GOVERNMENT ACTION UNDER THE BANISHMENT ORDINANCE, THE PRESERVATION OF PUBLIC SECURITY ORDINANCE, AND THE SOCIETIES ORDINANCE

3.05 p.m.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew (Tanjong Pagar): Mr Speaker, Sir, the motion which stands in my name reads as follows,

That this House deplores the further action of the Labour Front Coalition Government under the Banishment Ordinance, the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance, and the Societies Ordinance against persons and organisations without producing any evidence to justify its action.

Since the last sitting of this House, the first phase of the big purge, which we knew was coming, has been completed. No less than some 300 persons have been arrested for banishment or detention and about a dozen organisations have been dissolved. There have been riots, arson, 13 deaths and about 100 injured. It is curious that all these things should happen in October. It is the time for wars and revolutions in the northern hemisphere. When the harvest has been collected, men's minds and energies turn to things other than the necessities of life and somehow I feel that it must have been laid down in the stars that this autumn 1956 was going to be a troubled one : riots in Poznan in Poland, Budapest, Hongkong, Singapore, and now a big war in the making in Egypt.

The average man reading the local newspaper must have become quite cynical by now. When there were riots, in Hungary and the students rose against the brutal oppressive regime. Western commentators hailed them as patriots and courageous students who rose in defence of their freedom and welcomed them when they put demands against the Government. On 23rd October, the Straits Times said in headlines:

"Fifteen demands listed by the students include: Complete freedom of the Press, abolition of the death penalty, permission to make trips to Western countries and the import of Western literature.

Thousands of students told the authorities that they will stage street demonstrations unless their demands for more freedom and better living conditions for the whole country are granted within 14 days."

Mr Marshall: University students.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Sir, when Chinese Middle School students staged a stayin strike, they were denounced as subversive tools and lackeys of the Communists. When the Police flushed them out, it was greeted with ovation in the name of democracy and freedom. The hypocrisy of the whole business on both sides leaves the average man sickened. Depending upon where one stands, and on which side the students are - they are either democratic or subversive; they are either patriots or tools and lackeys. I am quite sure that in the Hungarian Press and in Moscow papers Hungarian students must have been denounced and the Singapore students hailed as patriots.

Wherein does the truth lie? Who was responsible for the riots? Who began them? Who is in the right? There has been such a spate of biased propaganda that we might do well to retrace the events of the last month.

The Hon. the Chief Minister in his statement this morning gave his Government's version of what took place. The charge is that these 300 "subversive" characters, who are now safely in jug, and these now dissolved Communist-front organisations were responsible for the rioting, and the shooting that became necessary, the arson, the curfew and all the hardships that followed. I find it difficult to agree with that interpretation of events.

On 7th September, the Labour Front Coalition Government received a unanimous vote of confidence from the whole of the Legislative Assembly on their promise to call an all-Party conference to plan tactics for the next merdeka talks and to plan united action in case the talks failed. I repeat once more: Not one word then was let out about the big purge which must have been decided on by then.

On 18th September, six persons, all well-known leaders of trade unions or civic organisations, were arrested for banishment to China. That was the opening gambit.

In a clever and a cunning way, the Government spotlighted the attack on "Aliens," on those not born in this country. In this way, it isolated the Chinese-speaking section of the population.

The next move was against the Chinese Middle Schools' Students' Union. Again the Chinese-speaking section of the population. First, the Union was banned. Then the President was arrested under the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance. The day before the Legislative Assembly debate on 3rd October, they arrested Chia Ek Tian, Central Executive Committee Member of the P.A.P. and Assistant Secretary of the Bukit Panjang Branch of the Factory and Shop Workers' Union. This was a direct warning to the Secretary General of the Singapore Factory and Shop Workers' Union (the Member for Bukit Timah). There was no attempt to disguise this warning in the debate. The Hon. the Chief Minister openly stated that he was prepared to move against anyone on whom the Police had secret information that he was subversive. The implication was: the fact that he was Secretary General of the Singapore Factory and Shop Workers' Union, Assistant Secretary General of the P.A.P. and an Assemblyman was not going to protect him.

