A Blast from the Past - An Assessment for the Future

last SG · 2007-05-26T17:51:08+00:00

This is an interview with Tay Kheng Soon, a well known architect and a young social activists from the 1960s. From this interview perhaps one can sieve some...

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THE PAP GOVERNMENT HAS INDEED DONE A GREAT DEAL FOR SINGAPORE. HOWEVER, THERE IS AN INCREASING DEGREE OF DISCONTENT GROWING AMONGST OUR YOUTHS AGAINST THEM. WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS HAPPENING?

Our lives are empty. We dont understand the joy of living is not in the gold coins. It is not in the bank account. The joy of living is in human relations. We are not in appreciation of this miracle of life.

We are giving a lop-sided view, an unfairness to the government! We come out of a morass of imperial subjugation where people were dying of starvation and now?

You know, when I won a case once years ago, I was presented with a lovely porcelain Buddha with a big flowing belly and ears that reached to his shoulders and a chubby face.

I said to my client, Look, you Chinese got a real feeling for aesthetics. How can you worship something so obscene?

He said, Mr Marshall, try and understand. China is a land of starvation where millions of people die for lack of food, and to be able to eat that much, to be that fat, that is heaven!

Now, that is the attitude of our government: to be able to eat that much, that is heaven and you should be content.

So are youths not content? They are not anti. Our youths frankly, very honestly respect the pragmatic achievements of the government, and Im grateful, but they feel empty.

There isnt this joy of living which youth expects and youth needs to learn the joy of living. How do you teach it?

I think you teach it through respect for the individual. Thats our tragedy. If you want to put it in a nutshell, our tragedy is that we emphasise the primacy of society as against respect for the individual. Mind you, both are right.

I mean both sides have the liberty. Of course, there should be respect for the needs of society over the right of the individual but you must respect the individual too in seeking the expression of the needs of society. Here, we have no respect for the individual.

Cane them! Hang them! There are more than a hundred queuing up to be hanged, you know that?

[Minister For Law] Jayakumar said, I have plugged the loop-hole whereby they could escape being hanged and just have twenty years of imprisonment!

Oh, wacko the ducks you need a monument!

The joy of hanging people; flogging them, every stroke must break the skin. I dont like it. I dont believe it is a deterrent. I see no proof. Look, it seems to me logic! If every year we have more death sentences, how can you say death sentence is a deterrent? If it were, there should be less death sentences.

But you know Im in a minority and my father had one saying which Id like you to publish. It is a beauty. He was a true democratic heart although he didnt know it.

He used to say, David, if ten men tell you your head is not on your shoulders, shake it and make sure. Dont accept it. Just shake it and make sure!

Well, Ive shaken my head again and again and again and I still think Im right. I know Im in the dog-house.

The government doesnt see I do respect them immensely. They dont see Im a genuine friend. They only see me as a critic and to be a critic is to be an enemy who must be erased and destroyed. There is no such thing as an honest critic to the PAP. Its a blasphemy to criticise the emperor, spoilt son of heaven.

[Lee] Kuan Yew says you mustnt lampoon a Chinese gentleman. Oh, dear me! Ya, what happened? What happened to China?

In Europe, they institutionalised the court jester and the court jester had total immunity against any result from his public criticism of the kings and emperors and the courtyard. Open public criticism that was his job! They tried to laugh it off but at least there was one person to prick the bubble of their overgrown egoism.

And which civilisation has progressed better for the development of humanity? The Western civilisation or the Chinese civilisation?

You talk of Asian values. I only know two Asian values and, I wish someone would really pinpoint them instead of pontificating ponderously in humbug and hypocrisy.

Family values - I think we have more family cohesion in Asia than in Europe; more family warmth and I like that. I accept that there is a greater tradition of family warmth and family cohesion.

Two, we have a greater passion for education. My secretary I asked her once what her background is. She said her mother is a washer-woman and, here is this lovely secretary doing a damn good job. She was educated. How her mother could save enough to give her the education?

So these are the only two values I know. Somebody tell me what other values that are Asian, which everybody talks and nobody mentions the exact parameters.

