MALAYANISATION COMMISSION

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, but for your ruling that a motion congratulating the Chairman and the members of the Malayanisation Commission who signed the majority Report was out of order, I would not have taken this opportunity to speak on the adjournment. You have indicated to me, Sir, that the Malayanisation Commission is a quasi-judicial body. it has not completed its work and until then, you have ruled that,

"it is out of order for any Member to move any motion or ask any question which might however indirectly or remotely tend to influence or prejudice the findings of the Commission one way or the other and a congratulatory motion moved in respect of an interim report is in my opinion of that category more especially when it excepts two members of the Commission."

Mr Speaker, Sir, I hope you do not intend by that ruling that I should make no reference at all to the contents of the interim Report. The Report has been tabled for the information of Members and I trust I will be in order if I were to make references to the text of parts of the Report.

Mr Speaker: Order. I take it that the hon. Member's speech is on Malayanisation in connection with the Merdeka Mission?

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: That is so, Mr Speaker, Sir. I fully understand the line of demarcation you have allowed on this motion on the adjournment, that I can only speak in so far as Malayanisation is connected with the Merdeka Mission. Of course, it does to a certain extent conscribe the limits of the subject that I wish to cover but I shall endeavour to keep within the limits you have laid down.

Mr Speaker, Sir, it is common knowledge that the Merdeka Delegation is going to take with it the Secretary of the Malayanisation Commission to advise on matters connected therewith. I think it is also common knowledge that the Director of Personnel (Mr Higham) will also be in London presumably to advise Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies on matters connected with Malayanisation and personnel. What I do not understand is what we are going to discuss with the Secretary of State for the Colonies. In the sitting last month of this Assembly, the Hon. the Chief Secretary indicated that he hoped that nothing will be said which will put the scare into European officers. He then stood up and gave them a firm and categorical assurance that until these matters had been discussed in London, there will be no change in the status quo. As far as I can see, the only matter we want discussed and which the Secretary of State for the Colonies can conceivably want to discuss with us on the question of Malayanisation is the subject of abolition terms.

Sir, in Colonial Paper 197 of 1946, which is now famous or notorious by the repeated number of times it has been cited by the local Staff Side of the civil service, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies stated:

"If progressive advancement along the road to self-government within the framework of the British Commonwealth of Nations is to be a reality, the Public Services of the Colonies must be adapted to local conditions, and must to the greatest possible extent be staffed by local people."

As far as I can see, there is no quarrel with the principle of Malayanisation to the greatest possible extent.

There are six terms of reference in the Malayanisation Commission set out in the letter of appointment signed by the Hon. the Chief Secretary. It says:

"And whereas the Governor in Council has deemed it expedient and in the interests of public welfare that a diligent and full examination and inquiry should forthwith be made into the following matters, namely:

1. The Schemes of Service and the present staffing of all Government Departments and Agencies with a view to recommending measures to ensure the more rapid, systematic and complete Malayanisation of the Public Service;

2. The possibilities of including or expanding degree or diploma courses of study in Public Administration and Social Studies with a view to enabling the Government to draw on a larger field of graduates for the Public Service and for that purpose to consult with all educational authorities;

3. The existing schemes of training including the making of recommendations for the more intensive training of local officers within Government departments and agencies;

4. The abolition terms which might be offered to expatriate officers in the Public Service and the making of recommendations in respect thereof;

5. The Public Services Commission Ordinance, 1949 (No. 55 of 1949) and its operation and to make such recommendations as may be deemed necessary;

6. The question of Pan-Malayan departments in their relationship to the policy of Malayanisation."

Six terms of references and not one of them, except No. 4 which is "the abolition terms which might be offered", concerns the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The Secretary of State for the Colonies has a right to discuss with the future government of Singapore the question of what its civil servants should be paid off with and by whom. But on the principle of Malayanisation, on the five other matters set out in the instructions from the Governor to the Commission, there is no room for discussion.