The next move was on the 10th of October - once more against the Chinese school students. A list of 142 students was given to the School Management Committees. They were to expel these students if they wanted to continue the schools. Surely the Government did not expect that the Management Committees would quietly go back and tell the 142 students that they were expelled and that was the end of the matter? Immediately, there was a stay-in strike at the Chinese High School and the Chung Cheng High School. Meanwhile, to keep up the pretence of democracy, public rallies, public signature campaigns were allowed, and the propaganda battle went on from 10th October to 24th October - a battle which very few people have any doubt that the Government lost.

On the 24th of October, the purge moved into top gear. The Hon. the Chief Minister broadcast over Radio Malaya and gave the students roughly 24 hours to clear out from the schools. Sir, no one had the slightest doubt that in that situation that was the fuse. The Government had decided to make the final big push. Yes, it is true that the People's Action Party held a meeting at the Beauty World on the 25th October from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The dead-line for the big flush out was 8 p.m. A half-hearted attempt has been made to throw the blame of the rioting which took place, on this meeting at which the Hon. the Chief Minister said that the Member for Bukit Timah (Mr Lim Ching Siong) made inflammatory speeches. I have said this to the Government time and time again. If he said anything which was seditious or if anybody said anything which is against the law, he can be charged, he can be prosecuted for it. To my knowledge, no one has been charged or prosecuted.

Sir, that night as I came down from the meeting at Bukit Timah at 7 o'clock I had not the slightest doubt that something was going to happen. Nobody who passed that way had the slightest doubt. Crowds were gathering outside the Chinese High School. The whole road was jammed. The Police made no attempt to disperse the crowd. They cordoned off Bukit Timah Road and diverted traffic into Dunearn Road, but the people were not asked to break up and move along. Knowing the temper of the crowd, one must assume that sooner or later such a crowd would get out of hand. Why the Police chose to do nothing until it got out of hand is a question which only those who planned the Labour Front strategy can answer.

Sir, the Hon. the Chief Minister in his statement this morning skated over the riots. He said:

"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."

That is true. But we knew that that was the signal for the big purge. At half-past eight, riots; at half-past two the next night, Police parties raided the Factory and Shop Workers' Union, the Bus Workers' Union and arrested some 250 persons including Mr Lim Ching Siong, the Member for Bukit Timah, and Mr Devan Nair, both members of the Central Executive Committee of the P.A.P. From then on, the purge was in full swing and in the following days of rioting and day and night curfew, more subversive elements were picked up. Then on the 2nd of November, the Government announced the dissolution of the Farmers Association and the Wooden House Dwellers Association. The leaders of these Associations were already arrested. They were at the premises of the Factory and Shop Workers' Union on the night of the 25th. Those are the facts. On those facts, we ask these questions. Who was responsible? Who began it? Who was right?

Sir, I did not believe that the Hon. the Chief Minister would have no less eminent a person than the Prime Minister of England set the example in giving flimsy pretexts for police actions. The Prime Minister of England said, "British troops are going to land in Egypt because they are going to carry out a Police action. For the sake of peace, democracy, freedom, happiness of mankind, it is necessary to bomb Egyptian citizens and occupy the Suez Canal." The whole world says, "This is naked and open aggression." The Prime Minister of England is not disturbed. He said that he was carrying out the duty which the United Nations should have carried out. The Israelis in anticipation of attack attacked the Egyptians. Because they were going towards the Suez Canal, the British and French decided that they must protect the freedom of the waterway and intervened - intervened not by attacking the aggressor but intervened by joining the aggressor and walloping the defender. Mr Gaitskell for the Opposition said, "The British joined the burglars and shot the householder." If I had to choose between being in the company of the Rt. Hon. Sir Anthony Eden and the Rt. Hon. Mr Hugh Gaitskell, I would rather be on the side of the leader of the Opposition.