And you know we use this concept of family cohesion to place on our youths the burden of caring for aging and ailing parents and grand-parents.

The young have got their own lives to make. To carry in your own homes aging irritable ailing parents and grandparents can destroy the family life of the young.

But then, the alternative is for the government to pour so much mountains of gold into building homes for the aged. Thats sacrilege gold is to be gathered and not to be spent.

I want to see more crèches, more homes for the aged.

Our Prime Minister [Goh Chok Tong] talks about gracious living. Where is the gracious living?

So I am a bad boy, Im ostracised. The Straits Times makes slimy remarks about me.

The [press are] running dogs of the PAP.

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WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUTHS WHO INTEND TO PURSUE A CAREER IN LAW?

Try and understand that the law is a vocation and not a business. Respect your client irrespective of the fees. I used to charge $1 for a murder case if he was Malay because he had no money. I used to charge $1 to trade unions; all Malay unions, I charged $1 a year. And the $1 is simply because, if you do it for nothing, you are not liable in negligence whereas $1 makes a contract and, if you are negligent, they can sue you.

Id like them to also understand that justice is a meld of law and humanity. Law and humanity; decency in concepts; if we administer law by the soulless logic of the computer, we arent on our road to progress.

Youre too young but ask your parents the Japanese times, their draconian approach to anti-social activities. Ask your parents how they welcomed the returning British soldiers in 1945.

I was stunned when I heard about it; that we a colonial people, a subject people, should welcome rapturously the armed forces of Imperial power. How was that possible?

I learnt that they had a sense of relief to be back in the ambience of British justice; out of darkness, out of the draconian attitudes of the occupying power.

If you want to make money as a lawyer, you can. I see marble palaces. My juniors, ha! Marble palaces, swimming pools, Mercedes-Benz! Oh, bravo!

They work till nine oclock at night. I dont know how their children survive. They work very hard, they make a lot of money. Yes, its true.

If you are going for corporate law, insurance law and the non-litigant aspects of law, you can make a lot of money.

If youre a particularly good litigant our litigation lawyers in civil cases weve got some outstanding local lawyers. Yes, you can make a lot of money.

Dont go in for crime. The Criminal Bar is a very frustrating Bar today.

YOU HAVE FOUGHT MANY CASES. YOU HAVE SOME BRILLIANT CASES THAT YOU MANAGED TO SWEEP THE JURY OF THEIR FEET IN WORDS?

And Im according to Lee Kuan Yew in Parliament when he sought the abolition of the jury, David Marshall is responsible for 200 murderers walking freely the streets of Singapore.

Im proud of that. I told him to put it on my tomb. If there are 200 people walking freely the streets of Singapore, it means they are contributing to Singapore. Singapore would have been poorer by hanging them. I have no compulsion.

Look, the purpose of criminal law is really two-fold: as a deterrent and as a catharsis of society to express its vengeance. If you escape it, youre no harm to society so long as you maintain a good police force and so long as you maintain a certain human justice in understanding.

For me, the punishment must not fit the crime, the punishment must fit the criminal and the punishment must fit the needs of society.

Recently, I accepted a brief a Sikh sentenced to death. He was 21 when he was arrested. His appeal came on five years later. It was dismissed.

But during those five years, he studied religious knowledge. He got distinction in the New Testament and he became a Christian.

Hes now 26 or 27. Hes going to be hanged. I like that man. I think he can be a real asset. He is a delightful chap.

I asked his family, his elder brother. I said, You Sikhs are really close in the family. How did your family take his becoming a Christian?

He said, What could we do? The poor man is going to be hanged. How can we be angry?

There are more than a hundred people queuing to be hanged. There are decent people there.

Look, theres a lovely phrase I forgot who coined it who said, There but for the grace of God go I, I know no man who stood totally spotless that he can say I committed no anti-social act.

And so in our criminal code, if some escaped, thats an asset.

Im reminded of a lovely story of Sir Walter Raleigh. On the scaffold, he went up and tested the axe with his thumb and turning to the master executioner, he said, This is the surest cure for all diseases. If you want to eliminate all crime, you got to eliminate all humanity.

