In 1918, he gave up his law practice, and went into business. He became legal consultant to many wealthy businessmen and found time for social community work. His public offices included his appointment as a member of the Johor Council of State and Commissioner of Singapore Municipal Commission from which he was a valuable link between the two bodies. As he was a member of both the Singapore Municipal Commission and the Johor Council of State, he was a valuable link between the two bodies. He advocated the Chinese street names to be displayed in Chinese characters on road signs. He died in 1980 at the age of 92. Back to Collection The Alex Josey Private Papers consist of documents on Malaysian political parties, correspondences of the politicians, the Hock Lee Riots as well as papers on communist insurgency in Malaysia. The papers also include Joseys articles on Lee Kuan Yew, Malays, Lim Chin Siong and other political detainees. Alex Josey, writer, political commentator and journalist was born in 1910. He began writing when he was 12 in England. He worked as a foreign correspondent in the region and was the press secretary of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew for 10 years. He was the Publications Manager of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce (SICC) when he was crippled by the Parkinsons disease in 1984. Mr Josey had written more than 30 books. Among his books are Lee Kuan Yew, Asia-Pacific Socialism and The Trial of Sunny Ang. He died in Singapore in 1986.] Back to Collection
The Papers consist documents on Chinese education, articles on communism and communists, Islam in Malaya, industrial relations in Singapore, the May 13 Riots and Indonesian 1971 Elections.
Former communist Gerald de Cruz, was born in 1920 to a middle class Eurasian family. In 1940, he started out as a journalist with the Straits Times. At the end of World War II, he joined the Communist Party of Malaya (MCP) and then a Communist front organisation in Singapore, the Malayan Democratic Union (MDU). He became disillusioned with communism after visiting Czechoslovakia in 1948. In 1951, he took up a diploma course on teaching intellectually disabled children in London. He then spent six years working in that field before returning to Singapore at the request of David Marshall to be the Organising Secretary of the Labour Front Government. He became a Muslim in 1968. In the sixties, he helped G. G. Thomson set up the Governments Political Study Centre to educate civil servants on world affairs and local political changes From 1975 to 1985, de Cruz was actively involved as a training consultant in the Sarawak Foundation, a government-sponsored body which provides scholarships for its people. He was also chairman of the Singapore Association for Retarded Children and an advisor to the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC). Gerald de Cruz was also diplomatic editor of the New Nation in the early 1970s and The Sarawak Tribune. He was the author of Facing facts in Malaya, and Nationalism and Communism. Back to Collection The Rajaratnam Papers consist of correspondences, speeches, press statements, conference and seminar notes and newspaper clippings. S. Rajaratnam was a veteran leading politician in Singapore. He was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) but grew up in Seremban, Malaya. He studied for a few years in London before and after the Second World War. After the establishment of self-government in Singapore in 1959, he held several important posts at different times, such as the Minister for Culture, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister for Labour, the Second Deputy Prime Minister and the Senior Minister, Prime Ministers Office. As Minister of Culture, Mr Rajaratnam was the staunchest advocate of the concept of multi-racialism in a predominantly Chinese Singapore. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he represented to the regional and international community that Singapore was not a China-oriented state. He was described as Mr Lee Kuan Yews most loyal lieutenant. He retired from politics in 1988 and was the Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies from 1988 to 1997. Back to Collection Tun Sir Henry Lee Hau Shik (H.S. Lee) was a key figure in the developments of Malaysia and Singapore from the 1930s to 1980s. H.S Lee was born in Hong Kong in 1901 but subsequently established himself in the 1920s as a major tin miner in Selangor and Perak. During the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, he was both a Colonel in the Nationalist Chinese army and in the British army in India . After World War II, Tun Lee was appointed to committees entrusted with rebuilding the Malayan economy. In 1946, he founded the China Press, a Chinese newspaper, with the intention to counter the Communist newspaper Min Sheng Pao and the propaganda. Tun Lee helped found the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) in 1949 and played a key role in forging an electoral alliance with UMNO in 1952 that later became the Alliance Party, now the ruling Barisan Nasional. As a prominent member of the Malayan Chinese community, Tun Lee was part of the Alliance mission led by UMNO President Tunku Abdul Rahman that held constitutional talks in 1956 in London , and he was the only Chinese signatory to the Malayan Independence Agreement. He was the Minister of Transport from 1955 to 1957 and served as the first Finance Minister of an independent Federation of Malaya from 1957-1959. He assumed the post of Financial Chairman for the Board of Commissioner of Currency, Malaya from 1959 to 1961. Tun Lee was deeply involved in the Chinese guilds and clan associations, helping to form the Kwang Tung Association, Chinese Mining Association, and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Being an avid golfer, he was the President of the Federation of Malaya Olympic Council from 1957-59. He also contributed to the founding of the Lady Templer Hospital in 1960. In 1966, Tun Lee established the Development and Commercial bank (D & C Bank) which became Malaysia s fifth largest bank and he led the Bank till his death in 1988. The H.S Lee Papers consists of 166 folios (1,291 files of about 180,000 documents) which include speeches, correspondence, committee reports, annual reports, financial statements, newspapers clippings, conference papers, newsletters and some memorabilia) and about 4,000 photographs, mostly in digital files. Back to Collection
Credited for pioneering Singapores housing and development and enabling high home ownership in Singapore, Mr Lim Kim San went on to become a minister holding crucial portfolios such as Finance, National Development, Education, Interior and Defence, Communications and Information Technology and Environment. He chaired the Council of Presidential Advisers from 1992 2003. He was the Chairman of several important government and corporate bodies, such as, Housing and Development Board, Public Utilities Board, Port of Singapore Authority , Singapore Press Holdings and Times Publishing, and was the Managing Director of Monetary Authority of Singapore. In 2000, he was appointed the first Chancellor of Singapore Management University. His photo albums of about 1660 photographs are in the Librarys Private Papers Collection.
Back to Collection
The K.S. Sandhu Papers mainly consist of documents on Indian emigration, Indian immigrants in Canada, Sikhs in Canada and related microfilm and audio tapes.
K. S. Sandhu studied at the University of Malaya in 1954 and graduated with a BA (First Class Honours) degree in Geography. He went to University of British Columbia for his Masters and the University of London for his Doctorate. After teaching at the universities of Malaya, Singapore and British Columbia, Professor Sandhu was appointed Director of ISEAS in 1972. Under Prof Sandhus directorship, ISEAS evolved into a major research centre on SEA, a reputation recognised both within and outside the region. He was well respected as a scholar and academic administrator. His scholarly writings were: Indians in Malaya: some aspects of their immigration and settlement (1786-1957), 1969; Early Malaysia : some observations on the nature of Indian contacts with pre-British Malaya, 1973; and Melaka : the transformation of a Malay capital, c. 1400-1980, 1983. Back to Collection | 