That is what it is all about. Sir, the Government has declared that its intention is to purge subversive elements and break up the Communist-front organisations. We are a generous people by nature. Therefore we assume that the Member for Seletar (Mr Nair) became Assistant Minister to the Chief Secretary because of an intense desire to help to purge the subversive elements, to save Singapore for democracy, to save this vital corner of the free world in the interest of democracy. That was the declared intention. We accept it at face value. But in the battle, I fear that Government was defeated. By the time the battle was joined and the "Middle Road boys" were nabbed on the night of the 26th, the Chinese-speaking population of Singapore was convinced that the Government was not purging subversive elements but were crushing Chinese culture, civilisation and education, and that the Government was oppressive and fascist. Sir, I do not believe that my friend the Member for Ulu Bedok (Inche Abdul Hamid bin Haji Jumat) is a Fascist.

Inche Abdul Hamid: Thank you.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: My only regret was that he never brought it home to the people.

Mr G. A. P. Sutherland (Nominated): What did you do?

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Sir, I did not embark on this purge. If I had to embark on this purge, I would use the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance against Mr Sutherland and see that he does not cause more damage to Singapore than Europeans are already doing. The foolish, the silly, the completely inept interference in local affairs when the best thing they can do is to slink out of the picture has convinced me that the white man is determined to destroy himself in the Far East. Not only they have decided to destroy themselves in the Far East but they have decided to destroy themselves in the whole of the Middle East too. I was very amused to see that the Minister for Communications and Works (Mr Thomas) had very little to say on Egypt. The man who has something to say on everything, including the Muslims Bill on which he admitted he knew nothing, could not condemn his own Government for a fascist act of aggression.

Mr Francis Thomas: Not my Government.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Now, come, let us not quibble about these niceties.

The Chief Minister: Leave him alone and let him have his fun.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Sir, this is not fun. This is serious business. I could not understand why an elected Government which had admitted that it did not have internal security in its power (everybody knows that we went to London and fought the British over internal security and we all packed up over that issue) should have embarked on this purge. They lost the battle because the odds were against them. As long as the British are here, to use British troops against their own people to carry out this purge is the seal of death of any political Party. We watched with extreme interest the play of forces. I have said this before and I say this now: there are three forces in this country; British Imperialism, Communism and Malayanationalism.

Mr J. M. Jumabhoy: Where are you?

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: I said before that I am nationalist and I still am. But for a nationalist to go and join forces with the British before one has got the upper hand on the British is a political act of folly.

In the propaganda campaign which was being waged, the Government had the whole apparatus of state in its hands : the radio, a friendly Press at its disposal. It could have called public meetings. But it was the other side that organised. Six thousand students, everyone of them went home to a family of ten and convinced the family of ten that the Government was fascist. Six thousand times ten makes 60,000. There were mass signature campaigns all over the town, and the Government could not even move in its defence. Whatever the Government's intentions, it has not succeeded in bringing it home to the people. If we want to run a democrary, we must have the people on our side. That was what the Government did not do.

There have been persistent demands for public trials for these persons who have been arrested. It is the least that the Government can do to retrieve their position. If, in fact, these men were re sponsible for the riots, were responsible for the disorders and were, in fact, going to organise an armed overthrow of the Government, then let there be open trials, or let us have a public inquiry. Let the Government produce its evidence publicly to substantiate the allegations it has made against the subversive elements and these Communist-front organisations.

Sir, I had hoped this morning that they might have produced the Member for Bukit Timah (Mr Lim Ching Siong) to participate in these proceedings but I was disappointed. In fact, I had a letter for him sent from Kota Bahru, no doubt someone hoped that he would be coming out here to make his stand against the Government in the proper Assembly for public debate. The Hon. the Chief Minister had said that some people were under a misapprehension that an Assemblyman could not be arrested. Let me tell him that the Member for Bukit Timah was never under such a misapprehension. The Member for Bukit Timah was quietly waiting for him and his Police on the morning of the 25th of October -

The Chief Minister: 27th.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: 27th. I beg his pardon.

Sir, I have so far been unable to trace a Report of the House of Commons No. 164 of 1940 in which reference was made to a book on constitutional law that a Member of Parliament can be detained by preventive detention by order of executive authority. I do not know how far this particular Report applies to our situation. That was a Report in time of war and we are in a very different position here. But I do hope, Mr Speaker, Sir, that not only will you have received the information of the arrest of the Member for Bukit Timah, but you would at the same time look into the constitutional position which the Member's detention has created. Amongst other things, one wonders if the Orders in Council which say that a Member who is absent from two consecutive sittings automatically vacates his seat are going to apply in the case of the Member for Bukit Timah.