I have absolutely no bad conscience about the men I have helped escape the gallows and escape the prison. Im grateful for the opportunity to have done that.

I say this, perhaps in conclusion, we have a judiciary of tremendous integrity. Ive been practising since 1948, except for three and a half years, there isnt a single case of financial corruption, neither in the High Court nor the magistrates courts. Its wonderful to practice in the ambience of total integrity.

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Atobe SG

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HAVE YOU EVER REGRETTED BECOMING A LAWYER?

No! I think it was a guardian angel that brought me there.

I suppose you know, you must have read that I wanted to be a psychiatrist. First, when I was young, I wanted to be a doctor. I thought medicine was the greatest profession in the world helping heal and comfort the sick and the helpless. And as I grew into adolescence, I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Not to practice but to do research: why the goodwill of the young?

All youths no matter what race, no matter what country, goodwill flows from their hearts. They want to help the world, but by the time you reach 30, your goodwill like good wine turns to vinegar the vinegar of crabbed egoism.

I wanted to study the wise and whether these could be some antidote for this unhappy transformation of the goodwill of youths to the crabbed egoism but I didnt have the money. Fortunately!

I dont know if I could have achieved anything that vast. I dont know whether I have the intellectual ability to do first-class research into the mind and emotions of man.

I fell, by accident, into the right career at the right time and it has been wonderful.

Regret? Im full of gratitude for having become a lawyer and, especially, a criminal lawyer; for having helped thousands of people terrified, helpless before the silly forces of society. Theyve looked into me as their protector. I have no regrets at all for having helped them; humanity, if you can understand this.

If you ever become a criminal lawyer, never look down upon your client. He may be a murderer or he may be a thief; he is a fellow human being. You must try and respect your client no matter what he has done. It is very important in your own self-respect in your work, and to help who is helpless in seeking help.

Look, at the age of 86, I can say in all earnestness, the thing that matters most in bringing human satisfaction is human relations. To be able to care for your fellow human beings, to be able to give! Never mind about receiving.

Even today, my friends say, Oh, David, stop it! Why do you have to keep making public noises that annoy the government? Live in dignity and retirement. Theyll respect you and youll have the honours.

Ha, honours! I want to fight till Im dead!

What matters most in life is the right of human beings to live fully in the context of their own genius. In one word, perhaps, to fight for human justice. I once said humanitys cry for human justice reverberates down the corridors of the centuries, and it is still crying for human justice.

AN UNFORGETTABLE MOMENT IN ST. ANDREWS SCHOOL?

I was coming. That was the old building and I was coming along the corridor carrying a set of books. It must have been morning and, outside my classroom, there was a Chinese boy much slimmer than you [Dharmendra] with his back to the wall absolutely pale, full of fear.

And in front of him was my friend, an American boy same student, same class and dancing an Indian jig saying, Chink! Chink! Chinaman!

Without the slightest warning, I dropped my books and lunged at him [the American boy].

DO YOU HAVE ANY MESSAGE IN GENERAL?

Recognise there is a lot of satisfaction in public service, foreign service, judicial service. A great deal of satisfaction in public service, even honorary public service in committees.

[If] you are totally engrossed in self-promotion, at the end of the day, youll find its dead seafood.

Try and give up yourselves to others.

I am so alien to this worship of the Golden Calf and the draconian attitude; the brutal attitude towards our fellow citizens. Here I ask people and, no doubt, if I ask you, Were all in favour so long as its not me having my bottoms cut! Yes, whip em!

Try to put yourself in the other mans shoes.

And, of course, what have I got to say?

You, the young youve got a fantastic, absolutely fantastic potential before you; economic expansion, heroic plans that the government has for the future not only the present. You are so lucky! No unemployment! Great potential even beyond your capacity to fulfill.

Its an exciting country, Singapore. Its a lovely country. And you have to make your own space for your own spiritual and intellectual needs and have the courage. Have the courage to serve your fellow men with integrity.

Ill put it in one nutshell: have the courage to live, dont be afraid!

