Singapore Chronicles is a series launched in conjunction with the Institute of Policy Studies and Straits Times to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s Independence, This 50-volume series seeks to record, explain and offer insights into what makes Singapore, Singapore, by providing analysis as well as historical accounts on a variety of uniquely Singaporean topics.

‘Singapore Chronicles – Emergency‘ examines the origins of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) in the inter-War years and its subsequent development against the wider backdrop of the Cold War. The chameleon-like CPM, in its determined quest to set up a Communist Republic of Malaya and Singapore, mounted a violent rural insurgency in Malaya and later shifted to urban subversion of the bourgeoning anti-colonial left-wing movement in Singapore itself. It was a gambit that almost succeeded. Contemporary Singapore’s emphasis on law and order cannot be understood without reference to its long twilight struggle with the CPM, a fateful conflict that ended only in 1989.