COMMUNIST ACTIVITIES IN SINGAPORE (Request for statement)

Mrs Seow Peck Leng asked the Prime Minister whether he will make a statement disclosing the full details, within his knowledge, giving names and identities, etc., of Communists and Communist subversive activities in Singapore, and his dealings with them and their activities.

The Prime Minister: Sir, I have, in my first series of broadcasts, sketched in broad outline my personal knowledge of the activities of the Communists and pro-Communists in Singapore. In some cases, I have had to name the persons involved in order that the truth may be known and not disputed. It is not my intention, however, to go on a witch-hunt and label all the Communists I know personally. However, certain organisations like S.A.T.U., Partai Rakyat, and some members of the Barisan Sosialis, have challenged me to prove that they are Communist front organisations. Sir, I am accepting their invitation and will do so in my second series of broadcasts.

An hon. Member: Hear, hear!

The Prime Minister: So far as is possible, I do not wish to identify publicly the persons that I have known. It is only when not to name these persons would leave a blank in the whole picture and allow the Communists to try and cast doubts on the truth and veracity of my statements that I shall name the persons who are actually performing or directing these Communist activities. All such persons named publicly will have full rights under the law to clear themselves and their reputation.

Mr David Marshall: If it pleases you, Sir, in view of the fact that to be a Communist is a criminal offence in this area, will the Prime Minister not recognise that it is the duty of a citizen, even more so the Prime Minister, to make known his knowledge of all Communists in this area, at least to the police for purposes of prosecution under our laws?

The Prime Minister: Sir, I think the Member for Anson, as the first Chief Minister of Singapore, is fully alive to the tremendous difficulty that is posed by the silent intimidation of the Communists and their elimination squads of any witness who goes into open court, or even in camera. I have, therefore, given the Communists an opportunity to allow them to initiate action against the Government and against myself personally for having damaged their fair names if they say that they arc innocent. Doubtless they may also have consulted their multifarious legal advisers and advisers. Some of these advisers have only passed Parts of the Law Examination. However, they may well understand that to challenge statements made of them would be to undergo the rigours of being plaintiffs and giving evidence in person.

Sir, as the Member for Anson can well vouchsafe from his law and very intimate knowledge of Court craft, an innocent man telling the truth can prove his innocence at any time, particularly since he has available to him the whole panoply of the law, the best advocates in the land. Some of them, I am sure, are prepared to do a brief for nothing in order that justice will be done. I regret to say, however, that apart from one proceeding in relation to contempt of court by some 30-odd non-Communist strikers, there has not been any action on any part of the talks that I have delivered, I would ask the Member for Anson to draw his own conclusion - 30 innocent strikers who are now under charge of obstruction are quite prepared to assert their rights if I have transgressed the law and I have to submit as if I were a private citizen. So also can all the others who say they are innocent. They have their remedies. They can consult their advisers and they can undergo the hazards of the open confrontation.

Mr Teo Hock Guan (Changi): Mr Speaker, Sir, could one anti-Communist hero, like our Prime Minister, get on so well with the so-called Communists in Singapore for the last six years?

The Prime Minister: Sir, that is the whole point - that I was never an anti-Communist in the sense that I was just anti the Communists. I am a firm supporter of the democratic system. In so far as the Communists were with us in the nationalist movement to destroy the colonial system, I was prepared to work with them and took my risk with them for years. And they knew it. But when their policy is no longer to destroy the colonial system in order that the democratic system can be set up. but to undermine the State in order to establish a base from which they can communize the whole of Malaya, then I say that the non-Communists and the pro-Communists must inevitably part company. Co-existence, Mr Speaker, Sir, whether it be on a domestic and national level or on the august plane of international relations, can only continue if there are no massive issues which divide them. Mr Nehru is not an anti-Communist, but that did not prevent him from standing up for what he considered to be his national rights over the borders of India against the Communists, co-existence notwithstanding. Sir, we had served notice, the day we moved the confidence motion, that we intend to see merger and an independent, democratic Malaya through. And those who want to fight us - be they Communists or whatever they may be - cannot expect us to submit passively and be pulverized. Surely, Sir, the most fundamental right a man has is that of self-defence. A non-Communist does not subscribe to self-destruction. Only fools do that. Sir, if there are still fools in Singapore or, if I may be so bold as to suggest, in this Assembly who are non-Communists and who want to go with them and be destroyed, what can we do to save them from their own folly?

Mr David Marshall: Do forgive me, Sir, it is rather an important matter. I crave your indulgence. Sir, I can appreciate the Prime Minister's difficulty about prosecution. He is perfectly right. But I would suggest that it is a matter of very considerable importance to the public as a whole that the names of the persons whom he knows actually to be Communists in this territory should be disclosed. If the Prime Minister will permit me, Sir, I myself as Chairman of the Workers' Party am to some extent concerned, because it was suggested that my Party was infiltrated by Communists.

Mr Speaker: A supplementary question?

Mr David Marshall: It is, Sir. I would point out, Sir, that we had sought from the Prime Minister information -

Mr Speaker: Order. If the hon. Member for Anson goes on in that strain, then I must stop him.

Mr David Marshall: May I -

Mr Speaker: Will the Member resume his seat?

Mr Marshall resumed his seat.

Mr Speaker: I was saying that if the hon. Member goes on in that strain then, of course, the whole matter is developing into a debate, and the Standing Orders tell me that that should not be allowed. I can only allow supplementary questions, and I leave it to the ingenuity of Members to turn their statements into supplementary questions.

Mr David Marshall: Sir, will the Prime Minister consider divulging in confidence to persons legitimately interested the names of the Communists who are known to him who might affect such persons?

The Prime Minister: Sir, the Member for Anson, as the Chairman of the Workers' Party, wrote to me and asked me to disclose the Communist cadres who had been planted in the Workers' Party. I have consulted the legality of this matter. I have written to the Chairman of the Workers' Party in reply that if he, who was the first Chief Minister of Singapore in 1955, would give us an undertaking that he would not divulge this information to the Communists concerned and the details of the data we had on them, then I am prepared to ask the State Advocate-General to waive the Official Secrets Act and disclose to the Member for Anson all data in connection with Communists in his Party. The offer is made in good faith. I am confident that any undertaking given by the Member for Anson will be honoured and I think the State Advocate-General will also be confident of that.

Dr Sheng Nam Chin (Nee Soon): Mr Speaker, Sir, I was extremely interested to hear the Prime Minister say that only fools embark on political self-destruction. If that definition is true, Sir, the corollary is also true - that anybody who embarks upon self-destruction is a fool. The clearest way of determining whether one is embarking upon self-extermination is by going to the country and letting the people decide.

Mr Speaker: Order.

Dr Sheng Nam Chin: Then you can see -

Mr Speaker: Order. I have indicated that only supplementary questions are allowed. I think this matter is developing into a debate. If any Member is interested, there are ways in which the whole matter could be debated in this Chamber. The matter is now closed.

It is 3.00 p.m. - Committee of Supply.