You know, Im told Im fool-hardy and always criticising, although I have such a gracious life. But fool-hardy or no, this is me; I am prepared to take what you give.

Happiness,
Dharmendra Yadav

This 1994 interview was made with a David Marshall who was already in his early 80s, and he passed away in 1995.

Since the interview, Singapore went through a 1997 recession, September 11 incident in 2001, made worse by SARS in 2004, a downturn in 2005, and have seen GST implemented and raised from 3% to the present 7%.

The future remains as challengingly bleak as when Singapore began a history of Self-Rule and Independence through merger with Malaysia, and thrown out of Malaysia with bleak and hopeless economic prospects.

The 25 year old Singaporeans of the 1950s were politically fired up against all the gross unfairness in the manner that Singapore was treated while in Malaysia, and in the manner that we were evicted from a Merger Agreement.

Can the 25 year old Singaporeans of today match the spirit of those in the 1950s - like LKY and his Team, David Marshall, and Tay Kheng Soon ?

Atobe SG

From the voice of one who was deep in the corridors of power, and fell to the wayside, can we now fully understand the labyrinths that has been created for the Alternative Parties to get a toe hold into Parliament ?

This piece is extracted from a 1999 interview with the late Devan Nair, and one can see the clear dishonesty of the GRC system that was sold to Singaporeans as a guarantee for the interest of minorities ethnic groups to be represented politically.

Devan Nair on JBJ

A SERIOUS threat of closure faces the Workers' Party led by Mr J. B. Jeyaretnam because of failure to pay the forbidding damages awarded against the Party by a court in Singapore. One hopes against hope that this might be avoided at the last minute. It is a slim hope. The world has come to assume, rightly or wrongly, that the political tactics used by the governing PAP against opposition politicians have for some time come to include suing their pants off, forcing them into bankruptcy and losing their seats in parliament as a result. Now the same device is resorted to against opposition political parties themselves, as registered institutions. The onus of proof is on the government of Singapore - not on global public opinion.

Nothing that smacks of opposition seems safe in Singapore any longer.

Singaporeans must sooner or later come to realise the harsh truth that nobody in Singapore is truly saved unless ALL are SEEN to be saved. The post of no return has long passed for Singaporeans, and one fears they will perforce learn this lesson the hard way. In the ultimate analysis, this is probably best. The more painful the price paid to learn basic human lessons, the more firmly might they become embedded in the national fibre.

A free Singapore will arise and justify the sacrifices and efforts of undaunted Singaporeans, now including the courageous Chee Soon Juan, who had immolated themselves on the altar of freedom. Phoenix-like, their dreams will rise once again from their ashes. Were this process not true, the world would have come to an end long ago.

It is just as well that I release this requiem now. If not timely yet, it will be soon enough. Here goes, for good or ill to myself:

Some months after I was kicked upstairs to the presidency of the republic of Singapore in October 1981, there was a by-election in the parliamentary constituency of Anson, which I had held prior to my ill-fated elevation. I had won that seat with a comfortable majority of some 80 percent of the votes cast. The PAP's candidate in the by-election was a relative unknown, while the Workers Party put up J.B Jeyaretnam. To the consternation of the PAP, Jeyaretnam won.

The day after the by-election verdict was declared, I had lunch with the Prime Minister. I was amazed at how he fretted and fumed like a caged fury. As I saw it, Jeyaretnam constituted no threat at all to the PAP whether in parliament or outside it. For one thing, despite Jeyas courage, he displayed a woeful lack of economics. He clearly never knew at any point of time how Singapore clicked economically. And it was as plain as a pikestaff to me that in five years of free performance in 'parliament against the likes of Dr Goh Keng Swee, Mr Lim Kim San et al, he would stand exposed in public for his abysmal ignorance of economics.

In truth, if I had to cope with J.B Jeyaretnam as a hostile delegate at regular National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) Delegates Conferences, I would have given him all the rope and more he wanted to hang himself with. And after free and open arguments over three days of conferencing, I would have beaten him hands down at the ballot box. I knew this, as did the workers. For they knew that in the colonial days, Jeyaretnam had never stood on a picket line. I had, not once but several times, not only stood on picket lines, but also bedded down for the night on the gravel with the workers whom I led.

