Colliding Worlds

Gerald de Cruz is best remembered by Singaporeans for his robust lectures against Communism. Born in 1920 of a Eurasian father whom he never quite came to terms with, Gerald was to rebel against all that his father stood for—God, king and an alien patriotism. A maverick alternately impassioned and disillusioned by his causes, Gerald shored up his collapsing worlds finally by embracing Islam in 1968 and adopting the name Haji Karim Abdullah. He fled Singapore in 1948 for Britain where he spent six years caring for the intellectually disabled. In 1956, he returned to Singapore on the request of David Marshall, to be the Organising Secretary of the Labour Front. In the 60s, he helped set up the Political Study Centre to educate civil servants on world affairs and local political changes. He was also a well-known journalist, first with The Straits Times, then with the New Nation and the Sarawak Tribune. He died in 1991 at the age of 72