The Hon. the Chief Minister said on the Budget debate when he pressed the appointments and upgrading of certain Europeans in certain expatriate posts that he was awaiting the Malayanisation Commission's Report. We have the Report now. It has been tabled for over a month. It is an interim Report insofar as it has further reports to make on government agencies but there is no further report on the question of Malayanisation of the government itself. I must say that we are disappointed that there has been no Government policy formulated in any White Paper. This has led to uncertainty as to the extent to which the Report will be accepted by the Government. We then said that the Report was coming and before it was even published, we had a feeling that it might not be a sort of Report which will delight the hearts of those who wanted freedom to come slowly to Malaya. We are happy to see that in this Report in which every political Party had a member or representative who signed the Report, it is suggested, broadly speaking, that we can do away with expatriate staff in about two or three years.

Now, Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not think it is fair to press the Hon. the Chief Minister for a clear declaration of policy. I expect the Hon. the Chief Secretary will answer what is the Government's intention. One thing is clear: if it is the intention of the Colonial Office to make this a bargaining counter, we shall resist. Merdeka or no Merdeka, Malayanisation goes on.

The Chief Minister: Merdeka comes first.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Merdeka comes first. So much the better, but even without Merdeka, let us take charge of the control room, as this Report puts it.

Sir, there are parts of this Report which I think the House would forgive me if I make reference to. The introduction reads:

"Self-government would be an empty phrase unless the government is entirely or almost entirely carried out by the people of the country and to have the Public Service staffed by expatriates at the highest levels where policy formulation and execution take place would be derogatory to the dignity of the people of a self-governing country. Therefore, self-government and Malayanisation are closely related, and in order to satisfy this legitimate aspiration complete Malayanisation should as far as possible not lag behind the attainment of self-government.

In order to place the subject in its proper setting we should see it in historical perspective. History shows that a group of people can only function as an entity if there is cohesion within the group, and this cohesion does not depend merely on the homogeneity of the population but on the sameness of purpose created by the stimulus of the common geographical and human environment, and can only exist if the people are thrown together to brave the same dangers and share the same fate. There must be no alternative. - "

Mr Goode: On a point of information, Sir. Could I hear what the Member is saying?

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, I was reading the introduction to this Malayanisation Commission Report which should be written in gold and put up in the office of the Chief Secretary.

Mr Goode: I hope the Member will treat me with respect.

Mr Speaker: Order, please.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: It reads on:

"If a section of the population (that means the Hon. the Chief Secretary) has the option of returning to their country of origin when faced by some unpleasant challenge, that section constitutes a weakness to the state and can never contribute to the cultural progress of the country. In other words, success in the building of a nation can only be achieved by a group of people if they have no ties of loyalty with the country which they have left - they must burn their boats and give undivided loyalty to the country of their adoption."

It then goes on at great length to prove that if you are in receipt of an expatriate allowance, you cannot give undivided loyalty to this country.

Sir, if the British Government had carried out a fraction of the pious protestations they made before and after the war with regard to Malayanisation, we would be in a much better position today to run the administrative machinery.

When I was a student in the local college here, the prizes that one looked forward to in a colonial Malaya were the two prize appointments a year to the Straits Settlements Civil Service but, unfortunately, they stopped that sometime before the war.

Mr Goode: Just in time.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: After the war the British said that they wanted to help us to rule ourselves, whereupon in order to do it, they imported large numbers of demobbed European officers to come and help us and fill up all the appointments. Now, we are told that if we want to get rid of them, we have got to pay them handsome grants -

The Chief Minister: Oh, no. Let us be fair.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Let us be fair and pay them handsomer grants and get rid of them faster. [Interruption.]

Mr Speaker: Order, please.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: I think it is pertinent to note that when the Federation Merdeka Mission went to London, they did not discuss the policy of Malayanisation because that is a purely domestic matter within the jurisdiction of the Federation Government.

The Chief Minister rose -

Mr Speaker: Is it on a point of order?

The Chief Minister: On a point of information, if you would permit me, Sir.

Mr Speaker: Yes, if the hon. Member will give way.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, I shall give the Hon. the Chief Minister a full opportunity to reply.

