The Dramatic Rise of Lee Kuan Yew

I have posted on 4 May 2018 that it would be my swan song but I have to reluctantly resume as I could not for some esoteric reason get the PAP mouth-piece The Straits Times to publish although I do not think that they are so acutely blind that they are not able to see its public interest. It is amazing that that they can be so uncivilised that they do not have the decency to give a decent reply.

It would be appropriate o give a little background to the October Resolution issued by the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) in 1951 which had a dynamic effect in the political development in Singapore. The CPM armed struggle was not going well for the CPM and the CEC met in October 1951 to find a solution to the setback in their armed struggle.After probably a long deliberation they decided that a united front be formed to complement the armed struggle and so a watershed October Resolution was issued to the CPM components to carry out.

Because of the intricacies of the CPM courier system, by the time the October Resolution was implemented in Singapore was end 1953/1954. Overnight numerous  left-wing unions, Chinese School Old Boys' Associations, the Brass Gong Society, the Women's Federation and others sprang up like in the Chinese saying "the sprouting of young bamboo shoots after the rain".The significant point was that out of nowhere emerged a nonentity in the person of Lim Chin Siong who assumed the leadership of the Communist United Front CUF). It would be wrong not to admit that the magnitude of this phenomenon did not alarm the authorities, especially the Special Branch SB)  but SB was resilient enough to recover from the shock and quickly proceed to re-organise to combat the colossal security threat.

That Lim Chin Siong was a CUF leader with eminence and popularity was never in doubt. To show an example of his eminent status, in the early days when he entered the former Happy Wold Stadium where political rallies were regularly held by the CUF he was always greeted with a standing ovation.This was spontaneous and the stadium was fully packed with supporters. Lee Kuan Yew would follow behind with a briefcase in his hand and he would not have missed observing this massive honour given to Lim Chin Siong. In fact this would have been a crucial point in his calculation to advance his political career.

Lee Kuan Yew was a politician without a mass base which would be a great handicap in his political ambition. He had to rely on Lim Chin Siong for political support because of Lim's massive mass base. LKY fully realised that Lim would be a formidable impediment to his political career and any plan in his mind to remove this obstacle in his poltical path could not be too far-fetched.To give an example of his great apprehension of Lim's political prowess over him, he was known to have introduced Lim to his guests as the future prime minister of Singapore. This could have been said in a moment of banter but it could unwittingly reveal a tortured mind.

Notwithstanding all these adverse circumstances against him, LKY seemed to have the divine blessing in his political pursuit.One was the Special Branch and the other could be a person least expected to be a boon to him.  And that saviour was none other than the much-maligned LIm Yew Hock who was the Chief Minister. If given the choice LKY would rather not be beholden to a person he considered an unsavoury politician and an awesome security organ.

Special Banch had the unedifying task of incarcerating Lim Chin Siong and his fellow activists to prevent them from fomenting pro-communist agitation in the political arena in Singapore and this had unwittingly paved the way for Lee Kuan Yew to capture power  in the General Election in 1959 to become the PAP prime minister of Singapore.Special Branch could not have been able to mount the arrests without the signature of Lim Yew Hock. And no one had been able to read his mind to unravel the puzzle as the why he had so blithely put his signature to the detention.

There is a Chinese saying: If a war is successful ten thousand bones would have rotted or decayed.(一仗功成万骨枯）