Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas

by Han Fook Kwang

  Some of the other parties believe in some of these things. But the People’s Action Party will continue to believe in all of them and to fight for all of them, long after the elections are over. If you believe in these things as we do, then vote for the People’s Action Party.

  In September and October 1961, Lee gave a series of 12 radio talks on the struggle for independence, through merger between Singapore and Malaya. The talks were meant to clarify the political situation to the people of Singapore, and to explain why it was crucial for Singapore’s survival to merge with the mainland. Lee also explained why the PAP had to work with the communists to drive out the British, and the workings of the communists. In this extract of the talk given on September 15, 1961, he sets out the communist challenge facing Singapore.

  The battle for hearts and minds

  For years since the beginning of the Emergency in 1948, communism has been painted in terms of violence, terror, brutality and evil. There was violence, there was terror, there was brutality, and there were evil men. But that is not the whole story. For if it was as simple as that, the communists would have died and perished with the collapse of their armed revolt. It is because, together with these weaknesses, they have some strong qualities that they have been able to survive in spite of the collapse of their armed revolt. For the foreseeable future the communists have no chance of capturing power in the Federation or Singapore by force of arms. But they have been able to continue the struggle for the communist cause through new methods.

  There was violence, there was terror, there was brutality, and there were evil men. But that is not the whole story.

  Many of their old supporters in the jungle have died or been banished. Some have drifted back anonymously into the towns. Only a hard core remains on the Malayan-Thai border.

  But new recruits have been found. These are the idealistic young men and women, largely from the Chinese middle schools of Malaya, both the Federation and Singapore. These are new men fighting under different conditions, with different methods and tactics to create a communist Malaya. Partly by persuasion, mainly by fanaticism and faith that the future belongs to the communists, these new recruits are continuing the struggle. They press on, capturing the leadership of trade unions, cultural organisations and old boys’ associations. Most important of all, they try to capture the power to manipulate the lawful political parties.

  Past governments called this subversion. Because the Communist Party is illegal in Malaya none of its followers go about telling people that they are communists. Publicly they will always pretend to be democrats; privately they keep on recruiting as many effective persons as they can persuade to join them in the communist cause.

  We now began to understand the meaning of revolution in terms of life and blood, liberty and incarceration, hate and fear, love and comradeship.

  … My colleagues and I are of that generation of young men who went through the Second World War and the Japanese Occupation and emerged determined that no one – neither the Japanese nor the British – had the right to push and kick us around. We determined that we could govern ourselves and bring up our children in a country where we can be proud to be a self-respecting people.

  When the war came to an end in 1945, there was never a chance of the old type of British colonial system ever being recreated. The scales had fallen from our eyes and we saw for ourselves that the local people could run the country. In fact the local people did run the country for the Japanese military administration. The Europeans had a better life in our country – more pay, bigger houses, bigger cars and a higher standard of living – not because they were more capable but because power and military might were on their side.

  When that power went they were stripped literally naked as prisoners of war, and became ordinary people. It was the Japanese ten-cent storeman who, backed by Japanese military might, suddenly became the big boss who occupied a big house and had a better life.

  Revolt

  Three years after the end of the Second World War a violent revolution started in Malaya. The communists, who were almost a nonexistent force in the years before the war, were allowed to arm themselves as a force just before the British surrendered. They went underground with those arms. Over three and a half years, partly with the arms they took underground and partly with more arms parachuted in by the Allies, they built up a tough little army in the jungles.

  With the surrender of the Japanese, they came out into the towns. For the first time, the MCP emerged as a legally recognised political force in our country. But it was not for long. In 1948 they retreated to the jungles and the armed insurrection which the British called the “Emergency” started.

  That was a fierce and grim revolt. The angry young men from the Chinese middle schools, who hated colonialism and the British, joined the communists to rid the country of British imperialism.

  In those tough years, 1949 and 1950, we got our first taste of the practical realities of politics. We had learned the theories of socialism, communism and capitalism in books, and read the histories of revolutions. But we now began to understand the meaning of revolution in terms of life and blood, liberty and incarceration, hate and fear, love and comradeship.

  Realities of revolution

  We have learned one important thing during the last decade: that only those count and matter who have the strength and courage of their convictions to stick up and stand up for what they believe in, for their people, for their country, regardless of what happens to themselves.

  Parts of this narrative are concerned with friends of personal courage and deep political conviction who have gone over to the communist side. Because they have accepted the communist doctrine and dogma, they would have not the slightest compunction if the time comes to destroy us, the non-communists, if we do not bend to their will. On the other hand, other friends have been so disgusted by the stupidities of the leadership of the Communist Party that they abjured the communists and came over and joined us at great personal peril.