On page 176 of the Malayanisation Commission Report, paragraph 16 reads:

"We were also fortunate in that we had, during the course of our deliberations, the communique relating to the arrangement between the Federation of Malaya Government and the Secretary of State for the Colonies regarding the future treatment of expatriate officers in the Federation."

Paragraph 17 reads:

"Briefly there are to be two clearly defined phases. Phase One is the period before 1st July, 1957, when a Public Service Commission with executive powers would be established."

It then goes on to Phase Two. But the question of the speed of Malayanisation is a purely domestic matter.

Now, Mr Speaker, Sir, I have already said that every Party in this Assembly is committed to (a) Merdeka and (b) Malayanisation. Any Party that withdraws from this Report will find itself in a very uncomfortable position in the next election, and there will be a next election if the constitution is not suspended. Of course, if it is, then we shall talk about other things. But if it is not, at some stage or the other, unlike those who write letters to the newspapers anonymously and who do not have to worry about what people other than the editor think of them, we have to face the public. We shall have to tell them that we came here to fight for local rights and we fought for them, and we fought to have the Malayanisation of the Public Service speeded up so that within the next two years we can say that we are in control of all the key positions of the administration. Mr Speaker, Sir, the English educated class that hopes to man the administrative machinery in the immediate future when the white man leaves, I hope, gracefully, can, if given the opportunity, rise up to the situation which confronts this country. We have no time to say, "We must send a man to a Teachers' Training College. He must then take a teacher's diploma. He must have the practical experience." Nor can we say that an administrator must have had seven years' cadetship before he is capable of running a department of the administration.

We are going through a revolution in Malaya, although if one were to listen to the goings on in this Assembly, one would not imagine that anybody here knew that there was a revolution going on except the Hon. the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister: Why not you?

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Sir, I have lived so closely to it that I am conscious of it all the time. I am prepared to say this, that if you do not ride this one, you will sink, and ride it we will; but we are not going to fight for somebody else's benefit. If I have to fight the Communists for this country, I am going to fight it for myself. [Interruption.]

Mr Speaker: Order, please.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: The Hon. the Chief Minister wants me to fight the Communists. That depends upon what the Communists are fighting -

The Chief Minister: I am asking you.

Mr Goode: Answer it.

Mr Speaker: Order, please.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Yes. I have said that we stand for an independent, democratic, non-Communist Malaya and if the Communists want to force this country to be Communist, we shall fight them. [Interruption.]

Mr Speaker: Order, please.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: But that does not mean that we can fight them in the way in which the Hon. the Chief Secretary and his predecessors have been fighting them for eight years by -

Mr Goode: Twenty-five years.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: - direct military force. I am not saying that it is not necessary because if you have no force and you are overwhelmed, there is no time for argument and logic. But that is not good enough. Basically, it is a question of fighting for loyalties. I hope the Hon. the Chief Secretary will not put himself out unduly but if he would try to understand what I have said, he must realise that if you want us to fight for democracy, you must make democracy something worth while to the average man. The average worker does not know the difference and he could not care what the difference is between Communism, Socialism, Liberalism and Conservatism. All he knows is, "Somebody has promised me results which he has not given to me. He is lazy, wastes his time at cocktail parties. He sits and loafs around and nothing is done. But that other, he promised me that he would fight for this and by God, I saw him fight for it." If you cannot deliver those results, then you have had it.

Mr Goode: Thank you. I am much obliged.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: The tragedy is, of course, as this Report so admirably puts it, that when faced by some unpleasant challenge, that section of the population constitutes a weakness to the state because it will return to the country of its origin. I, Sir, have no other country to return to. I am a Malayan by birth and I have no choice. I am more likely to fight for an independent, democratic, non-Communist Malaya than the Hon. the Chief Secretary can or will ever do.

Mr Goode: Good.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: When this Assembly reassembles again under the new constitution, we shall look upon these days as the period of the phoney constitution when we had phoney politicians talking phoney political matters.

The Chief Minister: Does that go for the P.A.P.?

