By Natalie Koh, for the
Singapore Democrats
27 May 2010
I am an ordinary Singaporean student who, until now, has been
brainwashed like many of you. Now I know the ugly truth. I’d like
to share my experience with you about my struggle in taking off the
blindfold the PAP has tied on me for years.
I believe it is about the same for most young Singaporeans as it
was for me. The brainwashing starts at the secondary school level
when most students still do not have the maturity to be able to
accurately judge if what they read is true or false. Most of them
would not even be interested in politics at that age.
Like some of you, I also viewed Social Studies and National
Education as propaganda of the government. But for the sake of
getting good grades, many just memorise the PAP’s version of
Singapore’s past and regurgitate it when needed.
Drilled into our minds from young that the PAP are the good guys
and all who oppose it must be bad, more and more Singaporeans come
to accept this twisted view without question.
The awakening for me came when I took up a political science
module at the National University of Singapore where I’m now
studying. It was about politics and governance of Singapore. That
got me thinking about Singapore’s history and the role the PAP,
civil service, and trade unions played in it. I also started to
examine the subject of the PAP’s political hegemony.
When I signed up for the module, the first thing that I wanted
to do was to find out the truth. I thought that in university,
there would be more freedom to scrutinize criticize the Government
and its policies. But, this turned out not to be the case at
all.
The lecture notes given to students spoke highly of the PAP, and
denounced the opposition. The lecturer himself, Dr Bilveer
Singh, did not take an unbiased view. Whenever he mentioned
the opposition, it was to criticize them and to emphasize that they
were puny compared to the PAP.
I remember Dr Singh saying that Dr Chee Soon Juan is a symbol of
blundering. I was thinking, “Okay, so where’s your evidence?” But
he didn’t even bother to support his point and took whatever he as
if it was factually true.
And most of the students just accepted it without questioning
the accuracy of his statement.
In his
textbook (which was a
compulsory text for all of us), the lecturer wrote that Dr Chee had
ousted Mr Chiam from the SDP. This was, of course not the truth, as
those of you who have read Dr Chee’s detailed
account of what actually happened would know.
But as this article is about how I discovered the truth about
Singapore’s history and politics, I will not digress any
further.
What jolted me to the truth was Dr Chee’s books,
A Nation Cheated
and
The Power of
Courage. What I read shocked me. I read and re-read
it again and again to make sure I had read everything
correctly.
The shocking
truth has been
scrupulously kept away from the eyes of Singaporeans. I am
sure the majority of Singaporeans are blissfully unaware that Mr
Lee Kuan Yew was not the hero who fought for Singapore’s
independence. Rather the true hero was Mr Lim Chin Siong, who
failed to become Singapore’s first prime minister only because he
was continuously thwarted by Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the British.
The book documented from declassified papers that “it was Lim
Chin Siong who insisted that Singaporeans’ freedom and independence
were not for compromise.” And that was also why the British
considered him such a threat to their colonial rule, and tried all
ways to cripple him. Please refer to A Nation Cheated for
more details.
Everyone knows that there were riots in Singapore’s history, and
these riots were explained by the Government that the Malayan
Communist Party “in charge of Lim Chin Siong” was behind the whole
affair and that it was (Chief Minister) Mr Lim Yew Hock who purged
Singapore of the troublemaking communists.
But I learnt from this book that “it was then Chief Minister Lim
Yew Hock who had purposely provoked the riots to enable the
detention of Mr Lim Chin Siong.” The colonial government and Mr Lee
Kuan Yew (London’s “best ally”) had no qualms employing the tactic
of provoking a riot and then using the outcome to “achieve a
desired political result”.
Another shocking fact that A Nation Cheated reveals is
that “Lee had confidentially said that he values the [Internal
Security] Council as a potential scape-goat for unpopular measures
he will wish to take against subversive activities.”
Another controversial issue was the clause the British
introduced that would bar ex-detainees, or subversives, from
standing for elections. It is revealed that “Lee Kuan Yew was
secretly a party with Lim Yew Hock in urging the Colonial Secretary
to impose the ‘subversives ban’.”
Yet, in Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs, he wrote “I objected to [the
introduction of the clause] saying that ‘the condition is
disturbing both because it is a departure from democratic practice
and because there is no guarantee that the government in power will
not use this procedure to prevent not only the communist but also
democratic opponents of their policy from standing for
elections.”
Mr Lee pretended to be the good man by pushing all the blame to
the British. It was written that “Lee told Britain’s Seceretary of
State, ‘I will have to denounce [the clause]. You will have to take
responsibility.’”
After I first read the book, I was thinking “no, no way, this
can’t be the truth, everyone knows that Lee Kuan Yew was the
founding father of Singapore.”
But after I reread the book repeatedly, I finally accepted the
concrete evidence. And after the initial denial came the horrid
shock. We have been emulating and glorifying this person all this
while.
I told my mom what I had read from the book. She got very angry
with me and scolded me harshly. She said that I should not get
involved in politics, and implied that I (and everyone who wants to
stay safe) should just turn a blind eye to the truth.
I was thinking, “This is injustice!” My mom got angry with me
that day. I was afraid that she might throw away my copies of Dr
Chee’s books.
Now that I know the truth, I feel burdened. I cannot continue to
propagate the stand that Lee and the PAP are righteous without
lying to myself. I was also scared because what I wanted to tell
others was akin to blasphemy, heresy.
I thought of people like Dr Chee who know far more about this
subject than I do would feel much more aggrieved because not only
do most people not believe us and may even say we are subversive
and spreading lies about the Government, but the authorities will
also do everything to hide the truth and fool the people.
Even now, I still need to mince my words whenever I discuss
politics and Lee Kuan Yew in my family. Youths are forced to
self-censor and cannot say much in public because we do not have
any freedom of speech (unless it’s about singing the Government’s
praises).
What has become of our so-called “democratic” country? I urge
all of you, for the sake of your own honor and integrity, to please
read and find out for yourselves the truth.
Natalie Koh is currently studying Chemistry at NUS.
http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=4097
