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Top-secret
documents held by the British Government, now declassified,
reveal some jaw-dropping facts about Lee Kuan Yew and how he came
to power.
Straits
Times, 7 Feb 96
Straits
Times, 17 Feb 96
Hard, historical
facts are the greatest antidote to fear mongering by the state
and to the use of national security as a bogey to suppress
freedom and democracy.
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Lim
Chin Siong vs Lee Kuan Yew: The true and shocking history
It will
forever change how you see Lee Kuan Yew and the
PAP
Introduction
08
Jul 07
Schools teach our children that Lee Kuan Yew
heroically delivered Singapore from the evil clutches of the
communists and gave us what we have today.
Whether such
an assertion is historically accurate or not, the Government
seems intent to seal this version in the annals of Singapore.
When filmmaker, Mr Martyn See, released Zahari's 17 Years
in which Mr Said Zahari talked about his 17-year detention, the
Government promptly banned it.
It, it stated, "will
not allow people who had posed a security threat to the country
in the past to exploit the use of films to purvey a false and
distorted portrayal of their past actions and detention by the
government."
When Lim Chin Siong, another of Lee Kuan
Yew's prisoners, died in 1996, the PAP was equally anxious to
make sure that Lim's portrayal as a revolutionary communist
remained etched in the minds of the people.
In response to
a tribute that the SDP had written about Lim, the PAP through
then MP Dr Ow Chin Hock, said that the Barisan Sosialis
(Socilaist Front), of which Lim was its leader, fought the
Government in 1966 "on the streets, according to the
teachings of Mao Zedong in the Cultural Revolution."
It
was a bald-faced lie. Lim was already in prison under ISA
detention in 1966 and could not have led his party in
anything.
This, it seems, was not the only untruth that
the PAP has been telling us.
For example, Dr Ow pointed
out that Lim was not fighting for a democratic Singapore (the
cheek) but a communist one. Lim would have turned Singapore into
"Mao's China or Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam", the PAP
insisted.
Besides, it was the Internal Security Council
(ISC) under the command of the British and not the PAP
Government, who ordered the arrest and detention of Lim and
colleagues.
This was because there were only three PAP
representatives on the ISC and they were "outnumbered"
by the other four members on the Council, three British and one
Malaysian.
Nothing could be more untrue.
Top-secret
documents held by the British Government, now declassified,
reveal some jaw-dropping facts about Lee Kuan Yew and how he came
to power.
Two history scholars studied these papers and
presented their findings in the book Comet In Our Sky
(available at Select Books at the Tanglin Shopping Centre).
The
first is Tim Harper who teaches Southeast Asian history and the
history of the British empire at the University of Cambridge in
London.
The second is Greg Poulgrain, a professor at
Griffiths University in Australia who has been researching
Southeast Asian history for more than 20 years.
This SDP
feature presents a summary of Dr Harper's and Dr Poulgrain's
chapters. It contains some shocking archival material.
It
also attempts to answer questions like who were people like Lim
Chin Siong and Said Zahari? Did they really pose a security
threat to the country? Were they communists hell-bent on
undermining constitutional/democratic means of governance in
Singapore? Was it really the ISC that was responsible for their
arrest and imprisonment? Most important, is the PAP's version of
history based on fact?
Remember, this narration is not the
SDP's rendition of events past. It is a collective summary of the
research done by two historians.
To ensure that this
present essay remains faithful to Professors Harper's and
Poulgrain's works, quotes from the historians' chapters are used
liberally.
Still, don't take our word for it. Get a copy
of Comet In Our Sky and read for yourself the real history
of the PAP and Barisan Sosialis.
Why bother?
But
why is this important? Why should Lim Chin Siong, a man who died
more than ten years ago and who led a party which is now defunct,
be relevant to the world in which we now live?
First,
because those events are part of our history, and history defines
who we are as a people and, more important, shapes the way we
plan our future.
The textbooks that the Ministry of
Education writes for our kids are not history but rather fables,
starring Mr Lee Kuan Yew. We have a duty to teach our youths the
truth.
Also, what happened in the 1950s and 60s continue
to be relevant because many of Lim's colleagues are still alive
and the sacrifices they made for the independence of Singapore
have been all but erased. Their stories must be told and their
honour restored.
Third, and perhaps most important, not
only is the PAP's cloroxed account used to mentally condition
(brainwash, if you prefer) our children, it continues to be used
as a weapon to intimidate and silence voices of dissent.
If
Lee Kuan Yew can manipulate the security apparatus for his own
political ends in the 1950s and 60 as you will note from Dr
Harper's and Dr Poulgrain's revelations, what does that say about
the present use of the ISD to detain other Singaporeans?
More
ominously, what if the PAP feels sufficiently threatened
politically and resorts to concocting another conspiracy to
detain without trial more Singaporeans and opposition politicians
like it did to a group of professionals in 1987?
Hard,
historical facts are the greatest antidote to fear mongering by
the state and to the use of national security as a bogey to
suppress freedom and democracy.
Knowledgeable citizens
with a keen sense of history are the best protection against acts
of repression in the future.
So if you are a discerning
Singaporean unwilling to let the authorities tell you what to
think and how to think it, if you are one of those who don't want
your mind raped, then introduce yourself to this four-part
Special Feature and take part in the forum discussion.
Click
here and let's get educated…
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