I told all this to Kuan Yew. Nothing I said sank in. He fretted about a potential critical percentage drop in PAP votes across all the constituencies that could eventually bring the PAP government down, and he wouldn't stand for it. Only later did I realise that this was the moment that started his formidable brain box ticking away furiously at the fecund gerrymandering schemes he was to introduce later to ensure that all opposition parties would be put in a Gordion bind that would make it impossible for them to ever achieve control of parliament, unless an Alexander came along. Such a possibility appears impossible now, unless it takes the awesome shape of shattering geo-political circumstances already building up around Singapore.

Immediately, however, Kuan Yew's attention was concentrated on how he would deal with J.B Jeyaretnam in parliament. I was quite alarmed at some of the things he told me at that lunch. "Look," he said, "Jeyaretnam cant win the infighting. I'll tell you why. WE are in charge. Every government ministry and department is under our control. And in the infighting, he will go down for the count every time." And I will never forget his last words. "I will make him crawl on his bended knees, and beg for mercy."

Jeyaretnam was made of sterner stuff. To his eternal credit he never did crawl on bended knees, or ever begged for mercy. And it is to Lee Kuan Yew's eternal shame that Jeyaretnam will leave the political scene with his head held high, enjoying a martyrdom conferred on him by Lee. Lest I be misunderstood, let me state that Jeya more than deserves the crown of the martyr for his indomitable courage and dignity in the face of the vilest persecution.

Even greater human spirits than Jeyaretnam had refused to bend their knees to Lee Kuan Yew. It is my considered view that the greatest human being living in Singapore today is one who declined to surrender to the intimidation of prolonged incarceration and restrictions imposed on him without trial for a total period which exceeds that suffered by Nelson Mandela. And here was the mark of true greatness. He emerged from the experience like a god unembittered. His name is Chia Thye Poh. And it is Lee Kuan Yew who emerged from the episode as the knave and fool of his own mindless vindictiveness, while the real conqueror smiles benignly - unnoted, of course, by the local media. For only sound waves from the Istana Annexe are picked up and regurgitated by His Master¹s Voice.

There is no political justification for obliging the Workers' Party to close down. And not a shred of moral justification. What lies behind the move is among the most brazen vindictiveness ever shown in the political life of Singapore. It merely adds one more nail in the coffin of the PAP's reputation when the true history of the party will be exposed to the world, as it surely will be one day in the coming decades of the third millennium. As mankind accelerates to the abyss, the shining memories of the past will certainly not include Lee Kuan Yew and the department store dummies he boasts today as his acolytes. He clearly does not possess the foresight to avoid such a fate.

I gladly salute J.B. Jeyaretnam and the Worker's Party at this highly deserved requiem, even if I never once had shared their platform.

C. V. Devan Nair.
Former President
Republic of Singapore.
March 26, 1999

The vindictive immaturity of our Political Leaders towards their challengers seems to be truly churlish, considering that they are supposed to be the best amongst the best Singaporeans.

In countries with a more mature political environment, such display of venomous vindictiveness has never been displayed towards a fellow countrymen, who happened to take the opposite side from one's position.

Is this kind of churlish mindset becoming from one who claims to be a Member of the First World ?

walesa SG

What first worldness are we talking about here? I don't see any difference between this regime and other totalitarian regimes as far as the political landscape is concerned.

Just look around these shores and it isn't hard to see the state mechanisms in place that effectively serve as the very tools upon which this regime survives. It isn't just political apathy from the masses that helps sustain this regime; it's a genuine lack of a brand of political acumen befitting the free world that keeps the fascist machinery going. Afterall, I don't see much difference between the subjects of this regime and those of DPRK - they're pretty much the same replica in the mould of a pre-determined, socially conditioned by-product. Or as George Orwell famously illustrated in Animal Farm, are the pigs in the farm aware of the dust behind Napoleon's illustrious stature?

Atobe SG

Sadly, all hogs live in the same mud, and revel in the same method of slinging mud at all critics who dare expose their filth into the open.

