Dominatio Per Malum

Preface: Whilst reading Mr Wang’s post about the irony of Lee Kuan Yew calling the 10 forum participants “radical English-educated young” when he himself was once a radical English-educated young himself, i was reminded of one of LKY’s Parliamentary speeches, when he was still a young opposition MP. The year was 1955, Singapore was still a british colony and the PAP was the opposition party. The issue on debate was the PRESERVATION OF PUBLIC SECURITY BILL, the precursor to todays Internal Security Act, which gives the government the power to imprison someone without trial. It was a period of political and social instability and the Communist threat loomed large. The first half of the excerpt is by then Chief Minister David Marshall who was proposing this bill to give the government such a far reaching power. Opposing the Bill was a young chap, the opposition MP for Tanjong Pagar by the name of Lee Kuan Yew. Not sure how old he was then, but by my estimation, he should be in his twenties. And what youthful idealism there was, a kind of vigour and conviction in democratic ideals!

So before you all vote tomorrow, remember that once upon a time, there was a young, idealistic lawyer who was an opposition member. Maybe the WP’s young slate of candiates isn’t that different from the young man who believed in democracy in 1955.

1955-09-21 PRESERVATION OF PUBLIC SECURITY BILL(All bolded sentences are my emphasis)

The Chief Minister (David Marshall) :Since 1948 there has existed in this territory, and to a very far larger extent in the Federation, a subversive organisation inspired by an ideology of tyranny and violence, which indulges in all the techniques of murder and intimidation, and seeks to overthrow the people’s government of today, as it sought to overthrow the colonial government of yesterday. It does not matter to these people that if they were successful, they would bring ghastly misery and starvation to the whole population of Singapore. I ask this House to remember this: Singapore eats because it serves the free world. If Singapore were to become Communist, we would cut ourselves off from those whom we serve. We would be unable to earn our living, and as we produce nothing, we would starve miserably and suffer even more than we have suffered under the Japanese occupation. But that does not matter to these gentlemen of this international subversive organisation that seeks to bring us within the fold of their tyranny - these people who pretend to seek the welfare of the common man.

….

As guardians, Sir, of the safety of the people and the democratic form of government, which alone can assist us to a full and fruitful development, we bring this Bill asking for the weapons necessary for the discharge of our duties. You cannot refuse your guardians the necessary weapons. The people of Singapore must be protected against those who would, with violence, trample on their interests in pursuance of a loyalty to a foreign ideology of tyranny. Those who refuse the Government the power to protect the people will stand self-condemned. The people of Singapore may be illiterate, Sir, but they are not fools and they will not forever be fooled.

We are proud to have sloughed away many of the provisions of the Emergency Regulations. What remains is essential. It is with a heavy heart that I introduce a Bill, Sir, which does not completely remove the existing inroads in the rule of law as I had hoped in the early days of my government.

I believe this law is necessary for the protection of the people of Singapore and the people of the Federation of Malaya whom we should never forget. I commend this Bill, Sir, to the honest attention of this House.

Sir, I beg to move. “That the Bill be now read a Second time.”

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: But we are now being asked to elevate rules and orders under the Emergency Regulations, from the lowly status of Emergency Regulations to the resplendent status of being part of the normal law of the land. The reason advanced is that this is necessary to combat Communist terrorism and subversion. Sir, no one denies that there is Communist terrorism or subversion. When any “ism”, be it Communism or Fascism, resorts to violence or terror, it must be resisted. But we are at the same time being asked to believe in democracy. We say we believe in democracy because it is a more liberal and a more civilised way of life. We say we dislike Communism because, under that form of government, they have arbitrary powers of arrest and detention without trial. They have, what we fortunately so far have not got here, arbitrary powers of physical liquidation without trial. So we are told that the democratic way of life is far superior.

…

Mr Lee Kuan Yew:

Before you fight it, you must understand what you are fighting. It is no use saying that they are evil men out to wreck, out to create chaos, out to stir up disorder, or out to make the poor worker suffer, when you do not understand, or attempt to understand, why it is that they, and they alone, can work this passion: first, for freedom; second, for their own political beliefs.

