« I suppose we will hear more about you, Mr Lee ». Angoisse, politique et trouble colonial dans les dernières années de la Singapour britannique

Abstract

Is there a form of anxiety specific to those who are in power? If so, how can political science account for it? Premised on these questions, the article offers a critical reading of the place of anxiety in the Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore. It shows that the anxiety that pervades the book is peculiar to the (post-)colonial situation of the City-State and to the position of the local elites who, like Lee, were pure products of the British occupation, socially and economically speaking, while being politically involved in the struggle for independence. To do so, the article proposes an innovative methodology consisting in understanding anxiety on the basis of an indexical paradigm, similar to that developed by micro-history and psychoanalysis, in order to make sense of seemingly banal events, slips of the tongue or unconscious acts.

Keywords

• anxiety
• colonialism
• elites
• post-colonial States
• Singapore