Daniel Hui

Intrigued by the state-control of language and the memorialisation of individuals in Singapore, in the past three months Daniel Hui has been researching the forgotten figure of Tan Chu Boon. He was the older brother of Tan Chay Wa (1948–1983), a Malayan political dissident and official of the Malayan National Liberation Front, a militant organisation linked to the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). With the exacerbation of the relationship between the CPM and both the Singaporean and the Malaysian governments in the post-independence period, Chay Wa was executed in Kuala Lumpur on the charge of possessing firearms. Shortly after burying his brother in Singapore, Chu Boon was imprisoned because the tombstone inscription, which eulogised Chay Wa as a martyr, was deemed by the government “prejudicial to the security of Singapore.” This research will lead to the production of a new work that intertwines personal testimonies, anecdotes, and official histories.