THURSDAY'S report, 'Ex-Barisan leader refutes historian', took
me on a walk down memory lane.
I was part of the fray when the Singapore Government was trying
to overcome its teething problems while battling the communists who
controlled the many trade unions.
Former Barisan Sosialis leader Poh Soo Kai's refutation of
Chinese historian Cheng Yinghong's view that the decline of
Singapore's once-powerful left (Barisan) was due to radical
influences from China's Cultural Revolution is unconvincing to
me.
Dr Poh claimed that it was the suppression of rivals by the
People's Action Party that led to the decline of Singapore's
leftists. This is a fallacy. In 1961, the Barisan was the
"formidable" opposition in Parliament. Its members decided to walk
out and make the streets their Parliament by resorting to violence
and acts of vandalism.
Operation Cold Store was started not to suppress the opposition,
but to apprehend and detain subversive elements so that Singapore
could enjoy peace and stability. Subversive members from the
Barisan were hauled in through the operation and had to be detained
under the Internal Security Act. Those members who managed to
escape the dragnet entered the Malaysian jungle to join their
comrades in the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).
In 1981, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ordered the Suara Revolusi
Malaya (Voice of the Malayan Revolution), which had been operating
in Hunan, China, since 1969, to be shut down. This was a big blow
to the CPM's propaganda machinery.
Another big blow suffered by the CPM was in the mid 1970s, when
the party was fractured internally into separate communist party
factions.
Hence, with Deng in power, the Cultural Revolution was crushed
and without the support of the CPM, the Barisan was orphaned. Thus,
Dr Cheng's claim that its decline was due to radical influences
from China is plausible and holds more water.
And my part in the fight against communist subversion?
I was serving in the Singapore Police Force from 1961 to 1988
and had the privilege of cutting the chain that secured the front
door of the Barisan headquarters then in Victoria Street. And this
was during a raid on the premises in the early hours of the morning
and in connection with Operation Cold Store.
Lionel De Souza