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http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_422024.html
Untold story of PAP
Men in White includes leftists' accounts of the battle for power.
By Zakir Hussain, Political Correspondent
Sonny Yap (from left), Richard Lim and Leong Weng Kam, the writers of Men In White: The Untold Story of Singapore's Ruling Political Party. --ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
THREE senior Straits Times journalists have written a book on the ruling People's Action Party, describing the conflicts and the power struggles of the PAP's early years.
The 692-page book also lifts the veil from some of the most dramatic events in the party's 55-year history, such as the first leftist plot to seize control in 1957 and how Mr Lee Kuan Yew's parliamentary secretary came to lead the challenge against the prime minister in 1961.
However, its most outstanding feature is the voices of leftists in the retelling of key events.
Many of them were giving their views for the first time. They had lost the struggle for control of the PAP, spent years in detention and exile, and their voices are largely absent from the Singapore story.
Said senior writer Sonny Yap, co-author of the book: 'Although many of them spent years in detention and suffered tremendous privations, they betrayed no bitterness and rancour while recounting their experiences.'
Mr Yap, 59, co-wrote the book with The Sunday Times features editor Richard Lim, 60, and senior writer Leong Weng Kam, 55.
Their final product - Men in White: The Untold Story of Singapore's Ruling Political Party - is published by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH).
To write it, the trio interviewed 300 party members, opponents and observers, 25 of whom have since died. Among those they spoke to were leftists banished from Singapore. The interviews with many of them were conducted where they now reside, in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and China.
The authors also relied on 200 taped interviews with politicians deposited with the National Archives and 60 years of press reports in the local Chinese, Malay and English newspapers, as well as government and parliament records.
The book will be launched by SPH at The Arts House on Sept 8. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew will be the guest of honour and some 150 past and present PAP and non-PAP politicans will be present.
The book, which has a print run of 30,000, will be available at leading bookstores after the launch at $39.90 a copy before GST.
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
Untold story of PAP
Men in White includes leftists' accounts of the battle for power.
By Zakir Hussain, Political Correspondent
Sonny Yap (from left), Richard Lim and Leong Weng Kam, the writers of Men In White: The Untold Story of Singapore's Ruling Political Party. --ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
THREE senior Straits Times journalists have written a book on the ruling People's Action Party, describing the conflicts and the power struggles of the PAP's early years.
The 692-page book also lifts the veil from some of the most dramatic events in the party's 55-year history, such as the first leftist plot to seize control in 1957 and how Mr Lee Kuan Yew's parliamentary secretary came to lead the challenge against the prime minister in 1961.
However, its most outstanding feature is the voices of leftists in the retelling of key events.
Many of them were giving their views for the first time. They had lost the struggle for control of the PAP, spent years in detention and exile, and their voices are largely absent from the Singapore story.
Said senior writer Sonny Yap, co-author of the book: 'Although many of them spent years in detention and suffered tremendous privations, they betrayed no bitterness and rancour while recounting their experiences.'
Mr Yap, 59, co-wrote the book with The Sunday Times features editor Richard Lim, 60, and senior writer Leong Weng Kam, 55.
Their final product - Men in White: The Untold Story of Singapore's Ruling Political Party - is published by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH).
To write it, the trio interviewed 300 party members, opponents and observers, 25 of whom have since died. Among those they spoke to were leftists banished from Singapore. The interviews with many of them were conducted where they now reside, in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and China.
The authors also relied on 200 taped interviews with politicians deposited with the National Archives and 60 years of press reports in the local Chinese, Malay and English newspapers, as well as government and parliament records.
The book will be launched by SPH at The Arts House on Sept 8. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew will be the guest of honour and some 150 past and present PAP and non-PAP politicans will be present.
The book, which has a print run of 30,000, will be available at leading bookstores after the launch at $39.90 a copy before GST.
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
