Why were the 24 persons arrested between May 1987 and May 1988?
The common denominator for nearly all those arrested was that they
were trying to help low-paid factory workers and other
underprivileged. They were Roman Catholics, and moved to manifest
their faith by social action.
As Vincent Cheng, one of those detained, wrote:
What is justice and how do you bring it about? Was Jesus
bothered about justice? Why are some churches more interested in
charity than in justice?
[snip]
The old theological understanding of justice as commutative justice
– that is, the kind of justice that deals with how individuals
relate to one another – clouds the newer understanding of justice
as a Kingdom value that is fundamental to the Old and New
Testaments of the Bible. Individual justice has to be understood as
part of the larger whole of social justice, not the other way
round. Thus, justice is to be understood primarily as being
concerned with how society is organised, Working for justice means
working to build a society that is intrinsically just. The World
Council of Churches summed it up best: "What the world needs is a
just, participative, and sustainable society."
-- Vincent Cheng in That we may dream again, published 2009 by
Ethos Books, edited by Fong Hoe Fang,
Cheng, who had trained as a priest, committed himself to working
for migrant workers and domestic helpers.
In 1982, the Geyland Catholic Centre needed someone to help
coordinate its various functions as a mediation centre fo runaway
domestic helpers, an activity centre for young Malaysian workers, a
halfway house for ex-prisoners and a counselling centre for
troubled people. I took up the job and concentrated on the issues
of migrant workers. These foreigners came to develop our economy,
many leaving their homes at high personal and financial cost to
take up lowly-paid jobs here which were shunned by the locals. They
lived in substandard housing conditions and faced various
restrictions on their personal and social life.
- ibid.
Tang Lay Lee wrote about her involvement with the Young Christian
Workers (YCW) Jurong Centre, 1980 – 1987.
I remember the long bus journeys to Jurong which seemed so
remote. So when the YCW asked me to take one of their English
classes for factory workers – mostly Malaysian and young females –
why did I agree? I felt I wanted to do something practical, I
wanted to see for myself what factory workers were like, and I
wanted to see Jurong, our largest industrial estate.
-- Tang Lay Lee in That we may dream again, published 2009 by Ethos
Books, edited by Fong Hoe Fang,
Such was the idealism of youth. Further on, she wrote,
I chatted, cooked, joked and laughed with the workers who came
to the Centre for English classes, or games, or just to relax and
socialise in the evenings and during weekends. We also had
activities like Labour Day celebrations, labour discussions ,
outings and overseas holidays.
[snip]
Knowing the law is one things, claiming workers' rights is an
entirely different ball game.
[snip]
So anyone who thinks that it is easy to "instigate" workers to do
what seems to right should have his head examined and his heart
replaced. Well, the YCW was not involved involved in instigating
workers, which would be disrespectful, dishonest and
heartless.
[snip]
One thing we did together was to organise a modest survey on the
effects of the 12-hour shift and publish our findings and
recommendations in the Catholic News. Workmen's compensation was
another issue workers were concerned about, so we organised
volunteer lawyers to provide legal counselling and
representation.
-- ibid.
My guess is that most younger readers of Yawning Bread would find
all the above to be news to them. Was that all they were doing? And
they got detained under the ISA and subsequently tortured, for
that?
The horror of such heavy-handedness may be one reason why
Singapore's political conversation in the years since has avoided
discussing these arrests. It's as if we have been so traumatised by
these events, we suffer a collective amnesia and mental
block.
Our mainstream media, naturally, cannot delve far into it either.
The problem is that the
injustice is to stark, and official explanation so ridiculous,
there is no credible way for journalists with any shred of
integrity to revisit this story without poking huge holes in the
government's case.
As my friend Russell Heng pointed out at the forum, by the late
1980s, Marxism was in terminal decline. The Soviet Union was on the
verge of collapse, workers in Poland -- the same workers that
Marxism and communism claimed to champion -- were demonstrating
under the banner of Solidarnosc against the communist state, while
in China, Deng Xiaoping had buried Mao-Tse-tung thought and opened
Special Economic Zones for capitalists. Did Lee Kuan Yew really
think that labelling Vincent Cheng et al "Marxists" would convince
anybody?
In my view, it didn't. That being the case, how does anyone --
journalists, academics, etc -- discuss this case without drawing
attention to the absurdity, and thus the likelihood of illegal
abuse of power, at its very heart? Yet, accusing the government of
abuse of power is fraught with risk. Hence, talking about it became
a kind of taboo for 22 years since.
* * * * *
The irony is, Martyn See said, non-government organisations today,
such as TWC2 and HOME, are doing ten times more than what those
early activists did for migrant workers. Indeed, it seems to me
that people Like Bridget Lew, Jolovan Wham and Stephanie Chok are
far more outspoken than any of those lay Catholics in the
1980s.
Heng, who is active in TWC2, reckoned that many of the younger
volunteers would know very little of the 1987 detainees and their
work history. Today's young volunteers go about their work driven
by their own idealism.
If that is so, I asked, shouldn't we let forgetfulness stand? Why
recall the details of 1987 and 1988 and scare a new generation
away? Why not let the young beat a new path blissfully unaware of
the pain suffered by others?
Because those who are unaware of history may end up repeating it?
suggested See.
I don't know if history is programmed to repeat itself. Our
government leaders change too, and old instincts to crack down on
the slightest attempt by anyone to pursue an agenda not to the
government's liking, may not stay the same. Or am I wrong?
* * * * *
I was a little surprised to see The New Paper send a reporter to
Martyn See's forum. I thought our mainstream media would studiously
ignore the forum. Even so, I was skeptical about a report
eventually appearing in the newspaper.
Yet, there it was on the next day's print edition. And a pretty
fair account it was too, one that even carried what Chee Siok Chin
said. She is the sister of opposition leader Chee Soon Juan and
herself one of the leaders of the Singapore Democratic Party. I had
thought there was a complete ban on any publicity for the
Chees.
Have some things changed?
Or is the editor going to get the rap for going out on a limb? We
shall see.
* * * * *
The initial response of the Catholic Church in the days following
the first arrests, was quire supportive, with a solidarity mass
held. But by the second week, Archbishop Gregory Yong's arm had
clearly been twisted by the government. After that the Church no
longer stood by its lay workers, a betrayal that some of the
detainees have written bitterly about. The archbishopric owes them
all an apology.
http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/2009/06/reviews-operation