The Chief Minister: Not in his case.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Well, I expect that if Her Majesty's colonial Government of Singapore prevents the Member for Bukit Timah from appearing in this Assembly, that is a reasonable excuse.

But it is not really the constitutional position that we are concerned about. If the Government wants to retain the slightest pretensions to democracy, it must bring the Member for Bukit Timah to open trial. If it cannot, then it must release him. And that goes for all the other persons who have been detained.

The Hon. the Chief Minister knows well the case of Mr Seah Yong, translator of the Nanyang Siang Pau. Mr Seah Yong was arrested on banishment and the Singapore Union of Journalists have this to say of Mr Seah Yong in a release on the 26th of October, 1956:

"Three officials of the Singapore Union of Journalists visited Mr Seah Yong at the Outram Road Remand Prison on October the 20th five days after his arrest on Banishment Orders and interviewed him for an hour. As a result of that interview, we are more than ever convinced that Mr Seah was not involved in activities aimed at illegally undermining the Government and our fears for the freedom of the Press have been immeasurably increased."

And the Singapore Union of Journalists sets out what Mr Seah told them took place in the interrogation and it has this comment to make:

"The fact that these four questions were put to Mr Seah and that he was not interrogated about anything else is difficult to reconcile with your (meaning the Chief Minister's) assurance that Mr Seah's activities had no connection with his trade union activities."

Sir, the Union of Journalists may or may not be right. The point is that there is considerable public disquiet as a result in part of inept tactics and inept handling of the situation. If the Government gets the journalistic profession against it, then the Government must expect that the Press is likely to be unfriendly, and even to make worse the terrific public campaign against the activities of this Government.

That is one side of the question : convincing the people by open trial in Court or by some public inquiry that the Government's action was well-founded and that there was evidence to justify such action.

But there is another side to the Government's action. That is the toxic side effects of this big dose of purgative that the Government has decided to administer. The Government carried out its purge of "subversive" characters. Now private employers have decided to carry out their private purges, following the example of the Government. In some cases, there are signs that these private purges were pre-arranged because the employers moved from prepared positions. The Tay Koh Yat Bus Company, for instance, had some 50 odd spare drivers and conductors for some time before this big purge began. After the purge, the Tay Koh Yat Bus Company carried out its own purge. It is the same story all over again. A new union had been formed called the Singapore Transport Employees' Union. There was an agreement with the old union which had 270 members in the Tay Koh Yat Bus Company regulating the hours of work. Now the Company says that this agreement is invalid. They said it on the 3rd of November. A new work schedule has been introduced and all the old 270 members are now undergoing special treatment at the hands of the Tay Koh Yat Bus Company. These were men who were formerly given eight hours of work a day by agreement between the Company and the Bus Workers' Union. These men are now put on 2-hour shifts, and members from the spare pool and the special reserve spare pool are getting the 8-hour shifts. Slowly the Company, as this new Transport Employees' Union expands, will clean up the remnants which the Government had not cleaned up, probably because the Government had decided that they were not "subversive". But from the Company's point of view, they are.

In this particular instance, there are signs of pre-arranged positions, which means that the Company had an inkling that there was going to be this opportunity and seized it. But there are others who did not move from pre-arranged positions. There is, for instance, the Yew Lee Cheong Tin Factory. They did not expect this but the moment it happened, they sacked all 23 workers and all members of the Factory and Shop Workers' Union. The whole lot was purged. Hume Industries purged 6 shop stewards. Malayan Textile Mills : 1 spinning worker, a shop steward was purged. It seems that the Imperial Government too wants to carry out a private purge of its own. The Naval Base authorities took the opportunity to revoke the pass that the Member for Sembawang (Inche Ahmad bin Ibrahim) has had for years and years to enter the Naval Base. I warned the Government when we passed the Protected Places Ordinance that they must be on their guard and not allow this Ordinance to be abused by the Naval Base authorities or by any other employer. But the Naval Base says, "As a result of the emergency, casual visitors cannot be allowed into the protected place." Sir, I might have been a casual visitor going up to advise the General Council of the Naval Base Labour Union when I was stopped by the Naval Base authorities, no doubt for reasons of state, for the security of the Naval Base, the Dockyard and the ships inside. But to exclude the Member for Sembawang as a casual visitor - 4,000 of his constituents are living inside the Base - and they had previously issued a pass to him, is an example of the chain reaction which the Government has set in motion. The Government says that it has channels of information not available to other members of the public. We must assume that those whom the Government had not purged had been cleared of any subversive tint. Obviously these employers have also got private channels of information not available to the Hon. the Chief Minister and they are carrying out their own purges. On his own reasoning, the Hon. the Chief Minister should approve of their actions: "Yes, they are quite right because as they are well informed we should not doubt the wisdom of their action."

