but at least gentlemen enuf to left us go independent without
much struggle, they even educated our people, and one of them is
LKY.
Encouraged by the determination of fellow former political
prisoner Said Zahari to unveil the other side of history,
Singapore's Dr Lim Hock Siew has also decided to publish his
memoirs.
"Although I have told my story in a documentary film many years
ago, I have decided to write it down myself in the form of memoirs
like my ‘good brother' Said," he told malaysiakini during an
exclusive interview in Kuala Lumpur.
"I am now conducting research to find out more newly declassified
materials in London to link up more dots," added the 76-year old
founding member of Singapore's now ruling People's Action Party
(PAP).
Lim was detained
without trial for almost 20 years from 1963 to
1982. (Which makes him the second longest-held
political prisoner in Singapore after Chia Thye Poh)
According to him, although he was alleged to have participated in
the activities of the so-called ‘Communist United Front' in
Singapore from the mid-1950s to early 1960s, he was never formally
charged in any open court of law for the allegation.
"I still remember even my police interrogators told me that they
knew I had never been a member of any communist party or
group," said Lim who was a central committee member
of the opposition Socialist Front in Singapore at the time of his
arrest.
He was detained during the 1963 Operation Cold Store, which saw
more than 130 leaders of opposition parties, labour and student
unions and journalists deemed to be left wing held as well.
Serving British interests
"Now, from all the already released records in London as well as
other historical researches, it is clear that in launching
Operation Cold Store, Lee Kuan Yew was serving the then strategic
interests of Britain which wanted Singapore to continue to provide
a forward military base in Southeast Asia," said
Lim
"It is also now an undeniable fact that Lee worked earlier for the
Japanese military during the Occupation making Britain's English
materials available in Japanese-language for the occupiers," he
added.
Lim was a graduate of Singapore's prestigious Raffles College and a
medical doctor trained in University of Malaya, which was then
located in Singapore.
"I was also a founder of University of Malaya's Socialist Club
which became the cradle for many politicians and intellectuals in
both Malaysia and Singapore who fought for independence," he
recalled with a sense of pride.
"In those days, anti-colonialism was a very powerful and popular
sentiment even in Singapore … I helped found the People's
Action Party (PAP) to fight for the freedom of Singapore from
British rule and to reunite it with Peninsula to form an united,
non-communal and progressive Malaya but when Lee turned right wing
and started serving British interests, the party split and I left
to join the Socialist Front," he explained.
"We certainly opposed to Singapore being maintained as a military
base for Britain and that was why Lee had to crush
the Left in Singapore at all cost … The Left in
Singapore also opposed to the 1963 merger because we thought it was an
opportunistic adventure on the part of Lee who wanted to exploit
Tunku Abdul Rahman's anti-communism to suppress the Left in
Singapore … we wanted merger but not in the 1963
version which proved to be an utter failure just two years later in
1965...
http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/articlelimhocksiew.html
Poulgrain claims it was actually Singapore's then Chief Minister,
Lim Yew Hock, who had deliberately "provoked" the bus and other
industrial workers and Chinese middle students to riot in 1956 in
order to have Lim Chin Siong arrested.
Lim Yew Hock's own admission to responsibility for the riot appears
in an official report to the British Government which Poulgrain
found in the Colonial Office records in London which are now open
to researchers.
"Lee Kuan Yew was
secretly a party with Lim Yew Hock," adds Poulgrain, "in urging the
Colonial Secretary to impose the subversives ban in making it
illegal for former political detainees to stand for
election."
http://www.thinkcentre.org/article.cfm?ArticleID=977
Mr Speaker: No, I will give you one minute.
Enche' Chia Thye Poh: Sir, when the Prime Minister
talks of defending our country, we find it hollow. This Government
has betrayed all the vital interests of the people to the British.
It has no right to talk of defending the nation. This Government is
oppressing the people; more than 200 political leaders and trade
unionists are in the jails of Singapore.
Our Secretary- General, Mr Lim Chin Siong, is in Changi
and political
dwarfs like Mr Lee Kuan Yew can strut around and talk big only when
giants like Mr Lim Chin Siong are kept out of the political
arena (interruption).
Mr Speaker: Do not disturb him.
Enche' Chia Thye Poh: The Prime Minister has spoken about the
communal riots in Singapore. He says that the Indonesians and the
Communists caused it.
We are from
Singapore and we know that this is just to cover up the real
culprits.
The Prime Minister of Singapore is telling, in Europe, that the
UMNO politicians have caused it. The UMNO in Singapore says that
the P.A.P. has caused it.
We who are in
Singapore know that the communal riots were the work of the UMNO
and the P.A.P. who were indulging in a bitter fight for
power.
All this nonsense about the Indonesians and the Communists
causing these riots is just to hide the truth that the main culprits belong to
the ruling parties.
SOME HONOURABLE MEMBERS : Nonsense!
Lies
Enche' Chia Thye Poh : We challenge the Government to have a public
enquiry into this. When the riots started . . .
.
Mr Speaker : Order, order! Your time is up—it is already one
minute.
http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/2009/02
