STATEMENTS BY THE CHIEF MINISTER (Singapore Riots/Merdeka Talks)

10.04 a.m.

The Chief Minister (Mr Lim Yew Hock): Mr Speaker, Sir, the recent riots are still uppermost in our minds. These have been extensively reported in the Press and hon. Members are already in possession of most of the facts. I would like to give a clear picture so that hon. Members can be fully informed.

Speaking on my amendment to the motion of the Member for Tanjong Pagar at the last sitting of this Assembly, I said:

"...some people have quite rightly asked me why the Government should have found it necessary to take this action when there is apparent peace and quiet in Singapore. May I add, Sir, that the Government has channels of information which are not normally at the disposal of the general public? They are not aware that this is a dangerous quiet. They are not aware that there has been a change in Communist strategy. There has been intensive penetration into a wide field of otherwise laudable activities which is building up a position of a powerful force that threatens the whole future of democratic government. The aim is to control the masses through united front, of workers through trade unions, of youth through students' unions, of peasants through farmers' associations and attap-dwellers' associations, of the intelligentsia through teachers, literary and cultural organisations, of women through the women's federation, and of political Parties.

The Government was confronted with this growing menace when it took office last June, but no action was taken because we were biding our time and were gathering more and more news intelligence before launching on our campaign."

Sir, my amendment had the overwhelming support of this House which was given in answer to my call which was contained in the following words:

"And I move my amendment in the fullest confidence that it will receive the full support of all Members who sincerely believe in and practise democracy. This Government does not care to have the support of those who claim to love Singapore, to owe loyalty to Singapore, and yet are doing their very best to destroy the security and well-being of the people of Singapore. This Government does not care to have the support of such people. It is better that such Assemblymen declare themselves here and now so that the people of Singapore can know them for what they are and not what they pretend to be."

Five Members, Sir, have so declared themselves and the air in this House is the better for it.

Recent events have since proved the justification and wisdom of the Government's action which has brought to light the evil planning of subversive elements that has been going on to build up a powerful force to overthrow democratic government.

Since the commencement of the Government's action on the 18th September to the 24th October, before the riots took place, 15 persons were arrested under the Banishment Ordinance and the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance, and seven Communist-front organisations were dissolved under the Societies Ordinance. This action was striking at the root of the evil forces. The Government was gradually but inexorably winning the fight.

On 24th September the Singapore Chinese Middle Schools' Students' Union was dissolved and the Government exposed the subversive activities of this Union in a White Paper which was laid before the Assembly last month. On 1st October Soon Loh Boon, ex-President of the dissolved Union, was arrested and this was followed on 10th October by the arrests of four more Chinese Middle School student leaders and the Minister for Education required the Committees of Management of the Chinese High School and the Chung Cheng School to expel 142 students whose activities in the schools have been of a subversive character. On the nights of 10th and 11th October, large numbers of students congregated in these two schools to commence a stay-in demonstration of defiance. On 12th October, at the request of the Minister for Education, the Committees of Management declared that these two schools were temporarily closed. On 13th October the Ministry of Education commenced re-registration of Chinese Middle School students for two temporary schools to be run by the Government. These were subsequently opened on 16th October.

In the meantime several Middle Road organisations were becoming increasingly active in providing financial, material and moral support to the stay-in students. Of special mention, the Singapore Bus Workers Union arranged comfort visits by parties of over 600 to the Chinese High School stay-in students on 20th October, and 300 to the Chung Cheng School on 24th October, this action being complementary in nature to the similar comfort visits paid by Student Union members to the striking bus workers immediately prior to the Hock Lee riots in May 1955.

On the mornings of 22nd and 23rd October large groups of students, who were believed to have come from the two stay-in schools, picketed other Chinese Middle Schools in order to enforce a general strike of Middle School students throughout Singapore. Banners were exhibited which read:

"A long term suspension of classes as a protest against the Government's insincere reply to our demand".

At the same time, there had been many reports of veiled intimidation to prevent the successful development of the two temporary Government schools.