In George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' - the pups were removed from their parents, and bred separately to be loyal only to the pigs, and when grown will help to keep discipline within the 'Animal Farm'.

When these dogs have nothing else to do, they are trained to lie on the carpet and beg for rewards dispensed at the leisure of the Pigs.

No wonder we have the term - 'Carpet Beggars'.

Atobe SG

This piece fits nicely into ''A Blast from the Past - An Assessment for the Future'' - and should help remind us as what our future should take if we intend to make a better Future for ourselves from the Present one on this Little Red Dot.

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Think Again, Mr Lee

The Straits Times, May 20, 1959

Leslie Hoffman, then editor-in-chief of the Straits Times, wrote this editorial on freedom and free speech, in response to Mr Lee Kuan Yew's speech during one of the election rallies before the 1959 election.

I have been a newspaperman all my working life and I have spent those 24 years on two Malayan newspapers -- the Malaya Tribune and the Straits Times.

I was born in Singapore and educated here and what knowledge of newspaper work I have, I acquired in Singapore.

It is with this background that I say that not since the Japanese conquered this island in Feb 1942, has the press of Singapore faced such a grave threat as it does today.

On Wednesday, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, secretary-general of the People's Action Party, said at a lunchtime rally at Cifford Pier:

"Any newspaper that tries to sour up or strain relations between the Federation and Singapore after May 30 will go in for subversion.

"Any editor, leader writer, sub-editor or reporter that goes along this line will be taken in under Preservation of Public Security Ordinance.

"We shall put him in and keep him in."

I have no doubt that Mr Lee means what he says.

So did the Japanese when they said no one must listen to short-wave broadcasts from outside Shonan -- as Singapore was then called -- or read any newspaper except the Shonan Shimbun, the only English-language newspaper published in Japanese-occupied Singapore.

But that did not prevent the people of Singapore from risking their lives to listen to the BBC or New Delhi, or from passing around cyclostyled transcripts of these broadcasts.

Recall those days

Mr Lee Kuan Yew should recall those days. He was here, as were other members of PAP central executive. So was I and numerous other newspapermen who refused to work for the Japanese.

The threat of death or imprisonment does not scare away anyone who believes in freedom -- the freedom of the individual to think, to read or to write as he pleases, within the confines of the laws of the state.

And there are laws in Singapore which ensure that sedition can be punished by the courts and that those found guilty of the offence can be sent to jail.

BUT MR LEE PREFERS TO USE THE PRESERVATION OF PUBLIC SECURITY ORDINANCE INSTEAD OF THE SEDITION ORDINANCE.

A strange choice for a man who once opposed this same Preservation of Public Security Ordinance in these words:

"What he (the Chief Minister) is seeking to do in the name of democracy is to curtail a fundamental liberty and the most fundamental of them all -- freedom from arrest and punishment without having violated a specific provision of the law and being convicted for it.

And again: "If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law -- if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states -- then what is it ?"

What Indeed ?

Mr Lee cannot have his cake and eat it. He must choose between democracy and totalitarianism. And so must his supporters.

His supporters, like Mr S Rajaratnam, a former president of the Singapore Union of Journalists and a former member of the staff of The Straits Times.

Mr Rajaratnam, writing in October 1955, in the Singapore Journalist, organ of the SUJ, on "The Press and Mr Speaker" had this to say:

"The press is fair game for touchy politicians. In recent months the local press has been accused of wilful distortions of weighty and lengthy pronouncements by gentlemen who are struck by the facts that they do not read as well in print as they sound.

"Believing as we do in free speech, we think that politicians are perfectly entitled to air their views on whether a newspaper or a journalist has done justice to their speeches. "But it is a different matter when differences of opinion as to sub-editing could result in a newspaper or a journalist being denied facilities which are normally obtained in a free country...

City of Merdeka

"It is to be hoped that when they (the Assemblymen) cry 'merdeka' (with or without a clenched fist), they mean also 'merdeka' for the press and pressmen who have no objection to having their ears boxed.

"All they ask is that they be allowed to carry on their pleasant and unpleasant duties of reporting and commenting with the greatest possible freedom.

