Keep a cool head when judging Mr Lee's memoirs

OCT 5 1998

Keep a cool head when judging Mr Lee's memoirs

By OUYANG WENFENG
SIN CHEW JIT POH

FOLLOWING the disputes between Malaysia and Singapore, many people accused Mr Lee Kuan Yew of distorting facts in his memoirs before they had even finished reading his book. They were joined by a number of commentators and journalists.

It is regrettable that the writings from these people were based on sentiment, not reason. Some felt that Mr Lee had written his memoirs to boost sales, while others said that the timing of its publication was inappropriate.

Anyway, we no longer have to bother about whatever has been said and written.

After reading these commentaries, I begin to understand why the Japanese, in their nationalistic pride, have insisted that they did no wrong during World War II or the Nanjing massacres, to the extent of even alleging that all these were lies cooked up by the Chinese.

What I have just said is not in defence of the memoirs of Mr Lee, but merely to stress that no one should comment on the writings of others before reading them.

They may make their rebuttals after reading. If we are not happy with the evidence provided in Mr Lee's book to support his "slanderous" words against our past political leaders like Tun Abdul Razak, we should rebut them.

But we should not viciously accuse Mr Lee of being slanderous with an excuse that we are "safeguarding our national dignity".

Our people should understand that memoirs are not fictitious writings.

Those who write memoirs, like historians and researchers, are subject to stringent rules and have to be supported by substantive and factual evidence. If we were to make our rebuttal, we would have to do so on the facts and evidence available.

Also, what is equally important is that apart from doing research work, a historian or historical researcher should also master the art of hermeneutics, that is, the interpretation of texts. History is not always the whole part of objective truth.

With this understanding, our people can assess the memoirs of Mr Lee with rationality, and judge for ourselves whether he is right, or his critics.

We are glad that our government has decided not to ban the memoirs and to let the people judge for themselves. This is an enlightened and gentlemanly act. For his gesture of enlightenment, we believe our Prime Minister would have won the respect of the people of Singapore.