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Singapore Political Awakening
The Colonial Office established an advisory council in
November
1945 to work with the BMA on the reconstruction of
Singapore. Among
the seventeen members appointed to the council was Wu Tian
Wang, a
former guerrilla leader and chairman of the communist
Singapore
City Committee. The MCP enjoyed great popularity in the
early
postwar days because of its association with the
resistance and the
Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army, which also included
many
noncommunists. In January 1946, the anti-January army was
formally
disbanded following a final parade at which Mountbatten
presented
medals to the guerrilla commander, Chin Peng, and the
other
resistance leaders. All arms and ammunition, which the
guerrillas
had received in airdrops from the British during the war
or
captured from the Japanese, were supposed to be
surrendered at that
time. The CPM, however, secretly retained large stocks of
its
weapons.
The British legally recognized the MCP in late 1945,
largely
because of its resistance efforts and its popularity. The
party by
that time commanded about 70,000 supporters. The MCP at
first
concentrated its efforts on organizing labor, establishing
the
General Labour Union, which covered more than sixty trade
unions.
It organized numerous strikes in 1945 and early 1946,
including a
two-day general strike in January in which 173,000 workers
struck
and transport was brought to a halt. In February, after
the
formation of a Pan-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions
claiming
450,000 members in Singapore and the peninsula, the BMA
arrested
twenty-seven leading communists, banishing ten of them
without
trial. Thereafter, the MCP adopted a lower profile of
quietly
backing radical groups that were working for
constitutional changes
and increasing its control over the labor movement.
In April 1946, the BMA ended with the formation of the
Malayan
Union, at which time Singapore became a separate crown
colony with
a civil administration. The two entities continued to
share a
common currency, institutions of higher learning, and the
administration of immigration, civil aviation, posts and
telegraphs, and income tax. Opposition to the separation
of Malaya
and Singapore motivated the formation in December 1945 of
Singapore's first indigenous political party, the Malayan
Democratic Union (MDU). Although most leaders of the new
party were
not communist, there were several prominent communists
among its
founders, including Wu Tian Wang, who saw the Malayan
Union as a
threat to the vision of a communist, united Malayan
republic. The
MDU proposed eventual inclusion of Singapore in an
independent
Malaya within the Commonwealth of Nations. Meanwhile, on
the
peninsula, conservative Malay leaders, who were concerned
about
provisions in the Malayan Union scheme that conferred
equal
political status on immigrant communities, formed the
United Malays
National Organization (UMNO) in March 1946. After various
mass
rallies, movements and countermovements, proposals and
counterproposals, the British acceded to UMNO wishes.
February 1948
marked the formation of the Federation of Malaya, which
provided
for the gradual assimilation of immigrants into a Malay
state
working toward independence under British guidance.
Singapore
remained a separate crown colony.
Elections in Singapore were scheduled for March 1948,
at which
time a new constitution would go into effect. That
document called
for an Executive Council of colonial officials and a
Legislative
Council comprising nine officials and thirteen
nonofficials, four
nominated by the governor, three chosen by the chambers of
commerce, and six elected by adult British subjects who
had been
resident in Singapore for one year prior to the election.
The
appointed governor retained power over certain items and
veto power
over the proceedings of the Legislative Council. The MDU,
by then
a communist front organization, boycotted the elections
and
organized mass rallies opposing the new constitution. The
moderate
Progressive Party was formed in August 1947 by
British-educated
business and professional men who advocated gradual
constitutional
reform aimed at eventual self-government. Of the six
elected seats
on the Legislative Council, three were won by independents
and
three by Progressives, the only party to contest the
elections. In
the first municipal election in 1949, the Progressive
Party won
thirteen of the eighteen seats on the twenty-seven member
municipal
commission. Voter interest was very low in both elections,
however,
with only about 10 percent of those eligible registering
to vote.
Meanwhile, the MCP had abandoned the moderate stance
advocated
by its secretary general Lai Teck, who was replaced in
March 1947
by Chin Peng. Soon after, it was discovered that Lai Teck
had not
only disappeared with the party's funds but also been a
double
agent, serving both the Japanese and the British.
