The Right to Life
21 Although the background of the story is in Thailand, but the novel was a
Singaporean period – peace in its choice of theme, that described how urban
migration and modern education improved women’s lives. By urbanization system that was central in the first phase of Singapore’s development, the PAP
government was erasing traditional habitats of ethnic group such as; Malay kampungs, Chinese Village, and exposing selected segments of the population to
modern education. Through Sing to the Dawn , as one of Ho’s children tale, which
was a didactic one, telling about a potential reformer of rural Asian social operations and evils. The reformer was a village girl who strived to reach the city
and higher modern education in order that she may return to the village and uplift the backward condition of her community. The novel depicted the development of
modern women in theological terms. It suggested that women became legitimate members of the community and trailblazers of progress only by moving to
metropolitan canter of advancement. However, by this novel, the author was only partially indoctrinated in the ideology of urban progressivism but also suggested
that patriarchal modernist nations of progressive self and citizen fill women’s lives with contradiction, and fracture communist.
Sing to the Dawn tells the struggles of young protagonist, Dawan, after announcing as the one female student who got the scholarship to pursue higher
education in the City School. Because of social and economic opportunities that come to her with this
award, Dawan is singled out for spearheading the changes her Marxist school teacher has envisioned for the villagers. She is expected to bring
back to the villagers not only modern knowledge and technological tools
“how to raise new crops and use better fertilizers,” 17 but new ways of
22 analysing and demystifying the socioeconomic institutions that perpetuate
inequities in the village.
The uncontrolled situation caused by the tax system and the opportunities that come to Dawan by winning the scholarship also the noble hopes of their
teacher encourage her to keep fighting to achieve her goal to have better education and also being free from the unjust rules by the landlords.