1. The Response of
the Local People
to the British in
Post-War
Singapore

2. Strikes
• Because of the war which cause there lots of
problems in post-war Singapore, it caused the
local people to strike because they cannot
effectively handle these problems
• In 1947, also known as the ’Year of Strikes’.
There is more than 300 strikes. This caused
more than 7000 workers to be on strike
• The Malayan Communist Party caused more
strikes to occur

3. • The Malayan Communist Party formed more and
more Communist-controlled trade unions which
is to encourage workers to join the unions and
strike more and demand for the working
condition to be improved and to increase the
salary
• The Malayan Communist Party blamed the
British for the post-war problems through the
trade unions in order to stirred up the anti-British
sentiments in the people

4. Change in the Political attitudes
towards the British
• Because of the Japanese occupation, the
people who care for Singapore’s future don’t
regard the British as their superior anymore
because they made less effort to defend the war.
• This made the people want the British to leave
• The people were also inspired by external
events
• Many British colony had attained independence

5. The British response to strikes
• When the British found out that the Malayan
Communist Party was responsible for asking
people to strike through the trade union, they
passed the law to help control the trade unions.
The law was to made trade union register with
the government from imposed in 1947 onwards
• The British is able to monitor the membership in
each of the trade union and make sure that the
unions did not use the money in Communist-led
activities

6. The British response to the change in
political attitudes towards the British
• The British know that the local people think that
they failed and they want to govern the country.
The British want to transmit political power to the
people in order to complete control over
Singapore
• The British introduced gradual change in the
political scene in Singapore to win the support of
the people
• They then introduced the first election in 1948