Yoong Siew Wah, a former director of the Internal Security
Department in the 1970s, has claimed on his blog
Singapore Recalcitrant that his reputation has been tarnished
by an inaccuracy in the book Men In White.
I reproduce his full post here.
An Unconscionable Injustice
Occasionally, there can happen to an unsuspecting person an
underbelly attack on his reputation from not entirely unexpected
quarter.
Quite frankly, I am baffled by the motive of the ebullient
authors of the overhyped political book "Men in White" in giving me
unflattering mention in it. Whilst it is purported to give an
objective history of the PAP struggle I wonder what have I got to
do with the intra-party struggle. Anyway, in page 441 of the book
the ambitious authors made the following unverified disparaging
statement about me under the sub heading "Another Foreign Hand" :
"But in 1971, after a police raid on his (Francis Seow's) woman
friend's apartment, he used his influence and friendship with the
then director of the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau, Yoong
Siew Wah, to have the four officers who had conducted the raid
sacked. The attorney-general Tan Boon Teik intervened to reinstate
the four officers. Seow was allowed to resign rather than have his
actions investigated because of his track record in the Legal
Service. Yoong was also asked to quit."
On 28-9-09 I wrote to the Chief Executive Officer of the
Singapore Press Holdings drawing his attention to this disparaging
statement about me and requesting that a correction be made in his
newspaper. I explained that the CPIB was duty-bound to investigate
all formal complaints. Mr. Francis Seow made a formal complaint and
CPIB carried out investigations of the four detectives. The
investigation papers were sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Police
who made the decision to dismiss the detectives. There was a prima
facie case against the detectives. There was no question that I was
asked to quit. I was appointed Director of Internal Security
Department following my CPIB stint.
My letter was passed to Mr. Richard Lim, one of the three
authors of the book. Mr. Lim replied on 1 October that the material
for the disparaging statement was taken from a speech made by the
then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew at the Select Committee Hearing of
the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill which was published in the
Straits Times on 10 October 1986 of which a copy was attached.
It did not come as a surprise to me as the then PM Lee Kuan Yew
was like a god to some people and the accuracy of his denigration
of a person's reputation was invariably taken at its face value.
That he made the disparaging statement about me in the heat of the
moment without regard to its accuracy in his heated exchange with a
cool-headed eloquent Francis Seow at the Select Committee Hearing
could not be ruled out. He is not unknown to have behaved
erratically with venom in his speech when highly agitated. He was
obviously so infuriated by Mr. Francis Seow's biting taunts that it
escaped his normally lucid mind that I was not boarded out but
appointed Director ISD after my CPIB stint. It was subsequently
pointed out to him but humility is not his forte and he has not
been known as one to apologise for his mistakes. Mr. Richard Lim,
one of the authors, has assured me that he would add a line after
the sentence that I was also asked to quit to indicate that I was
actually appointed Director ISD after my CPIB stint in his next and
future editions of the book in order to be fair to me.
It was reported that the then attorney-general Mr. Tan Boon Teik
intervened to have the four detectives reinstated. Very gallant of
him. He must have read the CPIB file on the investigations and
could not have missed that the dismissal of the four detectives was
made by the Deputy Commissioner of Police. How the then PM Lee Kuan
Yew was given the impression that I had the four detectives
unlawfully dismissed is something I would like to get to the bottom
of.
Mr. Francis Seow was the solicitor-general at the time when I
was director CPIB. He had overall supervision of CPIB investigation
files sent to his department for final direction. That I should
have had a cordial relation with Mr. Francis Seow was natural in
human relationship development. For the then PM Lee Kuan Yew or for
that matter the attorney-general Mr. Tan Booin Teik to give a
sinister connotation to such a relationship seemed to raise doubt
as to the soundness of the detractors' mind. Why should the
affinity between Mr. Francis Seow and me be seen as something
unwholesome?
The most decent thing for the Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to do
now is to undo the harm he has caused me and to restore my
reputation. But will he?
http://sgblogs.com/entry/kuan-tarnished-reputation-director/364307
