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| Rachel with cat (no, not Peter Criss) |
By Dr Kieran James
"I
did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for
anarchism, for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice,
should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause
could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement should not be
turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it” – Emma
Goldman, anarcha-feminist [1869-1940]
Q1:
Rachel Zeng: When I was seven or eight [years old], I was staying at
Towner Road, Jalan Besar GRC. There was a GE going on, I can’t remember
which year. I was crossing the road; Chiam See Tong was on the campaign
lobby with a loud hailer, I was seven or eight. I asked my mom “who’s
that handsome man?” Chiam See Tong was quite handsome when he was
younger. She said “he’s opposition”. I said “vote for him, he’s
handsome”. She said: “no, we can only vote PAP, they’re reliable”. I
said “why must we vote PAP?” They cannot give me a good answer. I was a
Chiam See Tong fan. That made me very curious about why people don’t
vote for opposition. Basically my parents and relatives said they are
PAP supporters, it made me very curious. Since then I have been very
excited
every time there is an election going on.
Another incident was when the whole family was having breakfast at Bendemeer Market Then Workers’ Party was selling The Hammer.
I was below ten-years-old. I can remember it was $1 or something. I
asked my Dad why they have to sell papers there, why aren’t the papers
at the news stand? My Dad said “it’s opposition propaganda”. I took $1
from my Dad, I took money to the volunteer, but they said “we can’t sell
to children”. My Dad was curious, he bought a
copy, and he read it during breakfast. I asked my Dad what it was about,
it was mostly in Chinese, he said “nothing much”. Those two incidents
made me very curious about the opposition.
Another
random memory was my first placard, my first protest, against my
parents! Once they promised to bring out me and my brother on a Sunday,
they fell asleep, I felt they broke their promise. I wrote on a
whiteboard “you broke your promise, we are very angry”. We sat outside
their room until they woke up. I got caned for it, I was six-years-old. It was the first year my Mom went to work, my Dad was a carpenter. My Mom said “you will end up in jail if you do this”.
When
I started to question I realized this was the whole system, hierarchy.
It shocked me when I realized that the President did not have the
decision-making powers. We were quite puzzled in social studies class
when this came up. These are the main events which made me question why
we can’t voice out our opinions in a free-spirited manner. I’m always a
very frank and straight-forward person.
Also
in social studies class when I was eleven, we were talking about money,
different currencies, and poverty in some countries. We were discussing
Third-World countries. The teacher was trying to develop our sense of
empathy towards Third World people. I asked her why we can’t have one
single trading system where everyone can be equal. She was very serious
and said “this is a very dangerous idea”. The word “communism” came up
somehow.
Shortly after that I got my hands on a copy of The Communist Manifesto. [KJ note: The classic pro-communist pamphlet The Communist Manifesto
by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was first published in February 1848
and it remains one of history’s most important social, economic, and
political writings.] We spent our days at our grandma’s place. The
people were very much Chinese-educated and working-class. One day I was
exploring the block of flats. The Garang guni man had some books, very old books. I was reading. One was a very old copy of The Communist Manifesto,
green, in English. I read the first chapter before the man
came. He gave it to me although some of the pages were missing. I was
also given some books by [Jean-Paul] Sartre. I could not understand what
he was talking about back then but I remember his name.
KJ: Tell us about your poly or uni experiences...
RZ:
Before poly I had to fight [just] to go to poly. We [my family] spent
six months arguing after O levels. I said “I want to o to LASALLE
College of Fine Arts. I’m never going to JC”. They said “in this country
no-one is going to feed you, it’s not a Welfare State”. I got accepted
into Marketing but I did not want to do it. We compromised and I went
into design. My Mom went to work upset and her colleagues told her to
“let her make her own choice”. I went to Temasek Poly. I was exposed to
the realities behind the fur-trade. It was a course on apparel design
and merchandising. I was vaguely aware about the fur-trade and the
cruelty towards the animals, sweat-shops, and child labour. I didn’t
understand, I saw it as unfairness. If your government is not on good
terms with their
country you cannot get the benefits which other countries get from free
trade agreements. There were a lot of questions in my mind. I asked my
parents “why don’t you listen to the other side?” I said “even a clock
that stops tells the time correctly twice”. They just said “we have a stable government, much foreign investment, and Lee Kuan Yew is a good man”.
KJ2: Do you remember the Marxist Conspiracy of 1987-88?
RZ2:
I was too young; I remember their pictures in the papers. [KJ note: RZ
was about eight-years-old at this time.] I just vandalized their faces.
They were supposed to be “bad people” but nobody told us what they did
wrong.