"There will not be that feeling of freedom if a newspaperman feels that he can be kept out of the Assembly by the Speaker, whose decision cannot be questioned."

AND MR RAJARATNAM SHOULD AGREE THAT NEWSPAPERMEN WILL NOT HAVE "THAT FEELING OF FREEDOM" IF THEY ARE DETAINED IN PRISON BY A GOVERNMENT WHOSE DECISION CANNOT BE QUESTIONED.

However that may be, Mr Lee and Mr Rajaratnam should know their newspapermen better.

Threats will not prevent a good newspaperman from publishing a story which he considers should be published, or from commenting on an issue which is vital to the common good.

The Straits Times will continue to publish the news and honest opinion, whatever the consequences -- even if the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance is invoked against individual newspapermen.

Mr Lee and his comrades should think again

Atobe SG

With the opening of the archives of the Colonial Records Office in London throwing new light into past events, it is shocking to learn that the efficient British Internal Security Branch found no evidence that Lim Chin Siong was ever a Communist.

Lim Chin Siong was once introduced by LKY to David Marshall as the Future Prime Minister, and whom LKY later had also summarily accused to be a Communist and had him arrested in the ''politics of the day'' that led to Singapore entry into Malaysia. How could this turn about happen ?

With the new release of long held Secret Documents claiming that there were no evidence that Lim Chin Siong was a Communist, how should we view the accusations of LKY towards his political opponents with his summary judgment ?

Is there any truth in the accusations towards all those Singaporeans, who have been incarcerated for the better part of their youth - simply based on the summary accusations by LKY and with the backing of his political colleagues ?

Was there some truth in Chia Thye Poh's stubborn assertion of his innocence despite being incarcerated for 32 years, and constantly being tempted with release into Freedom - on condition that he make a signed confession to the charges which he had been accused of by LKY ?

What about Said Zahari persistent denial to the same political charges ?

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An extract from the ThinkCentre : ''Comet in Our Sky : Lim Chin Siong in History''

In a startling and revisionist essay, Dr Greg Poulgrain of Griffiths University observes that the British Governor of Singapore and his Chief Secretary in their reports to London had admitted that the police could find no evidence to establish that Lim was a communist.

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."

In 1959, while Lim was in prison, the PAP won the general elections under which Lee became Prime Minister, and Singapore was granted self-government by the British in all matters except for internal security, defence and external affairs.

Although Lim and other leftist political detainees were released from prison, their co-operation and alliance with Lee ended in 1961 due to disagreements over policies and strategies.

Until then the media presented the PAP as a leftwing party, indicating the pervasive and dominant influence of Lim's faction within and outside the party. Their rivalry was intense and ideological. Lee finally resorted to arrests to remove Lim and his faction.

When Lim and other political detainees such as Fong Swee Suan and S. Woodhull were released, they were appointed Political Secretaries. But the honeymoon was soon over.

The PAP split in 1961 saw Lim taking away with him almost the entire PAP branches and personnel to form and lead a new party, the Barisan Socialis (Socialist Front).

With the Archives of Public Records Office being opened in London - after the statutory period of secrecy has expired - the ''Truth of the Past'' can now be fully known.

Since the release of new declassified information from the Public Records Office in London, Malaysians had the benefit of understanding the facts that led to their May 13 racial riots in 1969. The Malaysian are able to satisfy themselves that there were no racial tensions that sparked the riots, but that the purposeful accentuation of racial faultlines to cause a riot with racial overtones that will allow a small group of aggressive Malay Capitalist Politicians to usurp powers from the Conservative Malay Royalists under Tunku Abdul Rahman - (who had preferred a unified multi-racial approach in economic and political progress).

What will the Public Records Office in London reveal for those who have been accused of being communists by the Ruling Party - locked up unjustly, allowed to languish in prison for the better part of their youth ?

(human) SG

Politic can be dirty, but some one out there has been playing it to the peak of it’s dirtiness.

Fingolfin_Noldor SG

The Victors always write history.

That said, it's pretty obvious that LKY is a very vindictive person and he would grind the axe if really needed.

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