For general information, some
extracts from Singapore Ink
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
- what is it?
If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we
must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies - even
those who do not subscribe to our views - as much constitutional
rights as you concede yourself - LKY (August
1954)
From September to October, the new Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock
ordered the arrest of some trade union and civic leaders, putting
down a sit-in in two Chinese middle schools, and deregistering
three apparent Communist front organisations. In an Assembly
session, Lee proposed a motion of grave concern over these
actions. He deplored the purge as a careful plot hatched with the
colonial masters as fellow conspirators to ensure no organized
challenge at the next election.12 He quoted positive Western news
reports, insinuating that Lim had ordered the arrests to gain their
favour. He warned of the danger of such powers used illegitimately
against real or imagined threats:
Repression, Sir, is a
habit that grows. I am told it is like making love - it is always
easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of
conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course,
with constant repetition, you get more and more brazen in the
attack and in the scope of the attack.13
Reflecting that repression is an easy substitute for hard work
and organisation, Lee portrayed the arrests as the beginning of a
systematic Labour Front campaign to eliminate rival organisations
and societies and detain political opposition. Even if this
succeeds, it would ultimately lead to complacency and
degeneration.14 Indiscriminate suppression was not the
answer:
I agree
that if any
act is done to overthrow a government by force, that act must be
suppressed. But if we say we believe in democracy, if we say that
the fabric of democracy is one which allows the free play of ideas,
which avoids revolution by violence because revolution by peaceful
methods of persuasion is allowed, then, in the name of all the gods
that we have in this country, give that free play a chance to work
within the constitutional framework. 15
The following month, Lees fellow assemblyman Lim Chin Siong was
detained along with hundreds of trade unionists and activists for
stirring up student riots in late October. Lee moved a motion deploring the detention, done
without, in his view, proper
justification.16
"Once a government is committed
to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only
one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive
measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens
and creates a country where everyone lives in
fear."
- Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972), August 8, 1950
