Singapore PUBLIC ORDER AND INTERNAL SECURITY
Victory parade and demonstration, September 1945
Courtesy National Archives
Collecting water during Civil Defence Force exercises
Courtesy Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information
A neighborhood police post
Courtesy Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information
Figure 16. Organization of the Police Force, 1989
Figure 17.
Organization of the Civil Defence Force, 1989
Source: Based on information from Singapore, Civil Defence Force,
Civil Defence in Singapore, 1939-1984, Singapore, 1985,
98.
Between 1819 and 1867, the British East India Company
worked
closely with citizens' councils that represented the
European,
Chinese, Malay, and Indian communities to maintain law and
order in
Singapore. The British civil service comprised a small and
overworked staff that often tried unsuccessfully to
enforce British
laws in the Straits Settlements. The resident councillor
for
Singapore was responsible for adjudicating most criminal
and civil
cases. More serious cases were referred to the governor of
the
Straits Settlements in Penang, or, on rare occasions, to
the
governor general in India. Chinese secret societies
flourished, and
violent crime was a fact of life. Thomas Dunman,
Singapore's first
superintendent of police, was a young British merchant who
was
respected by leaders of the European community and
supported by
influential Malays and Indians, who felt powerless to
prevent
Chinese gangs from roving into their districts, assaulting
people,
and robbing homes and businesses. In 1843 Dunman recruited
a small
group of itinerant workers and single-handedly trained and
organized them into an effective police force. By 1856
gang
robberies no longer were a major problem, but the secret
societies
continued to control lucrative gambling, drug, and
prostitution
operations.
From 1867 to 1942, the Straits Settlements had unified
law
enforcement and criminal justice systems. However,
colonial
authorities in Singapore continued to respect religious
and
cultural customs in the Chinese and Malay communities as
long as
local practices were peaceful and residents respected
British
authority. In 1868 Governor Sir Harry Ord established a
circuit
court, and its jurisdiction over criminal and civil
matters
gradually expanded in Singapore during the period up to
World War
II. Leaders of the Chinese community appreciated the
cooperative
nature of British government officials and helped to
promote
respect for the law. By the 1880s, government efforts to
reduce the
criminal elements of the Chinese secret societies had
succeeded in
making the city a safer place to live. Europeans and
Indians
dominated the police force. Colonial authorities rarely
hired
Chinese for police work for fear the secret societies
would
infiltrate the force. After World War I, an increase in
political
violence was attributed to the growth of communist
influence within
the Chinese community. In 1919 a special branch was
established in
the police force to combat the communist-inspired
anticolonial
activities, which were increasing in Chinese schools and
businesses. In 1931 a special branch operation resulted in
the
arrest and deportation of leaders of the newly formed
Communist
Party of Malaya (CPM). By the end of the decade, however,
communist
influence and political subversion were once again a
problem for
law enforcement officials.
During the period that Singapore was a crown colony,
militia
groups trained by the British army occasionally assisted
the police
force in maintaining civil order and promoted citizen
involvement
in protecting the city from foreign invasion. Even before
Singapore
became a crown colony, concerned citizens in the European
community
had formed a citizens' militia. In 1854 about sixty
European
expatriates established the Volunteer Rifle Corps to
protect
citizens from violent riots. Although most riots occurred
because
of factional fighting between Chinese secret societies,
some
disturbances also disrupted the commercial activities of
the city.
By 1910 there were 700 volunteers in six organizations
that were
collectively called the Singapore Volunteer Corps.
Europeans
comprised four groups, including two infantry companies,
one
artillery company and one engineer company. The Chinese
and Malay
communities each contributed one company. In February
1915, the
Volunteer Corps was mobilized to help restore order
following a
rebellion by Singapore's Indian troops
(see
Crown Colony, 1867- 1918
, ch. 1). Approximately 800 Funjabi Muslim soldiers,
who
comprised most of the British garrison in Singapore at
that time,
were deceived by German prisoners of war into believing
that they
were about to be redeployed to the front lines in Europe.
The
Punjabi Muslims killed their officers and went on a
rampage through
the city before dispersing in small groups to the northern
section
of the island. For a two-week period, the Sinapore
Volunteer Corps,
along with the police and the crews from British, French,
Japanese,
and Russian warships, rounded up the Punjabi Muslims and
protected
the city while the colonial government restored order. In
1922 the
Straits Settlements Volunteer Force was established, and
the
British army became more active in training the
volunteers.
Mobilized on December 1, 1941, six days before the
Japanese Malayan
campaign began, Singapore's volunteers manned bunkers and
artillery
positions along the south coast to defend the city from an
invasion
from the sea that never came.
In response to communal riots in December 1950, the
British
reorganized the Singapore Police Force and established
links
between the police and the British army that effectively
prevented
subsequent civil disturbances from getting out of hand.
The 1950
riots occurred when Malay policemen, who comprised 90
percent of
the police force, failed to control a demonstration
outside
Singapore's Supreme Court. The demonstration occurred
following a
decision by the court to return to her natural parents a
Dutch
Eurasian girl who had been raised in a Malay foster home
during the
Japanese occupation. Incensed by the court's decision,
large groups
of Malays randomly attacked Europeans and Eurasians
killing 18 and
wounding 173. The British army had to be called in to
restore
order.
The British reorganization of the police force included
the
hiring of large numbers of Europeans, Chinese, and Indians
to
improve the ethnic balance; the establishment of riot
control
teams; and the modernization of police command and
communication
channels. The riot control teams belonged to a new
organization
known as the Police Reserve Unit. Members of the unit had
to be
politically reliable and had to pass a rigorous training
course.
The first riot control teams were deployed in December
1952. In May
1955, these units were effective in containing
communist-inspired
rioters during a transportation workers' strike, although
four
people were killed and thirty-one injured over a three-day
period.
In July 1956 the Singapore government under Chief
Minister Lim
Yew Hock's government prepared an internal security plan
that
simplified arrangements for cooperation between the police
and the
British army during serious civil disturbances. The new
plan
provided for a joint command post to be set up as quickly
as
possible after the police recognized the possibility of a
riot. The
Police Reserve Unit was to assume responsibility for riot
control
operations within clearly defined sectors while army units
were
deployed to control the movement of civilians in the
immediate
area. The plan was tested and proved effective during
communistinspired riots in October 1956, when five army battalions
supported
the police and five helicopters were used for aerial
surveillance
of the demonstrators. Police and army cooperation
succeeded in
breaking up large groups of rioters into smaller groups
and
preventing the spread of the violence to neighboring
communities.
Police and army restraint kept deaths and injuries to a
minimum and
improved the confidence of the public in the government's
capability in handling incidents of domestic violence. The
British
role was a stabilizing factor that facilitated the demise
of the
CPM in Singapore and a smooth transition of power to the
People's
Action Party (PAP).
Data as of December 1989
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