December 27, 2009
In an extensive interview with the Sunday Times today, former
political detainee and Barisan Sosialist leader Dr Poh Soo Kai
spoke candidly about his tumultuous political career and
detention.
Dr Poh was born in Singapore, the fourth child of six in a
privileged Straits-born Chinese family. His maternal grandfather
was prominent millionaire businessman and philanthropist Tan Kah
Kee, and his uncle was Mr Lee Kong Chian, another famous
philanthropist and founder of OCBC Bank.
During his university days, he was active in the University
Socialist Club, a debating forum for students who were against
colonialism and sought independence for Malaya and Singapore. They
believed in freedoms of speech and assembly, and opposed detention
without trial.
One of the first members of the People’s Action Party (PAP), Dr
Poh was roped in as an assistent Secretary-General of the Barisan
Sosialist after it was formed from a breakaway faction of the PAP
in 1961.
Dr Poh insists that contrary to the official view, the leftists
within the PAP did not force the split. There was a difference in
opinion on issues such as detention without trial, freedom of
speech, press and assembly. It was then Prime Minister Lee Kuan
Yew, who saw it as a challenge to the PAP leadership and forced the
split.
Dr Poh
was arrested and detained without trial under Operation Cold Store
in 1963. He was released in 1972 only to be re-arrested again in
1976 before he was freed in 1982. Altogether, he was detained for a
total of 17 years without being ever tried in court.
He was the third longest held political detainee in the
history of Singapore after Mr Chia Thye Poh (32 ye ars)
and Dr Lim Hock
Siew (19 years).
According to declassified documents from the British National
Archives, the “communist” threat was “played up” by Lee Kuan
Yew who allegedly tried to persuade Lord Selkrik and then Malayan
Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman to arrest several of his former
political comrades including Ong Eng Guan who never belonged to the
“leftist” camp under a joint operation by the Internal Security
Council to give the impression that it was the federal government
in Kuala Lumpur who ordered the arrests and not the PAP.
Lord Selkrik wrote to his superiors in London imploring them not
to listen to Lee:
“Lee is probably very much attracted to the idea of
destroying his political
opponents. It should be remembered that there is
behind all this a very
personal aspect…he claims he wishes to
put back in
detention the very people who were released at his
insistence – people who are intimate acquaintances, who have
served in his government, and with whom there is a strong sense of
political rivalry which transcends ideological
differences.”
[Source: British National Archives]
Recalling his long period of incarceration, sometimes under
solitary confinement, Dr Poh said:
“No regrets, but you are unhappy, you know. It’s very
obvious. I mean, you can’t keep a person in prison and lock him up,
you know, without a valid reason. You ask him (Lee) to bring you to
court, he doesn’t bring you to court. I mean, you feel they have to
change the system. You can’t
have a system like this continue. You don’t want your children,
your grandchildren to live in a police
state.”
He would not shake Mr Lee’s hand if he met him. ‘There’s nothing
more to say,’ he says.
Though Singapore has a first world economy, its repressive
political system resembles more than a modern police state. All
state institutions such as the police, grassroots organizations and
trade unions are controlled firmly by the ruling party.
There is no free or independent press in Singapore. All the
major papers are owned by a single news agency Singapore Press
Holdings whose Chairman is a former PAP minister Dr Tony Tan.
The economy is dominated by state-linked companies such as
SingTel, Starhub, SIA and Capitaland which are owned directly or
indirectly by the government via its two gigantic sovereign wealth
funds – Temasek Holdings and GIC.
Lee Kuan Yew is the Chairman of GIC while his daughter-in-law Ho
Ching leads Temasek Holdings. Both funds reportedly lost billions
of dollars during the global financial crisis last year.
Draconian laws are put in place to curtail the civil and
political rights of ordinary Singaporeans. A new law was introduced
this year making even a solo protest illegal. Protests are legally
allowed only at Speaker’s Corner, but the installation of CCTVs at
its premises have deterred Singaporeans from going there.
When asked about his assessment of Singapore’s future, Dr Poh
argues that Singapore is too dependent on an export-oriented
economy.
In his view, if there was no Operation Cold Store, Barisan would
have won the 1963 election ‘hands down’. Then, he says, Singapore
might have been less dependent on foreign direct investment, and
there might have been more freedom and discussion about the
country’s development.
Nothing much has changed then. In fact, the situation
has deteriorated. After 44 years of continuous “brain-washing” by
the state media, most Singaporeans grow up becoming politically
ignorant, apathetic and inactive.
An ignorant, disinterested and naive citizenry is the
key to the PAP maintaining its political hegemony in Singapore
without which its glaring mistakes will be put under intense public
scrutiny and questions raised about its legitimacy to
govern.
