Thirty-seven years ago today, G Raman a lawyer was arrested under the Internal Security Act. I was then a young lawyer with his firm, Messrs Yeow & Raman. That morning several men walked hastily into the office and without a word, ransacked his room. The office was silent. We didn’t know what had gone wrong.
The next morning, it was reported in The Straits Times that Raman was detained because he was the “Euro Red link man” after Dr Poh Soo Kai who was re-detained a year earlier. I didn’t know of Dr Poh then and his name was of no significance to me.
Another witch hunt then began. I say another because even before February 1977, hundreds had already been arrested and imprisoned under the ISA. At that time I did not pay any attention to the arrests because I didn’t know any of those arrested. But they included well known personalities like Goh Lay Kuan and Kuo Pao Kun and almost the entire staff of Practice Theatre School, Dr Poh Soo Kai, journalists Shamsuddin Tung Tao Chang, Li Singko and Lee Mau Seng and left wing lawyer, TT Rajah. You can find their names and many more in the book “The 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore, Commemorating 50 Years” edited by Dr Poh Soo Kai, Tan Kok Fang and Hong Lysa.
The February 1977 arrests had a severe impact on me because I knew Raman and several of his friends. At that time however, I did not see the significance and intent of the ISD in arresting Raman alone on 10 February followed by his friends five days later. In arresting Raman first and making him the “leader” of the gang, forcing him to name his friends, the intent of the ISD was to split friendship and sow the seeds of distrust so that none of them would be able to organise themselves again. Indeed, the ISD succeeded with flying colours. Years after their release, I occasionally met up Raman’s friends. They were still angry that Raman had mentioned their names in his “confessions” and believed that that was the reason for their arrests! Nothing I said would make them see that their names were already on the “Wanted List” and whether anyone mentioned them in their statements did not matter. Fortunately, in recent times, as books and articles become available and age has tempered emotions, the situation has improved.
I don't know why Raman and his friends were called “Euro-Communists.” None of those arrested had written about their experiences. From the flimsy information I have, I only know that political exiles and Singaporeans (who were mainly students) were unhappy that Dr Lim Hock Siew, Said Zahari and Chia Thye Poh were then still being imprisoned without trial under the ISA. They had been imprisoned since the 1960s. When Dr Poh was released in 1973, he called for their release. The exiles and students too wanted them released or charged in open court.
The PAP claimed itself to be a “socialist party” and was a member of Socialist International. Using the ISA against political opponents was against democratic and socialist principles and groups in Europe and the UK had approached the Dutch Labour Party to raise the issue with Socialist International which was then having a conference. Apparently, Raman and before him, Dr Poh despatched published documents about the unwholesome acts of the PAP to Europe. Socialist International was persuaded to expel the PAP. Knowing their intent, the PAP took pre-emptive steps to salvage its reputation by sending Devan Nair to the conference. He gave a long and tedious lecture about socialism and then tendered the PAP's resignation from Socialist International. But the matter did not end there.
The PAP have had its reputation sullied and was not going to let the matter rest. The “culprits” must be punished. In the report of The Straits Times of 11 February 1977,http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article.aspx?articleid=straitstimes19770211-1.2.2&sessionid=1716d3a4a1164bf78c9d1c87864ddbbd&keyword=euro+communists&lang=en&search=advanced&fromdate=19770201&todate=19770228&articles=1&advertisements=1&illustrations=1&letters=1&obituaries=1&miscellaneous=1&newspaperTitles=beritaharian%2cdailyadvertiser%2ceasterndaily%2cmalayansatpost%2cmiddayherald%2csingchronicle%2csingdailynews%2csingmonitor%2csingweekherald%2cstraitsadvocate%2cstraitschinherald%2cstraitseurasian%2cstraitsmail%2cstraitsobserver%2cstraitstelegraph%2cstoverland%2cstweekly%2cbiztimes%2cfreepress%2csingfreepressa%2csingfreepressb%2cstraitstimes%2ctoday%2cweeklysun%2cnysp%2cscjp%2clhzb&fuzzysearch=Off&token=communists%2ceuro, vague references were made to the Dutch Labour Party and the Singapore Malaysia Workgroup of Mondial Information Action Centre. There was also the reference to “Crypto-communist wing”, whatever that may mean! Names were randomly mentioned, to make the prisoners look like they were “made use of” by foreigners like Malcolm Caldwell, a lecturer in a UK university. The use of vague references to justify arrests under the ISA has always been the practice of the ISD. The public must always be reminded of external threats to “overthrow the PAP government”.
What is disturbing about the arrests in 1977 is the long and severe impact it had on those affected. Until today, no one has been able to tell his or her experience. Francis Khoo Kah Siang who passed away in November 2011 was the only person to talk about it in the BBC TV programme "The Price of Freedom" and to write about his narrow escape in “My Adventures in Exile ‘Confessions’ of a ’77 Alumnus” published in “Escape from the Lion’s Paw” Edited by Teo Soh Lung & Low Yit Leng (2012). He completed his chapter two days before he passed away. He had earlier told me that he would research and write about the 1977 arrests after his chapter. But that was not to be.
The arrests of the “Euro Communists” in 1977 will therefore remain a mystery while the government continues to spread the message of unrest in “Days of Rage” on our television screen. I hope that these documentaries will spur those deeply affected into action. I am an optimist and I am sure that it will happen one day. Singapore belongs to all of us. We need not live in the shadows of the PAP for the next 50 years.
Teo Soh Lung
*Article first appeared on her FB page here.
Ms Teo Soh Lung graduated from the Univ of Singapore with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB Hons) in 1973 and served her pupillage under the late David Marshall. In 1981, she set up her own law firm in Aljunied and in 1985, she co-founded the Law Society Criminal Legal Aid Scheme which offers free legal assistance for criminal cases to the poor and needy members of the public.
Ms Teo also chaired a sub-committee under the Law Society which reviewed the Legal Profession Amendment Bill. One of the amendments to the bill had sought to take away the duty of the Law Society to comment on legislation. She called an EGM of the Society which overwhelmingly passed a motion calling on the government to withdraw the bill. Shortly after, she was subpoenaed to appear before a Parliamentary Select Committee and was vigorously questioned by then PM Lee Kuan Yew. She steadfastly defended her stand and the Law Society. She was subsequently elected as a member of the Council of the Law Society.
Some months later, in May 1987, she was arrested and detained without trial under the ISA together with the others for purported involvement in a conspiracy to overthrow the Govt by force and replace it with a Marxist state. She was released after 4 months but was imprisoned again in 1988 for refuting the government’s allegations against her. She was finally released in June 1990.
Soh Lung published her memoir ‘Beyond the Blue Gate: Recollections of a Political Prisoner’ in 2010 and was one of the editors of ‘Our Thoughts Are Free: Poems and Prose on Imprisonment and Exile in 2009′.