  So the battle goes on for the hearts and minds of the political activists of the country. Some I will be able to tell you by name. Others I shall refer to by nicknames. But they are all real living people, men of my generation, fierce men on both sides. They will be listening to these talks, wondering how much I will disclose, whether I will take an unfair advantage over them. My colleagues and I, not being ruthless communist cadres, have different standards of conduct from theirs. With us, personal friendship and sentimental regard for old friends matter.

  Lee realised that the only way the PAP could get rid of the British colonial masters was to join hands with the communist movement. All the other political powers of the day were, in his words, “dilettantes playing at politics”. In this extract of a radio speech he gave on September 18, 1961, he spoke of how the communists operated, and their ability to tap the support of the masses.

  How I came to know the communists

  Politics in Malaya was a deadly serious business. These are not clowns or jokers. They had decided to go with the communists.

  This talk is largely a personal narrative. It will explain how I came to know the communists, what they are after in Malaya, who they are, how they operate, why we worked on parallel lines with them for many years and why eventually we have parted company over merger.

  Let me take my story back to 1950 when I began to learn the realities of political life in Malaya. At that time every genuine nationalist who hated the British colonial system wanted freedom and independence. That was a time when only weak men and stooges came out and performed on the local political stage. Fierce men were silent or had gone underground to join the communists.

  There were the Progressive Party and their feeble leaders. There were the clowns of the Labour Party [Labour Front] of Singapore. When I met acquaintances like Lim Kean Chye and John Eber and asked them what they were doing, why they were allowing these things to go on, they smiled and said, “Ah well! What can be done in such a situation?”r />
  One morning in January 1951 I woke up and read in the newspapers that John Eber had been arrested, that Lim Kean Chye had disappeared and escaped arrest. Shortly afterwards a reward was offered for his arrest. Politics in Malaya was a deadly serious business. These are not clowns or jokers. They had decided to go with the communists.

  So my colleagues and I pressed on, working with the unions. The only unions able to take fierce and militant action were those with no communist affiliations whatsoever. The postmen went on strike. I acted for them. We extracted every ounce of political and material advantage out of the dispute with the colonial government and got them maximum benefits.

  We helped them and exposed the stupidities and inadequacies of the colonial administration.

  The Post and Telegraph workers wanted their salaries to be revised and backdated. The dispute went to arbitration. We helped them and exposed the stupidities and inadequacies of the colonial administration. The whole of the government civil service was organised to revolt against non-pensionable expatriation pay for the benefit of a few white men.

  You remember my colleagues, Dr Goh Keng Swee and K.M. Byrne, organised a fight against the European half of the civil service. So we went on organising the workers in their unions, rallying them to fight the British colonial system for freedom, for a more just and equal society.

  Meanwhile, I had got in touch with the people who were detained in the same batch as John Eber. They were the English-educated group of the Anti-British League, a communist organisation. The ABL relation to the MCP is like that of the volunteer force to the regular professional army.

  I was instructed to act for one of them. I came to know and like him. Subsequently, in 1953, he was released from detention. We became friends. He told me that he was a communist. I will call him Laniaz. He is still a most important communist cadre spreading propaganda on behalf of the communist cause.

  Through him I came to know Devan Nair, who was the most determined ABL member I have ever known. Subsequently, I discovered that Devan Nair was in fact on the way to being a full-fledged Communist Party member.

  We became comrades in the united front in the unions and in the PAP. Devan Nair knew I was not a communist; he knew that I knew he was a communist. In 1956 he landed in jail together with Lim Chin Siong and company. After spending a great part of his life with the Malayan Communist Party, he came to his own conclusion that their leadership was inadequate to meet the needs of the revolution in Malaya.

  Determined and dedicated though they were, they had their shortcomings and were unable to make the necessary changes in policy and approach, to create a national-based movement for their communist cause.

  Devan Nair is now on our side. On the other hand, S.T. Bani, assemblyman for Thomson, who was not a communist and who had for several years worked together with me in the unions, competing against the communists, decided some time late last year to throw in his lot with the communists. He had been won over to their side. So the battle goes on for the hearts and minds, first of the political elite of the population, and ultimately of the whole population.

  Laniaz joined us, a core of the English-educated, to fight colonialism. We were all non-communists other than Laniaz – Dr Toh, Dr Goh, K.M. Byrne, Rajaratnam and myself. We organised and worked in the unions, recruited cadres of our own in the English-educated and Malay-educated world. We drew up plans for the setting up of the party.

  Riots

  Then one day in 1954, we came into contact with the Chinese-educated world. The Chinese middle school students were in revolt against national service and they were beaten down. Riots took place, charges were preferred in court.