KJ3: How did you get involved in feminism?
RZ3:
It had to do with my brother. When he was born the treatment shifted. I
thought he was getting treated better because he was a boy. It’s like a
fight. I have been doing this my whole life since he was born. Because
he was obese and I was underweight my neighbours would joke to my
parents that they treat boys better than girls. That made me very angry.
My Mom taught me to wash dishes and sweep floors while my brother did
nothing. I confronted my Mom. She said: “you are a girl so it’s your
responsibility”. But my Dad helped with the household chores and did his
part equally, it’s a contradiction. I just didn’t get the girls’
responsibility thing.
Later
on in life there was an incident, in secondary school after Sec 2
streaming. I chose to go to the arts class; I could have gone to the
science class. I insisted on doing arts. My kind class-friend’s mother
heard about it. Being a busybody she called my mother. She said “how
could you let her ruin her life?” My Mom was supportive and said “that’s
what she likes to do”. The reply was “well, she’s a girl; she can marry
a rich husband”. I was furious. In my head I thought “man and woman are
equal and I can support myself until I die, I don’t need a man’s
support at all”.
KJ:
What do you think of the HDB [Housing and Development Board] rules
where government flats can only be sold to legally married couples and
singles aged over 35?
RZ:
Horrible! ... I was reading a lot of books along the journey. I
realized what I was doing was called feminism, and then I read different
branches of feminism.
KJ4: Did any particular authors inspire you most?
RZ4:
Emma Goldman [1869-1940], anarcha-feminist, and Simone de Beauvoir
[1908-1986], I read her first before Goldman. I have always asked myself
how it is possible one person can love a single individual for the rest
of her/his life. It is a very oppressive idea, it’s not possible. For
me if two people want to be together it’s none of their families’
business. But in this culture if you marry then you [also] marry the
family. I heard a lot about being a good daughter-in-law. I cringed a
lot; I thought “that’s not me, that is not what I’m going to do”.
KJ5: Were you involved in any opposition campaigns then?
RZ5:
No, just the research for my degree. I did a research [project] on how
gender stereotypes in books influence children’s thinking and how to
counter stereotypes. I and my research partner had discussions with
children. The whole class of six-years-olds [then] decided it’s OK for
boys to like dolls and girls do not need to like dolls or wear pink.
KJ: Yes, that seems to be the age when the impact of gender stereotypes on children is greatest...
RZ: Their conversation and behaviour changed [after our interactions with them]. In future I’d like to do similar research on a larger scale; I will see how it goes...
KJ6: Have you got any other projects planned?
RZ6:
I am attempting to begin a book on that using this research as a
beginning. There have been female leaders in the past in Asian societies
and tribes which have systems which are not patriarchal, they are very
equity based. The stories behind these tribes are not being told. These
examples are what I want to present.
 |
| Rachel loves Maiden! |
RZ7:
I’m more of an anarchist. It’s strange isn’t it living in a capitalist
society and being an anarchist? It’s very difficult. That’s my dilemma
as well – saving for an Iron Maiden ticket when I
know others cannot [afford to] see. I was fighting the dilemma. I told
myself “life is very short”, one thing I wanted to do was see the bands I
like perform as much as possible.
KJ8: What are your favourite metal bands?
RZ8:
Nightwish, that is I mean the previous Nightwish, Sentenced, Cradle of
Filth, Metallica up to the “black album” [KJ note: the “black album” is
the popular name for Metallica’s self-titled album of 1991 which has
sold 30 million copies worldwide as at 14 May 2013], punk rock, indie
music as well ... Have you heard of the band Journey? I like them as
well, I really like Paul Gilbert, guitar.
KJ9: What do you think of Singaporean society today?
RZ9:
So oppressive [laughs] ... at another level. You still feel the
Government trying to censor you. On the internet people put your photo
on forums and talk crap about you. People give you crap and insult you
about your boyfriend not being the same race as you. It used to hurt me a
lot but now it doesn’t bother me so much. I’m a private person; I don’t
like my details going into the public. I don’t know if I told you this
before, but it [Singaporean society today] is like a bunch of lions
locked up for years then let loose, they don’t know what to do [when
released]. Even friends can’t accept that others think differently from
them.
KJ10: What are your comments on the opposition parties at the moment?
RZ10:
I’m not so close to them nowadays. In the first place I don’t believe
in party politics. I hanged out with SDP [Singapore Democratic Party]
because they were really supportive of me. All my life people thought I
was a strange person. Why can’t you fit the system? When I hanged out
with SDP I didn’t feel that way, it was really good. At that time, to be
honest, SDP was not behaving like a political party; they were
down-to-earth, activists, like a big family. After a while things
changed I guess, directions changed.
