Declassified Albatross File may reshape school history lessons

The more nuanced story of Separation may also spark debate on national identity

- Ng Wei Kai Correspondent

Members of the public taking in The Albatross File: Singapore's Independence Declassified exhibition at the National Library Building on Dec 8. The documents confirm that Separation was negotiated.

(ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN)

Over her 35-year career as a secondary school history teacher, Ms Tan Siew Hua taught generations of students that Singapore had been suddenly expelled from Malaysia on Aug 9, 1965.

During lessons, she showed videos of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew breaking down on television as he announced the end of the political and economic union he had fiercely fought for.

To Ms Tan, who retired in 2012, parts of this narrative have been turned upside down by the recent declassification of the Albatross File.

The documents detailing Singapore’s 1965 Separation from Malaysia reveal a more nuanced story and confirm that the end of Singapore’s time in the federation was negotiated.

They show that leaders from both nations pushed for a clean break after two years of merger - a story that runs counter to the idea which remains in the public imagination that Singapore was kicked out unilaterally by then Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.

The new details that the documents provide could in time change how this part of Singapore history is taught in schools, said educators and historians.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said, in response to queries from The Sunday Times, that when relevant new historical materials such as the Albatross File become publicly available, they are incorporated into textbooks and digital resources during syllabus reviews and resource updates.

The idea of a negotiated Separation is not new.

This narrative has been public for some years through sources like Mr Lee’s 1998 memoir The Singapore Story, said historian Tan Tai Yong, who is president of the Singapore University of Social Sciences.