  Through devious ways they came into contact with us. We bridged the gap to the Chinese-educated world – a world teeming with vitality, dynamism and revolution, a world in which the communists had been working for over the last 30 years with considerable success. We, the English-educated revolutionaries, went in trying to tap this oil field of political resources, and soon found our pipelines crossing those of the Communist Party. We were latecomers trying to tap the same oil fields. We were considered by the communists as poaching in their exclusive territory.

  In this world we came to know Lim Chin Siong and Fong Swee Suan. They joined us in the PAP. In 1955, we contested the elections. Our initiation into the intricacies and ramifications of the communist underground organisation in the trade unions and cultural associations had begun.

  We, the English-educated revolutionaries, went in trying to tap this oil field of political resources, and soon found our pipelines crossing those of the Communist Party. We were latecomers trying to tap the same oil fields.

  The underground

  It is a strange business, working in this world. When you meet a union leader you will quickly have to decide which side he is on and whether or not he is a communist. You can find out by the language he uses, and his behaviour, whether or not he is in the inner circle which makes the decisions. These are things from which you determine whether he is an outsider or an insider in the communist underworld.

  I came to know dozens of them. They are not crooks or opportunists. These are men with great resolve, dedicated to the communist revolution and to the establishment of the communist state, believing that it is the best thing in the world for mankind. Many of them are prepared to pay the price for the communist cause in terms of personal freedom and sacrifice. They know they run the risk of detention if they are found out and caught. Often my colleagues and I disagreed with them, and intense fights took place, all concealed from the outside world because they were communists working in one united anti-colonial front with us against the common enemy, and it would not do to betray them.

  Eventually many of them landed in jail, in the purges in 1956 and 1957. I used to see them there, arguing their appeals, reading their captured documents and the Special Branch precis of the cases against them. I had the singular advantage of not only knowing them well by having worked at close quarters with them in a united front against the British, but I also saw the official version in reports on them.

  Many were banished to China. Some were my personal friends. They knew that I knew they were communists, for between us there was no pretence. They believed that I should join them. They believed that ultimately I would be forced to admit that what they call the “bourgeois” democratic system could not produce a just and equal society, and that I would admit that they were right.

  On the other hand, I used to spend hours arguing with some of them, trying to prove to them that whatever else happened in China or Russia, we were living in Malaya and, irrespective of communism or democratic socialism, if we wanted to build a more just and equal society in Malaya, we would have to make certain fundamental decisions, such as being Malayans, uniting the Chinese and Indians and others with the Malays, building up national unity and national loyalty, and rallying all the races together through a national language.

  The strength of the Communist Party lies not in their mass as such but in the band of trained and disciplined cadres, who lead the masses into communist causes, often without the masses knowing they are communists.

  MCP strength

  The strength of the MCP lies in the propagation of communist theories and ideals to recruit able and idealistic young man and women to join them in their cause. Our able young men on their side can, by working in a union, fighting for better pay and conditions of service for workers, get thousands of workers on to their side.

  Let me explain this. In 1953, I became legal adviser to the Naval Base Labour Union, fought their case and won the confidence of the committee and the men. They were looking for a union secretary. I introduced to them S. Woodhull, a person I had then known in the University of Malaya Socialist Club for one and a half years. I knew that he was anti-British and anti-colonial. I also knew he was reading Marxism and that he was initiating himself into the mysteries of world revolution. But he was not a communist or a member of the ABL [Anti-British Lea
gue] although they were grooming him for recruitment. He was then prepared to work for a cause. On my recommendation he became secretary to the union.

  He worked hard and by 1955, two years afterwards, he had organised, with the help of a handful of dedicated non-communist activists like Ahmad Ibrahim and a few communist ground workers in the union, 7,500 workers in the Base. He had organised them into a coherent force which would listen to him, not because the workers believed in socialism or communism, but because the workers knew him to be a trustworthy and industrious man who worked with me for them.

  In this way, the communists, although they had only a few hundred active cadres, could muster and rally thousands of people in the unions, cultural organisations and student societies. By working and manifestly appearing to work selflessly, and ceaselessly, they won the confidence and regard of the people in the organisations. Having won the confidence and regard, they then got the people to support their political stand.

  The strength of the Communist Party lies not in their mass as such but in the band of trained and disciplined cadres, who lead the masses into communist causes, often without the masses knowing they are communists.

  The British authorities in Singapore wanted the non-communists in the PAP to oust the communists, and they set about it by misleading the communists to believe they had British support. Lee elaborates on the British plot in a radio address on September 27, 1961.

  Why the British misled the communists

  Let me tell you how and why the British deliberately misled the communists and manoeuvred their open-front workers into a false position.