KJ11: Do you view yourself as being with SDP at the moment?
RZ11:
I was not happy when they started this Woman’s Wing. It was going
backwards Female participation has always been there. After the
[creation of] Woman’s Wing it’s like telling women “go to your corner,
you need your comfort, you need your space, but men don’t”.
KJ: Like women’s meetings in a church on a weekday morning...
[RZ nods.]
KJ12: So you will not be involved?
RZ12:
The GE [May 2011] really distracted me from the death-penalty cause in
my life. I was feeling very stressed out. I had to do my work and help
them [SDP] out in the GE. I knew I had to [give] priority in my work. I
realized working against death-penalty is my priority. I realized I’m
not concerned with [i.e responsible for] anyone’s survival. I must do
what means most to me.
KJ13: Why is the death-penalty issue so important for you?
RZ13: No-one has the right to take away another person’s life not even the government.
KJ14: So you don’t believe in death-penalty for anything not even for serial-killers?
[RZ shakes her head.]
KJ15: What are your comments on Workers’ Party victory in the Punggol East SMC by-election?
RZ15: It was expected. I didn’t like SDP’s behaviour.
KJ: Why?
RZ:
All the hype about running the BE then when people ostracized them on
internet they said if they win the seat they had a strange proposal –
SDP can go into parliament and WP can run the town council. It was so
naive. Everyone knew that WP would not reply. That was the moment of
disillusion. It was so damaging. After volunteers had worked so hard on
the ground then they pulled out.
KJ: Did you do any volunteer work?
[RZ shakes her head.]
RZ:
At that time my stand was if the person has affair [referring to
Michael Palmer, PAP incumbent in Punggol East] it doesn’t mean he can’t
be a good MP.
KJ: And the same logic applies to the case in Hougang SMC?
RZ:
When YSL [Yaw Shin Leong] case happened I said the same. Look, Michael
Palmer is far more intelligent than Lim Swee Say [KJ note: Minister in
Prime Minister’s Office, Secretary-General of National Trades Union
Congress (NTUC), and PAP MP for East Coast GRC]. Lim Swee Say can stay
but Michael Palmer resigned just because of an affair.
KJ16: What will happen in the next GE?
RZ16:
Hmmm, if LKY [Mr Lee Kuan Yew] dies in the next couple of years there
might be sympathy votes. I might be wrong. Singapore is very strange and
people when emotions are high for a particular person will remember all
the good things he has done [instead of taking a more balanced view].
Someone’s death is a good opportunity for the propaganda machine to
start working overtime. [On the other hand] WP may have more seats in the parliament which is annoying...
KJ: Why annoying?
RZ:
Because when WP gets more seats they may become more arrogant. They are
not much different from PAP anyway. I did appreciate when they raised
certain issues about death-penalty in parliament but I don’t appreciate
overall attitude of the party towards other parties I guess, they don’t
really talk to each other...
KJ: It’s very corporate-style politics now even with the opposition?
[RZ nods.]
RZ:
And also within the party all members are required to toe the line very
strictly and I don’t think this is very different from PAP. A lot of
group-think is going on.
KJ17: What do you think of Singa Crew’s book Singapore Sucks? As you know I was helping him edit the English for the second edition when I was here late last year...
RZ17: I have to promote it, right [laughs]? He is very inspired by James Joyce’s Dubliners
[1914], it is our favourite book. He is trying to do the
Dubliners-thing in the Singapore context. I appreciate that it’s so rare
to get someone [here] who reads Dubliners. I love the title of his book too [Singapore Sucks].
KJ18: What do you think the activist community needs to do to make more changes here?
RZ18:
We have paid activists and some who are not paid. Paid ones work on a
regional platform and are full-time. I hope they make it as a career but
it’s all about fighting for rights of people and animals. It would be
great if they become part of the solidarity process. The civil society
here is [much] divided. It would be great if we could all see the
actions and values of others ... and be there
[for each other] when shit happens. Change will happen when you stop
having party politics here. Individual representation would be much
stronger not having to toe the party line outside and also inside the
parliament.
KJ19: Any other comments on any topic?
RZ19:
When I was sick I was reading the paper. I saw a group of activists in
Japan protesting against the fur trade. I saw the word “activist” below
the picture. I thought “that’s interesting; I want to be an activist”. I
told myself (I was very sick) “if I can survive this I want to do
something meaningful in life”. That picture really helped. (I was
nine-years-old.) It was in the New Paper. [KJ note: When she was nine-years-old RZ had chronic gastroenteritis and was in and out of hospital for a few months.]
*** End of interview***
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