The Government had been patient and tolerant so far and this had been taken by the student leaders and leaders of the Middle Road bloc as a sign of weakness, which accounted for their increasing tempo of defiance of constituted authority. Something had to be done, and done quickly, to prevent such illegal activities getting out of hand and the Council of Ministers therefore decided on 23rd October to take firm action to clear the two schools. On the evening of 24th October, in a broadcast over Radio Malaya, I said:

"The events of the past few days have brought to a head the situation in our Singapore middle schools. And it is not a problem of education; it is a matter of discipline in the schools, of authority in the family, and respect for the legally constituted Government of Singapore. No community can allow this persistent defiant and aggressive in discipline to continue among its element in its younger generation. Theirs is not a threat to any particular government; it is a threat to all governments of any kind. If, in the name of democracy, any group can hold the Government to ransom until it gets everything it wants, Government becomes a mere rubber stamp, and those who are the most defiant of the law, those who shout loudest and bully most threateningly and persistently, will get their way. This is the anteroom to mob rule.

The student leaders have not only defied the school authorities in the schools, they have organised a campaign of misrepresentation outside the schools. They have kept students in the schools to prevent their being reopened and to prevent the students there from getting any proper education, even at the sacrifice of their opportunities of sitting their examinations. They have mobilised the parents, some of whom have been glad to join in a political campaign under the guise of supporting Chinese education, and some genuinely misted by the students. They have taken to the homes the campaign against the new schools opened by Government. The two schools have therefore become a focus of organized resistance to Government policy. Parents are urging Government to clear the situation in order that their boys and girls should be able to carry on their studies peacefully, and not to be made the pawns in a political campaign at their expenses.

We have decided that we do not want the schools to be permanently infected with this fever, and carry the fever into the whole community. We want to restore the normal healthy temperature particularly in the schools where the fever can do most damage now, and even greater damage in the future when these students are the bread-winners, the citizens and the parents of tomorrow. For this reason, the Minister for Education has therefore today sent a leter to every parent of the two schools to bring them home before 8 p.m. Thursday, 25th October. For the Government has decided that the schools must be cleared, that they must cease to be schools of indiscipline in the name of Chinese culture,and becoming real schools of peaceful Chinese Culture playing their part in building the democratic self-governing Singapore of which we are on the threshold."

By this time (the morning of 23rd October) the People's Action Party had held three protest meetings, the Farmers' Association had held eight protest meetings,and the Civil Rights Convention Committee had held one protest meeting.Although some of the speeches made were virulent in tone, these organisations were saying in their speeches that the protests should be carried out by constitutional means; and the attendances and reception had not so far been such as to give rise to any fear of a breach of the peace.

On Tuesday, 23rd October, further speeches were made at the Civil Rights Convention Committee meeing at the 11½ milestone Yio Chu Kang Road, which were of a more inflammatory nature.

On the morning of 25th October, parents and guardians began to arrive at the two stay-in schools and the police removed barricades in order to enable them to collect their sons, daughters or wards. Among those who entered were officials of the Chinese Schools' Students' Parents Friendly Association who were sympathetic towards the stay-in students and who aided with them in preventing other parents from taking their sons, daughters and wards away. The stay-in students had their own public address system through which they constantly whipped up their own morale, and they denied a hearing to any statements made over the Public Relations address vans by singing or clapping in unison.

At 5 p.m. the P.A.P. held a protest meeting at the Beauty World, Bukit Timah, at which further speeches of an inflammatory nature were made by Lim Ching Siong and others, and it is believed that on the conclusion of this meeting at 7 p.m., a number of those who had attended went to join the crowds assembled in Bukit Timah Road outside the Chinese High School.

The parallel between the build-up at this stage and the events of April/May 1955 was becoming increasingly apparent. On 24th October, 13 days had elapsed since the assemblies, meetings, inflammatory speeches and visits of supporting delegations of students and workers (including the bus workers) had been allowed to continue unchecked at the Chinese High School and the Chung Cheng School where the stay-in students were encamped, and it became clear that if a final appeal made to the parents of school children assembled at these two schools to remove them failed, it would be necessary that these assemblies be dispersed before the same pattern of events, as in 1955, culminated in serious riots and disorders.

This was the situation, Sir, when the first riot incidents developed.

I do not propose to take up the time of hon. Members by giving a detailed account of the riot incidents, as these have already been reported in the Press. I would like, however, to draw attention to some of the important features.

