I love LKY for
playing an important role to Singapore's independence, both from
British and Malaysia
Share with you something from the past which is in Francis Seow's
book "To Catch a Tartar".
In 1959, Singapore was granted limited self-government with a
fully elected legislature with full powers to run its own internal
affairs, save on matters of foreign policy and defence, (which
included internal security) which remained in the hands of the
British government expressed through the governor. In June that
year, the general election saw teh P4P under LKY returned with an
overwhelming majority to form the government. But LKY
ostentatiously refused to take office unless until all his
pro-communist colleagues, who had been detained without trial by
the Labour Front government under the Preservation of Public
Security Ordinance (PPSO) (a law enabling the government to detain
persons, without trial, for subversive activities) had been
unconditionally released from prison. A number of them were
accordingly released.
Amongst them was C.V. Devan Nair, who was destined to
become the future president of the Republic of Singapore.
However, his tenure as such was to prove as uneasy as it was
short-lived. He was a founder-member of P4P and a trusted
confidant of LKY. And, until he fell out with him, enjoyed
considerable influence over government policy
directions.
In 1961, the inevitable P4P split occured; the breakaway
faction, calling itself Barisan Socialis (Socialist Front), joined
the ranks of the opposition. They comprised many of the selfsame
person for whom LKY had so pretentiously refused to pick up the
reins of government, unless they were released from prison. And,
whom he was to arrest and put back behind bars with no trace of
guilt or irony.
In August 1963, notwithstanding internal opposition to
merger, Singapore became a constituent state within the Federation
of Malaysia. Early in February the same year, the Internal
Security Council, (consisting of the representatives of governments
of Singapore, Malaya, and Great Britain) had ordered the arrest and
detention of over hundred dissidents, including leading opposition
Barisan Socialis members of parliament and trade union activist,
"to safeguard national defence and the security of Singapore and
the other territories of Malaysia." The mass arrest eased the entry
of Singapore into the Federation of Malaysia and crippled a
formidable parliamentary opposition. It does not require much
imagination to fathom the posture adopted by the Singapore
representatives, of whom LKY was one, at that fateful Internal
Security Council meeting.
Under the new constitutional arrangements, the powers hitherto
exercised by the governor were transferred to the federal
government. But Singapore shrewdly retained for itself certain
powers relating to, among other things, finance, education, labour,
and communications. This union with Malaya, which was
intended "to endure for the next hundred years," was doomed to
failure from its very inception owing to the political psyche and
ambition of several leading personalities on either side of the
causeway. It was a troubled union.
In over zealously promoting Singapore's political
philosophy of union with Malaysia, Lee clashed repeatedly with the
federal government. Given his abrasive political style, he appeared
fractious, blligerent, and insultingly intolerant and provocative
in his dealings with federal ministers, which seriously offended
the sensitivity of the Malay people. It was not long before tension
built on political tension seriously threatened the stability and
integrity of the new Federation.
The benign and
princely Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tungku Abdul Rahman Putra
al-Haj, intervened. Rather than yielding to the strident cries of
the Malay ultras to detain Lee under the Internal Security
Act for instigating and inciting communal unrest, he decided to
boot Lee and Singapore out of the Federation. British Prime
Minister Harold Wilson had apparently warned the Tungku that the
British government would not take it too kindly if Lee were
arrested and detained. Lee later rather overstated the situation:
"Mr. Wilson who is a personal friend cannot see me languishing in
jail for ever." Thus Singapore became a sovereign and independent
nation.
Francis Seow was educated at Saint Joseph's Institution in
Singapore and at the Honorable Society of the Middle Temple,
London. He joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1956, serving as a
deputy public prosecutor until 1972, when he entered private law
practice. Prime Minister LKY approved his appointment as senior
counsel to a Commission of Inquiry which "successfully exposed
communist tactics" in the Secondary IV examination boycott by
Chinese students. Seow received the award of the Public
Administration (Gold) Medal for his work on the Commission, and was
ultimately appointed Solicitor General of Singapore. Seow dates the
beginnings of political friction between himself and LKY's
government from 1986 when Seow was elected president of the Law
Society. Seow was appointed the first Orville Schell Fellow, Yale
Law School, in 1989, and in 1990, a Fellow of East Asian Legal
Studies, Harvard Law School. A widower, Seow now lives with his
daughter, Ingrid Annalisa, in Arlington, Massachusetts.
I know very little of this great person Francis Seow, I've spoke
to older folks, they said that he used to be the Mentor of LKY.
Has the student surpassed the teacher?