Following the
establishment of the Federation of Malaya in February
1948,
Singapore's communist leaders moved to the peninsula where
they
reactivated the MPAJA and began fomenting acts of violence
and
terrorism. This led to the declaration of a State of
Emergency in
Malaya on June 18 and in Singapore a week later. Although
the
twelve-year struggle was largely confined to the
peninsula,
restrictions were placed on meetings and strikes, and the
detention
of individuals without trial was permitted under the
Emergency
regulations. The MCP was proscribed by the colonial
government in
Singapore, and the MDU, fearing the same fate, voluntarily
dissolved itself. Left-wing political movements were thus
stifled,
and the only political party that arose to challenge the
Progressives was the Singapore Labour Party formed in
1948. Like
the Progressive Party, its positions were moderate and its
leadership mostly British educated. Nevertheless, as a
result of
personal squabbles and factions, the Singapore Labour
Party had
largely disintegrated by 1952.
The number of elected seats in the Legislative Council
was
increased to nine in 1951, and the Progressive Party won
six of the
nine seats in the election that year. The membership of
the party
never numbered more than about 4,000, the majority of whom
were
upper or middle class and British educated. The interests
of the
members of the Legislative Council and the leadership of
the
Progressive Party were so closely aligned with those of
the
colonial government that they were out of touch with the
masses.
Participation in politics was restricted to Straits-born
or
naturalized British subjects who were literate in English.
This
exclusion of immigrants and those not educated in English
meant
that, in the late 1940s, about one-half of Singapore's
adult
population was disenfranchised.
Although the Chinese-educated took little interest in
the
affairs of the Legislative Council and the colonial
government,
they were stirred with pride by the success of the CCP in
China.
Fearful that support by Singapore's Chinese for the CCP
would
translate to support for the MCP, the colonial government
attempted
to curtail contacts between the Singapore Chinese and
their
homeland. When Tan Kah Kee returned from a trip to China
in 1950,
the colonial government refused to readmit him, and he
lived out
his days in his native Fujian Province.
For graduates of Singapore's Chinese high schools,
there were
no opportunities for higher education in the colony. Many
went to
universities in China, despite the fact that immigration
laws
prohibited them from returning to Singapore. To alleviate
this
problem, wealthy rubber merchant and industrialist Tan
Lark Sye
proposed formation of a Chinese-language university for
the
Chinese-educated students of Singapore, Malaya, and all
Southeast
Asia. Singaporean Chinese, rich and poor, donated funds to
found
Nanyang University, which was opened in Singapore in 1956.
By the early 1950s, large numbers of young men whose
education
had been postponed by the Japanese occupation were
studying at
Chinese-language high schools. These older students were
particularly critical of the colonial government's
restrictive
policies toward Chinese and of its lack of support for
Chinese-
language schools. The teachers in these schools were
poorly paid,
the educational standards were low, and graduates of the
schools
found they could not get jobs in the civil service or gain
entrance
to Singapore's English-language universities. While
critical of the
colonial government, the students were becoming
increasingly proud
of the success of the communist revolution in China,
reading with
interest the publications and propaganda put out by the
new regime.
As the Emergency on the peninsula began to go badly for
the
communists, the MCP took a renewed interest in Singapore
and began
organizing protest demonstrations among the disaffected
students.
Among the brightest and most capable of the older Chinese
high
school students were Lim Chin Siong and Fong Swee Suan,
who both
became involved in organizing class boycotts that resulted
in a
police raid on the Chinese High School in 1952. The two
left the
school, took low-paying jobs at bus companies, and began
working to
build communist influence among workers and students. In
May 1954,
mass student protest demonstrations were organized to
oppose a new
National Service Ordinance requiring males between the
ages of
eighteen and twenty to register for part-time national
service.
Also in May, the Singapore Factory and Shop Workers' Union
registered with the government, with Lim as its secretary
general;
Fong, who was by then general secretary of the Singapore
Bus
Workers' Union, and C.V. Devan Nair, of (at that time) the
Singapore Teachers' Union, were members of the executive
board.
Dedicated and charismatic, Lim led several well-organized
small
strikes that were successful in gaining better conditions
for the
union's workers, and in attracting thousands of recruits
for the
union. By late 1955, the Singapore Factory and Shop
Workers' Union
included thirty industrial unions and had a membership of
about
30,000.
Data as of December 1989
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