Zee Yezee Book Club

Enter Title, Author or ISBN then click Book.
Home » Learning Books » 

Political Science

Arms Control City Planning & Urban Development Civics Communism & Socialism Congress Conspiracy & Scandal Investigations Democracy Economic Conditions Elections Essays International Relations History & Theory Labor & Industrial Relations Leadership Legal System Peace Political Freedom & Security - Civil Rights Political Freedom & Security - International Security Political Freedom & Security - Law Enforcement Political History Political Parties Practical Politics Public Affairs & Administration Public Policy Reference Social Policy Social Services & Welfare U.S. Government.

The Tiger and the Trojan Horse

Enter the half-world of the communist underground, with its elaborate tradecraft and secret rendezvous in a vivid tale of ruthlessness matched against ruthlessness, seen from both sides. This reprint of the 1986 classic is no academic study, but it gives an impartial account of the inside story of the duel between ill-matched adversaries - the Lee Kuan Yew´s People´s Action Party and the Communist United Front in the struggle for Singapore.

About This Book - ´Some mug had to do it,´ said Lee Kuan Yew, explaining what appeared to be an act of pure folly - the decision of a politically puny group of young nationalists to take on the powerful communist movement in a crucial struggle for Singapore. In the first phase, the antagonists became partners, for while the nationatists were obliged to ride the communist tiger to gain the support of the masses, the outlawed communists saw their group as a Trojan Horse through which they could capture constitutional power in a key British colony. But the ultimate aim of the ambitious ´moderates´ was to rid Singapore of both colonialists and communists, in that order. And they succeeded. This reprint of the 1986 classic is no academic study, and the often bizarre inside story of that duel between ill-matched adversaries - the People´s Action Party and the Communist United Front - is brought to life in an account full of irony and paradox, strange encounters, bloody riots, and brutal assassinations. The author takes us into the half-world of the communist underground, with its elaborate tradecraft and secret rendezvous in a vivid tale of ruthlessness matched against ruthlessness, seen from both sides, and told with cool impartiality.

The Tiger and the Trojan Horse Specifications:

Region: Singapore; Format: Paperback, 353 pages; Published: 2005, Singapore, 1st Edition; ISBN: 9812611932; SB#: 037313

The Tiger and the Trojan Horse 


The book Mrs. Clinton doesn’t want you to read

clintonThe new book "The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It and How Far She´ll Go to Become President" by Edward Klein (a well-known editor and lecturer with a distinguished career in American journalism) includes sensational assertions about Clinton´s personal life, has stirred a fierce reaction among some of her staunchest supporters and others, who, legitimately or not, see a coordinated campaign to undermine Clinton at a time when she is taking more of a hand in national politics.

Republican and conservative activists are behind a vigorous campaign to promote a controversial new biography about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, with some even suggesting that the book will help dash any presidential aspirations she might have.  This unauthorized book could be one book Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Want You To Read.  Mrs. Clinton’s aide said the book was "full of blatant and vicious fabrications." Smartly, Hillary and her husband in the past have rarely commented on books about them – including ones far more critical and personal.

The book Mrs. Clinton doesn’t want you to read 


Yasser Arafat (1926 - 2004)

Yasser Arafat Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the ex-guerrilla who for decades symbolised a struggle for statehood.  Yasser's struggle has ended in French military hospital in the southwest Paris suburb of Clamart with kidney failure and liver failure.  According to French doctors, Yasser Arafat had low count of blood platelets (which are needed for clotting), but they were unsure what caused his death.  His wife, Suha (who stayed in Paris since the Palestinian uprising re-erupted in 2002) was in with him when he was airlifted from Ramallah to Paris.  Mr Arafat had earlier complain of having a "stomach pain".  

President Arafat, 75, revered (regard as worthy of great honor) by most of his people and reviled (to subject to verbal abuse) by many Israelis, had medical complication that leads to brain hemorrhage.  Arafat shared a Nobel Peace prize with Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, but peace talks on a final agreement for a Palestinian state collapsed in 2000.  Bloodshed followed swiftly. Both Israel and the United States now refuse to deal with him over the accusations of encouraging militant attacks.

Arafat was born on Aug. 24, 1929 in Cairo to a textile merchant father, who was a Palestinian with Egyptian ancestry, and his mother from an old Palestinian family in Jerusalem. He was named after Yasser, which was believed to honor an Arab victim during the British mandate in Palestine.  After his mother's death when he was five years old, Arafat was sent to live with his maternal uncle in Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, then under the British rule.

After spending four years there, his father brought him back to Cairo, where an older sister took care of him and his siblings. Before he was 17, Arafat was smuggling arms in Cairo to Palestine to be used against the Britons and the Jews. During the war between the Jews and the Arab states in 1948, 19-year-old Arafat broke off his studies at Faud University (Cairo University) to fight against the Jews in the Gaza area. After the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, he managed to get a visa to study at the University of Texas in the United States.

Recovering his spirits and retaining the dream of an independent Palestinian homeland, Arafat returned to Faud University to major in engineering, but spent most of his time as leader of the Palestinian students.  In 1953, when Egypt was proclaimed a republic, Arafat sent a three-word blood letter to an Egyptian leader, which simply read "don't forget Palestine."

After getting a degree in 1956, Arafat worked briefly in Egypt, then resettled in Kuwait, where he was first employed in the public works department, and then successfully running his own contracting firm. Committed to armed struggles to reverse what Palestinians called the Nabka (Catastrophe), Arafat secretly founded the Al Fatah movement with Abu Jihad (Khalil al-jihadWazir) in 1958.  In late 1964, Arafat left Kuwait to become a full-time revolutionary, organizing Fatah raids into Israel from Jordan. It was also in 1964 that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was created.  After the Arab countries' defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, Al Fatah emerged from obscurity of an underground movement to a most powerful and best organized group among the PLO. In 1969, Arafat became the PLO chairman that was based in Jordan and they launches artillery duels with Israel, airline hijackings and the infamous killings of 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. The Jordanian troops drove the PLO out of the country in 1971, and the PLO relocated to Lebanon.

In November 1974, with the support of the Arab states, Arafat participated in a debate on the Middle East at the UN General Assembly.  In 1988 came a change of policy. In a speech at a special UN session in Geneva, Arafat declared that the PLO renounced terrorism.  The peace process between the Palestinians and Israel began in earnest, leading to the Oslo Accords of 1993.  In 1994, Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize for his effort in the Middle East peace process. On May 12, 1994, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was established. In July, Arafat returned to Gaza. In early 1996, Arafat was elected chairman of the PNA. He struggled to define his role and keep Israelis and his own countrymen committed to what he termed "the peace of the brave".

When Israel's right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in 1996, the pace of the peace process slowed down considerably.  On Oct. 16, 2000, Arafat, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US President Bill Clinton met in Camp David. They left the meeting with a "statement of intent" to end the violence, but neither side signed on it.  Since December 2001, Arafat has been besieged by the Israeli army in his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, known as Muqata. On March 29, 2002, the Israeli cabinet declared Arafat an enemy and was put on house arrest in Ramallah.

Yasser Arafat's body was flown from France to Cairo, where the Egyptian government host a state funeral for him.  He was then buried outside the PNA headquarters compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian Territory (occupied).

References: Egypt; Palestinian Territory; Israel;

Yasser Arafat (1926 - 2004)