The premises of the Singapore Factory and Shop Workers' Union at Middle Road, Hongkong Street, Bukit Timah Road and Bukit Panjang were raided and several persons found therein arrested, among whom was the Member for Bukit Timah. The documents we have found in the premises only confirm how right we were in our decision to act in defence of the peace and security of the men, women and children of all races and classes in Singapore. They were planning further demonstrations in defiance of the law; and their documents are full of sentiments of the struggle. In one document is the opinion that the period of peaceful and negative struggle is over and if this time they do not show their strength for struggle, their followers will be downhearted. This is what calls itself a trade union, and not in support of any industrial dispute or any improvement of the conditions of the working people for whom they claim to exist. It is a pure political militant organisation dedicated to, and organised for, and emotionally attuned to struggle.

"Death in struggle is glorious", says another document. Says yet another, "We now understand that today we have to adopt a more violent struggle." And finally, another says, "If we dare not fight, then we will be the losers." Is this the language of genuine trade unionism; or is this the language of a group of leaders of political subversion who are deceiving the workers and the public and using the difficulties of the working people not as something to be improved, but something to be exploited and magnified and manipulated as an instrument to undermine Government so that they can achieve power? Can this exploitation of the working man for selfish ends go further? In taking action against these so-called leaders, we are acting to save trade unions and trade unionism from exploitation. We seek, as we seek in the schools, to let them return to their basic purpose so that it can be more quickly and more effectively achieved in the interests of workers and pupils alike. Communist exploitation of the workers, as shown in these tactics, is as bad as capitalist exploitation and we, as a Labour Front Coalition Government, stand against both.

As reported, Sir, in the Press, it is evident that the students had been preparing for a big victory march.

The arrest of the Member for Bukit Timah has caused comment in some quarters. They were under the mis-apprehension that an Assemblyman was free from arrest. There is no such privilege and even a Minister of the Government can be arrested for unlawful activities.

The raids conducted by the police, Sir, on the premises of the Singapore Factory and Shop Workers Union and the arrests of the leaders found therein had brought about a significant change in the riot situation. There was an immediate subsidence of trouble. I leave it to hon. Members to draw their own conclusion.

Shortly before the riots, the Singapore Factory and Shop Workers Union withdrew $120,000 which amounted to 80 per cent of their funds. Previous withdrawals amounted to only $28,000. Where this money went and how it was spent we have at present no concrete proof, but in the light of recent events, one can safely surmise the use to which this large sum of money has been put.

The damage to life and property was fortunately quite small, in spite of the violence and extent of the rioting, and this is mainly due to the fine co-ordination between the Police and the Military and the imposition of the curfew. Of the known casualties, 13 were killed, 49 warded, and 74 treated as out-patients.

Sir, I take this opportunity to reiterate the thanks of this Government to the following:

To the public for their fine co-operation and their forbearance of the hardship suffered by them by the imposition of a curfew which had been forced upon the Government in our fight against lawless and subversive elements.

To the Federation of Malaya for their fine gesture and co-operation by coming to our immediate assistance with police reinforcements.This has given meaning and reality to the friendship which exists between the two territories.

To the Fire Brigade and the Ambulance service for rendering invaluable service.

To the City Council workers for the efficient and prompt manner in which they have cleared the mess left behind by the rioters.

To the Military for their immediate response to our request for help when our police were clearly likely to be exhausted by the extent of the disorders. Military units were in position within a few hours and this prompt and invaluable assistance ensured the early restoration of order with the minimum damage to life and property.

To our Police Force for their admirable restraint, high standard of discipline, courage in face of grave danger, and devotion to duty.

Sir, the events of the past few days have been forced on the Government and the people of Singapore alike, by an irresponsible group who, after playing a long time with fire, have at last started the fire. The fact that they talk sweet words of democracy and peace and constitutional action and human rights does not mask their real purpose or the danger of their tactics. In taking action against this group, the Government is not attacking the rights of trade unionists or farmers or teachers or Chinese education. We are liberating them from a form of political exploitation which, like a parasite, grows on the healthy purpose of these groups, sucks the health from the stock on which they cling and eventually kills it. We are engaged in Operation Liberation from an actual threat and a further possibility of tyranny on this island.

I call on all workers to co-operate with the Government in our Operation Liberation. They should guard themselves against so-called trade union leaders who are out to exploit them for their own selfish ends.

I call on all employers to co-operate with the Government in our Operation Liberation. Trade unionism is here to stay and any attempt to smother it, any attempt to exploit workers, is to give fertile ground for subversive elements to thrive.

I call on all the people of Singapore to co-operate with the Government in our Operation Liberation so that we can together build a happier and a more prosperous Singapore for our children and our children's children.