….

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: It is a significant point, and the Chief Minister should think more of it: that nowhere in SouthEast Asia is Communism more successful than in colonial Indo-China and colonial Malaya. I am not saying that India, Burma, Pakistan and Indonesia have not got their own Communist problems. Communism, as I understand it, and not only from textbooks, is a product of social and economic frustration and discontent. When you have this social and economic discontent and it is exacerbated by the irritants of colonial control, then you have a situation growing into cancerous proportions. I am not suggesting that if we are free tomorrow of the eminent members of the civil and legal services who sit with us here as of right under the constitution, we should be free from all our troubles. But I do say that we have a much better chance of resolving the internal social and economic discontent than we ever can have now. To me, Sir, it is an act of faith. If it does not work, then what can work? Violent military suppression of Communism? It has little chance of succeeding. It might succeed in South America because it is so far away and it is such a different world, where dictators come and go. But Asia in revolt, Asia on the march, is a very different proposition.

The Chief Minister, with his flair for colourful metaphor, will appreciate this when I say that the problem of Communist subversion and terrorism has become a cancer in our body politic. These Emergency Regulations at best can only be barbiturates. They numb the pain. They lull one into a sense of security, into an illusion that perhaps, after all, the thing that causes the pain is not there. But I myself would prefer a bold cure. I would take one bold step to freedom. Then I say we have a fighting chance to resolve our own social and economic problems when they are reduced to the proportions which they naturally assume in any part of the world, for anywhere social and economic discontent inevitably leads to industrial and social unrest.

I would say that such a free government, speaking for the people, deciding its destiny absolutely and unreservedly, could drastically repeal those parts of the Emergency Regulations which militate against the fundamental rights of human beings anywhere in the world. This would not lead to Communism if such a step were accompanied by an equally bold and drastic economic and social reform. To shrug and doubt is to admit defeat. You may stifle political discontent, but it will come out at some subsequent date in a much more virulent form. If we take our chance now, I say Malaya can succeed as an independent and free democracy.

The Emergency as a violent struggle is very probably going through a decline, and a new phase of bitter political struggle is opening up. If we do not relax these Emergency Regulations with a relaxing of this violence, then we are admitting to ourselves that we are irrevocably wedded to what I am sure the Chief Minister will agree is a totalitarian method of government.

An hon. Member: Nonsense!

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: “Nonsense”, Sir, covers up a lot of ignorance of many, many things. If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law - if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist States - then what is it? I am sure the Minister for Communications will be the first to say that that is what is wrong with Communist States. Then what is done in the name of democracy is right. When it is done in some other name, it is wrong. But these are fundamental beliefs. They may or may not work in Asia, that no one can say. But one can say this:one must have the courage to make it work, to try it; for if it cannot work, then the alternative is one of constant suppression the end of which no one knows.

I believe that for seven years now we have developed an Emergency mentality. Many people believe that the only way to keep down any form of agitation, which anybody may have exploited for their own personal or political ends, is by the use of repressive laws, more policemen, and more arrests. But this has been proved false after seven years. I hate to think that after another three or four years, or whenever it may be when the Chief Minister decides to go back to the people, that it is again to be proved false. It is such a futile answer to the Communist challenge. If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies - even those who do not subscribe to our views - as much constitutional right as you concede yourself. My plea - to quote from sonic-one in another context - is that the time has come in Malaya for an agonising reappraisal of strategy and strength. To go on blindly in the hope that somehow or the other suppression can prevent latent social, economic and political discontents from manifesting themselves and disrupting the structure of society is a piece of folly to which my Party does not subscribe.

I ask the Chief Minister, before he launches into another furious tirade against me and my Party, to think of the political implications it has, first, on himself and his Party, and, second, on Singapore and Malaya. My Party believes, passionately, that the only solution is a hard one, where a great deal of social adjustments may have to be suffered in order that a more stable and a just society could emerge in the non-Communist world in South-East Asia.