Reading Responses
Jeyaretnam, Abraham's Promise, 157-178.
I realized that there are three main generations in this book. The first and
oldest generation is Abraham's parents. Then comes the generation of Abraham,
which consists of Mercy, Rani, Rose, Krishna etc. The last generation of course
is Abraham's son, Victor. I think their actions and thoughts are a reflection
of the Singapore that is slowly changing and progressing along the years.
On the issue of politics, we see that the first generation was not very politicized.
They enjoyed the fact that they did not have to worry about such an issue. Abraham's
father agreed with Rani's father that in their time, they "never had to
worry about such things. The British took care of everything." Abraham's
generation was the politically active one, the one which is very much responsible
for the Singapore today. For Abraham, "unlike [his] parents, [he] was thoroughly
excited by the prospect of Independence". Krishna too was heavily involved
in politics, striving for self-government for the "common good". The
last generation of Victor's seems to have certain political views but not very
interested in them. Their focus is on how to make money, and get rich. No idealism
of a perfect system of government is there. During the Yeo's cocktail, we see
how Abraham argued with Lau Teng Kee, a member of Parliament (as well as Victor's
generation) that the people in East Asia are doing better, making more money,doing
more business and looks down on the Americans for trying to pursues a pointless
democratic society which will not yield any economic results.
On the issue of marriage, the first generation believed in matchmaking and
marrying before a certain age. The mother "fretted and worried" and
the Father "raged" when she refused to marry. Marriage was not about
love, but about both male and female having matching requirements, such as education,
religion and financial status. However, we see that Mercy had intially opposed
to such an arrangement, saying that she would marry "when she was good
and ready". The second generation now believed in getting married to someone
they knew and loved. Rose and Charles was an example, and Abraham needed to
get to know the girl (Rani) before deciding that he was to marry her. There
was slight departure from tradition. Until Victor's generation, we see that
marriage is no longer a necessity. The man-woman relationship does not even
seem to hold and the nature of relationships have radicalized, to the extent
that it is possible to have a romantic or sexual relationship with a person
of the same sex.
Therefore, I think that the three generations are quite a genuine reflection
of where Singapore has gone and progressed to in terms of politics and even
marriage. For politics, we seem to have moved backward, satisfied with the situation
and not wanting to change status quo. Of course, the reason for this now is
the attraction the economic wealth. As for marriage, we see how much Singapore
has radicalized and been influenced by possibly Western culture.
--Audrey Goh
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