Singapore has never had a race riot - so why do we call the riots of 1964 “race” riots? In this episode, PJ Thum explains how the elections of 1963 and 1964, the starkly divergent political circumstances north and south of the causeway, and most of all the contradictions inherent in how Malaysia had been constructed, led to the outbreak of riots in Singapore in 1964, and why they should be properly termed “political” riots.

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