噤啞之後：新馬左翼歷史的記憶政治與當代冷戰敘事

After Silencing: Politics of Memory and Contemporary Cold War Narrative of the Left in Singapore and Malaysia

近20年來，有關新加坡和馬來西亞左翼歷史的文獻和創作大量湧現，突破長久以來的噤聲和禁忌，形成一股記憶文化現象。冷戰體制鬆動後，左翼歷史的記憶文化翻攪出被壓抑的聲音，也是對當前全球化社會的反應。本文關注歷史詮釋和情感記憶的交織面貌，通過記憶政治的分析來說明當代創作者如何以不同媒介記憶歷史，反映自我認同。本文聚焦三種記憶左翼歷史的現象：相競記憶、記憶重整和世代記憶，討論新馬兩地的左翼歷史如何成為「記憶之場」。第一部分探討新加坡左翼歷史敘事成為國家記憶戰場的背景，其中記憶左翼歷史是解構黨國史的必要途徑。第二部分說明後革命時代的前馬共戰士通過記憶的重整，將馬共鬥爭和當下華人公民抗爭結合起來，以延續革命並尋求歷史認可。第三部分分析世代記憶的傳輸，討論新世代青年創作者如何記憶歷史；這當中懷舊想像和族群焦慮形塑了記憶的呈現。這三種「記憶文本」在反思和批判冷戰思維的同時，也揭示了歷史過去的核心問題仍不斷形塑著當下的記憶之場。

The past two decades saw the emergence of publication of historical materials and production of creative works about the leftist history in Singapore and Malaysia. This new culture of remembering manifests a breakthrough in the long-standing silence and taboo, and it is also a response to the current state of the society in the post-Cold War era. This essay focuses on the intertwined aspects of historical interpretation and affective memory. It examines the politics of memory by which contemporary cultural producers remember history through different mediums, and, to a certain extent, reflect their self-recognition. This essay analyses three different aspects of the remembrance of leftist history: memory contestations, memory reorganization and generational memories. It discusses the ways in which leftist history in Singapore and Malaysia has become a “site of memory.” The first section explores the Singapore context in which leftist history has been a site of battlefield in articulating national memories and deconstructing the party-state history of Singapore. Secondly, the essay illustrates the ways former Malayan communist party members reorganize their memories in contemporary times by connecting the communist struggles with the minority rights struggles in the Chinese community in Malaysia. It argues that this is the comrades’ approach to continue their struggles and to seek for historical recognition, though it is not without problems. The third section analyses the transmission of generational memories, exploring the ways young documentary filmmakers remember leftist history. It shows how nostalgic imagination and ethnic anxiety help formulate the representation of these memories. All of these “memory texts” reflect upon and critique on the Cold war mentality, while at the same time reveal the fact that some core problems in the historical past still very much resonates in the site of memory today.