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Sir, if there is one Party in this Assembly, or outside this Assembly, that has consistently stated its stand and not shifted from it and has weathered the storm it is the -

The Chief Minister: Labour Front.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: People's Action Party. Merdeka!

Mr Speaker: Order. First, I must have order in the Gallery to start off with. This is not an Assembly where the hon. Member can clown and shout out slogans, however commendable they may be. I ask the hon. Member to carry on with his speech in modified terms.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, I shall endeavour to modify my terms but I think the spirit of that word "Merdeka" cannot be modified.

What I had intended to state before the Hon.the Chief Minister involuntarily provoked such a reply was that we have always said that it is not possible to get the people to fight the Communists for the British. Today, we heard the Hon. the Chief Minister say it for us. [Interruption.]

So, Mr Speaker, Sir, we say when we go to London with this Merdeka Mission, we are not going to discuss the rights or wrongs of Malayanisation and the speed at which we will do it. We are going to discuss what the Secretary of State for the Colonies has a right to discuss, namely, abolition terms - what shall we pay them for the misfortune of having made their careers in a country that grew to maturity whilst they were serving. But if there is the slightest suggestion that we will discuss details of Malayanisation policy, I think it is only fair that we should tell the Staff Side which has made all the representations to the Malayanisation Commission that it will be so discussed in order that they can also have their views put to the Colonial Government.

The Chief Minister: Mr Speaker, Sir, I understand the Russians have a wonderful tradition of making up that they discovered everything that has ever been discovered by humanity and the P.A.P. is working up a tradition analogous in character of seeking credit for every act of the Labour Front Coalition Government.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: God forbid!

The Chief Minister: Well, you claim to have discovered Malayanisation.

Mr Speaker: Order. You are addressing the Chair, Mr Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister: Forgive me, Mr Speaker, Sir. I would remind the House that this Malayanisation Commission was appointed by the Government and that Malayanisation is a policy which was outlined from the Chair by His Excellency the Governor on the 22nd of April, 1955, and that in effect for the first time in Singapore's history, Malayanisation has been a reality from the moment that this Government came into office because there has been no recruitment as from that time except with the consent, full knowledge and full debate of the Council of Ministers in respect of each and every individual case where it has been considered necessary to put up a suggestion that we should take in expatriates. Sir, with this background, this Government had appointed this Commission. It is the confidence that this Government had in the men which has put them where they are. It seems to me as somewhat absurd to suggest that this Government intends to welch on Malayanisation except, of course, in order to give the P.A.P. credit for seeking to act in loco parentis.

Sir, on the question of the delay in putting a White Paper before this Assembly after the receipt of the Malayanisation Commission Report, I thought it has been explained fully and I thought that there was no question of ambiguity. The Secretary of State for the Colonies and, in fact, the Colonial Office, at all times, in similar cases, take the view that they have a certain responsibility to the people of the country and the Colonial Office has in the case of the Federation of Malaya, as well, considered it necessary to investigate the sufficiency of the civil service after attainment of independence for the discharge of the normal duties of government. I say, Sir, that this did occur when the Federation Delegation went to England, contrary to the assertion made by the Member for Tanjong Pagar, and I know for a fact that it will occur when this Delegation goes up to London: that the issue will have to be considered and the Colonial Office will seek to be satisfied that after independence, there is, in this territory, an adequate civil service for the normal needs of government.

I took the liberty of interrupting the Member for Tanjong Pagar when he said, "Merdeka or no Merdeka, Malayanisation comes first" because I think it is important to realise this: to us, at least to us of the Labour Front Coalition Government, Merdeka comes first. It is paramount. All other questions are subordinate.

The Staff Association has made its representations to the Commission. The Director of Personnel will not be there in the position of making fresh representations, Sir, and we ourselves will have the Secretary of the Commission to assist us in all matters in connection with the discussion of the aspects of Malayanisation other than abolition which are certain to come up.

The Question having been proposed after Four o'clock p.m. and the Debate having continued until the time appointed for the termination of a sitting, Mr Speaker adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.

Adjourned accordingly at 4.31 p.m. to the 12th day of April, 1956.