In the Public Interest




FOTO: unknown photographer/agency, "[(L-R) Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan, S. Woodhull] Released People's Action Party detainees at Middle Road and S.T.C. Union." (caption provided by AsiaOne), 1963
 
 On 2 February 1963, 113 people—anti-colonial activists, trade unionists, students, and politicians—were arrested in the security operation code-named Coldstore and detained without trial in Singapore. The British operation, carried out with the urging of Lee Kuan Yew, aimed ostensibly at crippling the Communist movement, but was actually directed at defeating the left-wing Barisan Sosialis party, led by Lim Chin Siong (pictured above), that was formed after breaking away from Lee's People's Action Party. The latter story has since been erased by the PAP narrative of successful national development after the defeat of Communism.

There are eerie echoes of Singapore's past in Trump's attempt to bribe the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden. In both instances, a national leader calls on a "foreign" power—the Ukrainians in the case of the U.S., the British in the case of Singapore—to bring down an electoral opponent. Both instances smacked of opportunism, which is, in fact, the other face of the PAP's vaunted philosophy of pragmatism.

In acquitting Trump yesterday, the Republican-led Senate has failed in its constitutional duty to carry out a fair and unbiased impeachment trial. Singapore's example suggests that, unless the Republicans are held responsible for their failure and their infamy remembered in speeches and books, Trump's misdeed will be consigned to a historical footnote. It is chilling that Trump's defense at his impeachment trial was that his election was in the public interest. Singaporeans have heard that line of argument again and again from their own government.

On the 57th anniversary of Operation Coldstore, 2/2/2020, let us hear again the voices of the former political detainees, many of whom are now in their 80's. New Naratif contextualizes the interviews with the relevant British archival materials and its own commentary. These voices are not historical footnotes; rather, they are at the heart of the Singapore political experiment.

Jee Leong Koh
February 6, 2020
 
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