Info i found about the Hock Lee Bus Riots, my 1st useful
contribution, i hope it may be useful. Taken from MOE.
The Hock Lee Bus Riots (12 May
1955)
INTRODUCTION
Singaporeans have enjoyed many years of political and social
stability. It is thus easy to take this stability for granted. Life
for Singaporeans was however not always that peaceful in the 1950s.
An unfortunately violent episode was the Hock Lee Bus Riots, a
bloody chapter in Singapores history which resulted in the death
of four people and the injury of another 31.
UNDERLYING CAUSES OF THE
RIOTS
The poor working conditions of the bus workers was the most basic
factor. They worked long hours at low pay for bus companies which
were often poorly managed. As a result, many joined unions in the
hope that these workers unions could help them obtain better
working conditions and higher pay. Their dissatisfaction provided
politicians opportunities to foster social instability for their
own ends.
Pro-communist politicians were most interested in fostering unrest
and violence. By doing so, they hoped that the British authorities
and the anti-communist local government led by David Marshall would
be discredited, thus giving them opportunities to seize power.
These pro-communist politicians formed a faction within the
Peoples Action Party, which in 1955 was an opposition party. Two
young and charismatic communist-inspired instigators were Fong Swee
Suan and Lim Chin Siong. The latter controlled sixteen unions and
was seen as the official representative of the workers by the
masses and the Chinese press. The objectives of the pro-communist
politicians were clear from the speech made by Fong Swee Suan, who
controlled the bus workers union, during the May Day rally in 1955:
"All workers must unite and should not hesitate to organise
themselves into trade unions to struggle for their own welfare.
Workers must know that there is bound to be some bloodshed in the
course of a revolution and they must rise and unite."
The temptation to test the mettle of the government was also
strong. Singapore had just held a Legislative Assembly Election in
Apr 1955 and the Labour Front led by David Marshall formed the
minority government by a narrow margin. Since the government did
not get a strong mandate from the people in an election which only
51.4% of the voters bothered to vote, the pro-communists decided to
embark on a militant confrontation, with the student and labour
movements in the forefront of attempts to foster violence.
THE STRIKES AND
RIOTS
The Hock Lee Amalgamated Bus Company was one of several small bus
companies operating in Singapore in the 50s. The bus workers of
Hock Lee belonged to two unions, the Singapore Bus Workers Union,
controlled by Fong Swee Suan, and the Hock Lee Employees Union,
which was backed and endorsed by the Hock Lee Management. The Hock
Lee Management successfully resisted attempts by Fongs union to
take over the pro-management union much to Fongs ire. Fong decided
to mobilise workers under his control.
The opportunity to foster social unrest came when some Hock Lee Bus
workers belonging to Fongs union started a strike for better pay
and working conditions. Although a settlement seemed likely at one
stage, the pro-communists in the union were not interested in this.
They were more interested in exploiting the dispute to whip up the
emotions of the workers and to have a confrontation with the
government. On 23 Apr 1955, Fong declared an official strike of
Hock Lee workers, urging all bus companies to stage a sympathy
strike if the dispute was not settled. The dispute escalated when
the Hock Lee Bus Company retaliated by dismissing 229 workers
belonging to Fongs Union. Strikers went on hunger strike and
picketed the depot, supported by students from the Chinese Middle
Schools who provided song-and-dance for their entertainment. The
Bus Company refused to be intimidated and managed to put 40 out of
70 buses on the road. The stage was set for an imminent
showdown.
On 27 Apr, the police tried to break up the strikers, resulting in
15 of them being injured. This gained more support for the strikers
from workers and students. Following police advice, the company
decided not to operate their buses. On 30 April, the bus company
offered to reinstate the sacked workers even before the Court of
Inquiry, ordered by the Ministry of Labour to look into the matter,
came to a decision.
The issue, however, remained unresolved. Sympathy strikes by other
workers were held and there were threats of a general strike. The
attempt by the Court of Inquiry to defuse the situation by ruling
that two-thirds of the Bus Workers Union and one-third of the Hock
Lee Employees Union should run on separate routes with full
reinstatement of dismissed workers enjoyed short-lived success. The
dispute with management flared up again over trivial issues and
picketing resumed at the bus depot. On 8 May, the police riot squad
was brought in to disperse the picket. On 11 May, Fongs Bus
Workers Union declared a two-day strike in protest against the use
of force. With that declaration, all bus services in Singapore
would come to a standstill.
The government decided that decisive action had to be taken. On 12
May , the police moved in to break up the pickets. Jets of water
from fire hoses were used by the police while the pickets
retaliated by throwing stones and bottles. By the afternoon,
"reinforcements" in the form of students had arrived and the battle
raged on with tear gas, bottles, cangkuls and stones into the early
hours of the following morning.
One student, Chong Loon Chuan, was shot and wounded in the lung,
one mile away from the nearest hospital. Instead of sending him
there to receive medical treatment, pro-Communist students made a
martyr out of him, parading him around for two and a half hours to
further inflame the emotions of the mob. By the time he was sent to
the hospital, he was already dead. A policeman, Detective Corporal
Yuen Yan Peng also had his car set on fire by the rioters and died
as a result. A journalist, Gene D. Symonds, was set upon by the mob
and received fatal head injuries. A fourth man, Volunteer Special
Constable Andrew Teoh Bok Lan, was critically injured by the mob,
and died in hospital soon after. The police managed to overcome the
resistance by the dawn of the next day, but not before four people
had been killed, and thirty one injured.
CONCLUSION
The Hock Lee Bus Riots was the most serious and bloody of the 275
strikes in 1955. The social unrest was to everybodys loss.
Economically, 946 354 man-days were lost at a time when poverty and
unemployment were rampant. The studies of many Chinese school
students were badly disrupted when they were provoked by
Communist-inspired leaders into lending support to workers involved
in industrial disputes. For the individual, serious social turmoil
meant a reduced sense of personal security. The Riots is an
important reminder that social stability is crucial to our
continued growth and success.
The above article was prepared by the National Education Branch
(MOE).
