志异 Draft by Drama box July 2014 (english) | Page 41

more like social
commentary
than targeting
specific policies
or politicians.
This cartoon by
artist See Cheen
Tee, is a prime
example of
this. Appearing
in Nanyang Siang Pau two days
after the Christmas of 1968, it
showed old Santa presenting a
new electric fan to a working class
household (as identified by their
clothes) living in a flat. The blades
of the fan are in the shape of 6s
or 9s, depending on how you look
at it. It cleverly symbolises the new
year, 1969, that is arriving in a few
days’ time. However, the family is
seen rejecting the gift. The reason
why they are doing so lies in the
central positing of the electricity
reading meter in the cartoon. By
placing the meter in centre, our
eyes natural focus on it – and
there lies the rub. It hints that this
rather huge household is too poor
to afford the increase in electricity
bills if they were to accept the fan.
Furthermore, the younger child
placed just below the meter is
coughing his lungs out. Is the family

too poor to see a doctor? A new
electric fan is a luxury they could do
without. See’s cartoon is a brilliant
subtle commentary on the social
realities of blue collar living in the
late 1960s, especially when the
British had announced in 1968 that
they would be withdrawing their
naval base, affecting thousands
of workers in Singapore. No
politicians were caricatured or
any government policies criticised.
These were the boundaries
cartoonists had to work within.
Those who ignored the signs
that the tolerance for political
cartooning had shifted paid
the price for it. In 1971, the
Singapore Herald took on the
Singapore government when
it mixed journalism with sociopolitical commentary. It made
the government look bad when
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