But there is an even more poisonous side-effect of Operation Liberation namely, the appearance of British troops, rifles, bayonets, helicopters, aeroplanes, Commanders-in-Chief. Sir, the Hon. the Chief Minister said that the elected Government was in com- mand of Operation Liberation. But how can the Hon. the Chief Minister counter the effect of these British troops at barricade points at all bridges? How can he counter the pictures in all the Press of Maj.-Gen. Tulloch, General Officer Commanding, Singapore Base District, and of Mr Nigel Morris, Commissioner of Police, in charge of the whole operation? The identification in the minds of the people of this Government with armed British Imperialism is something which will take a long time to live down.

What is going to be the denouement? I am not interested in the immediate result of this "Operation Liberation". The reality of power is in the hands of the British. Let us face that fact. The days of the curfew and the riots brought home the truth that he who has the rifle barrel has the last word. A great Chinese Marxist dialectician once wrote that a new society is born out of the rifle barrel. That is true of this situation: with a Britain tough, reactionary, its Government prepared to precipitate a world war to defend its economic interest in the Middle East. If you cannot wrest that rifle barrel from her, then you are in no position to argue with her. To have gone behind the white man holding a rifle barrel is, in my analysis, a tactical error.

Sir, the Labour Front may be right in believing that its actions will win sympathetic approval from Mr LennoxBoyd and the Tory British Government. But the Labour Front also believes that it will win concessions for merdeka in this way. The Labour Front is wrong. As long as this Tory Government is in power, any attempt to exercise merdeka in the interest of the people of Malaya, any attempt to take away gold dollars from Britain to raise the standard of living of the people of Malaya, will be met with the most terrific resistance.

The correct policy would be to use this power situation, of the British, the Communists and the Nationalists, in such a way as, first, to put the British into an untenable position. Having put them into an untenable position, then we shall be in a position to take over the rifle barrel.

When this whole tangled skein is unravelled in ten months' time - I hear elections are to be in August 1957 - then is the time we shall have to sit down to weigh the position.

Sir, the Middle Road group (as they have been called) are now in jail. They knew that they were going to be nabbed. They knew it because the Hon. the Chief Minister's actions were so apparent. But they made the Government pay the heaviest price for that retreat. And they are tough and resilient. I might tell the Hon. the Chief Minister that the Member for Bukit Timah has asked me to convey his compliments to the Chief Minister and to express his thanks to the Hon. the Chief Secretary for the treatment he is now receiving in the Central Police Station as a V.I.P. detainee. Let us assume for the sake of argument that they are subversive characters. How long can you keep them there? One year, two years, four years, six years? The Member for Bukit Timah is learning English and Malay. I brought his father to see him and he gave his father a list of books he was going to study while he is enjoying the comforts of one of Her Majesty's police stations. Amongst the books are an English/Malay dictionary and a Malay/Chinese dictionary. When he comes out, apart from speeches in Hokkien to denounce the Chief Minister in no uncertain terms, it is not unlikely that, given the teacher companions in jail, he might be denouncing the Chief Minister in Malay and English too.

Sir, this is the decisive turning point since the elections. I would say this for my hon. opponents on the other side of this House : they have decided to take the bull by the horns, and I wish them well. I hope they will not be gored by the bull's horns. Let us assume that a thorough purge is carried out and a vacuum is created amongst the workers and the farmers. No more Farmers Association. No more Factory and Shop Workers' Union. What happens next? There was a vacuum for six years from 1948 to 1954. The workers were unorganised, the farmers were unorganised and nobody filled that vacuum. There were trade unionists like one Mr Peter Williams and some other people like him. But it was only the Malayan Communist Party working under the limitations of an underground organisation that worked away like demons and built up a force which the Tunku and this present Government have to meet.

