Love Affair with Communism

Associate professor K Ramakrishna of the Rajaratnam School of International Studies is embarking on a rewrite of his version of Operation Coldstore and resurrecting the spectre of the communist bogeyman (“If Singapore was ruled by Barisan Socialis”, TODAY, Wednesday 10 Dec). He claims that the Communist United Front (CUF) was “flushed into the open” in the institutional form of the Barisan Socialis.

Wonder what he will say about Toh Chin Chye’s unabashed answer to one intriguing question about his party’s affiliation.

Why did you have the reputation for being Communist?

Well, we were Left-Wing, and the only type of Left-wing politics anyone had heard of was Communism. They had never heard of Fabian Socialism. That was one reason.
The other reason was the problem of recruiting members. Now, while we were recruiting members for the PAP, we made no headway with the English-educated, middle class types. No headway at all. No way! I tried! I started the University Association in the University of Singapore. It was like the Malayan Forum; I was the Secretary. Doing all the donkey work, just getting things moving. I compiled a register, tried to rope in people.

That had nothing even to do with politics! It was just getting together the graduates of Raffles College. There was an Indian lecturer in the Anatomy Department who tried to get his peers in. I knew Minnie Knight, the mother of Glenn Knight, she was a Raffles College graduate. So between her and me, I tried to repeat what I had done in London. We concocted a bulletin called a Chee Chak. You know, the house lizard? It sounded like “Chit Chat.” Nothing serious. I made her the Editor. We never got off the ground. Nobody read it! It died a natural death.

So that was why we drifted towards the Chinese educated. That is why we stumbled into existence as a largely Chinese-based party. That was when dialects became important. Mandarin became important. You understand now the role of Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan and company? They were Chinese educated. They could make speeches in dialect and Mandarin. They had a big following from the Chinese speaking unions, and the unions were the only organized mass force in Singapore.

So we became a Chinese-based party! We also became a Left Wing party. We were Socialist to begin with, and the unions were very Left Wing if not Communist. We worked out a Manifesto, which was quite revolutionary.