This is a fight for the loyalty of the people. We all talk of fighting to win over the masses, but, unfortunately, we are all amateurs against professional revolutionaries. We are not so amateurish now. This is the challenge. If you want to organise the masses, you must find the people to organise them. Masses do not organise by themselves. Then you will come up against the real crux of the problem. Can you find the organisers and get them on your side? The Marxists call them cadres. Can you find the cadres? You lock up one, three others spring up. You lock up three, thirty spring up.

One has to ask "Why is the position like that?" It is because of two factors: first, an endemic economic and social situation which brings about a great sense of grievance against society, and second, the appeal of an ideology that, theoretically, provides the answers. I and my Party have lived with this problem for the last two years. If we do not solve this problem, then I say, we perish. It will not be solved just by using the Societies Ordinance or the Banishment Ordinance or the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance. The battle is a battle for organisers, for cadres. To win these people over to your side, you must give them the belief of a just cause, give them the conviction and the drive to work for a better and happier society.

I may not always have agreed with some of my friends who are now in prison in Changi but I agreed with them on one thing : the determination to wreck the present colonial system as soon as possible. For I agreed with them that the colonial system is evil.

Sir, the biggest tribute that this Government has paid to these "subversive" characters is to have tacitly admitted that only 300 people had organised thousands of people in Singapore. The final battle in this three-cornered fight - I am not speaking as a Party politician - depends upon whether you can convince the people of Malaya, the people who are prepared to work and fight, that the democratic State is the answer to the problems of Malaya. It you can convince them of it, then you will get the intellectuals on your side - the persons with the ability, the conviction, the drive and integrity. And if you get them on your side, you win the battle. But if they go over to the other side, then you have lost the battle.

The Government in making this purge had misunderstood the power situation in Malaya. It is not their expatriate colleagues in the Council of Ministers who decide the fate of Singapore. Their attitude and friendliness do not decide the concessions which the British Government will or will not give. A Tory Britain with Sir Anthony Eden as Prime Minister is not going to be swayed into concessions by a friendly local nationalist group if that group is a genuinely nationalist group? Do hon. Members on the other side realise that a Tory Britain is today bombing Col. Nasser who is an anti-Communist? It has nothing to do with Communism or Democracy. It is concerned with preserving, as Sir Anthony Eden said, the way of life of the Western people. The way of life of the Western people depends on the oil wells in Arabia. If they lose the oil wells, there will be five million people unemployed in Britain within one year. When those are the stakes, Britain is not interested in pre serving the Middle East for the sake of democracy. Britain is interested in preserving Britain's economic interest and her way of life which depends on those economic interests. That was the Labour Front's tactical miscalculation of the position. There should never have been this miscalculation. But the errors having been made, the least that the Labour Front can do is to bring these men to trial, prove the charges against them and satisfy the public conscience. It they cannot, then they have no alternative but to release them.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.

3.59 p.m.

Inche Ahmad Bin Ibrahim (Sembawang): Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to second the motion before the House because as an elected Assemblyman, a Nationalist and a Democrat, that is the only honest and logical thing to do.

When I stood for elections just over a year and a half ago, it was on the understanding that I would fight for a self-governing, democratic Malaya. That was a solemn pledge given to my electorate and I have not forgotten it. I am not going to betray it today. Certainly when I stood for elections, I never told the voters that I would achieve merdeka if necessary by the arbitrary arrests and detentions of my fellow-Singaporeans. I knew then that the achievement of merdeka would not be an easy task but I never for a moment thought that the price that would have to be paid would be the mass arrests of trade unionists and civic leaders and even an elected Assemblyman.

This motion before the House is in conformity with the spirit of the election pledges I made and I am sure that a great many Members of this House made. I was pledged to fight against colonialism -

Mr Speaker: Order. Moment of interruption. Debate to be resumed, what day, Mr Lee Kuan Yew?

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Tomorrow, Sir