It was at a session of the present parliament, elected in the landmark 2011 election, that a question that has not been asked for the last 50 years was raised. In a written answer to NCMP Lina Chiam, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean who is also the Minister for Home Affairs, Co-ordinating Minister for National Security and Minister-in-charge of the Civil Service revealed that a total of 2,460 were arrested from 1959 when the PAP came into power to 1990 under the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance and its successor legislation, the Internal Security Act. Of this, 1045 received detention orders, renewable at the minister’s discretion every two years.
As is well known, Chia Thye Poh, detained in 1966, was a free person only after 32 years.
The use of the ISA is usually associated with the 1960s and especially, Operation Coldstore. In fact, the ISA has been used more frequently than just the 60s. In the 70s, more than 800 were arrested and 235 detained. From December 2001 to 2013 about 89 people were arrested and 64 were detained.
These statistics are highlighted in the book. ‘2 February’ survivors have written accounts of their political activities, lives in prison, and thereafter. They affirm that they posed an electoral threat to the PAP in the 1963 election, resolutely refuting charges that they were out to subvert the political system to benefit a foreign power. Even when the PAP won that election with 37 seats to the Barisan’s 13, three of the newly elected Barisan MPs were detained and another two became refugees even before they stepped into the legislature. They remain political exiles till today.
In the pre-Coldstore period, the PAP government was regularly asked to account for the number of detainees. Such detentions were associated with colonial rule and that of its lackeys. The electorate voted the PAP into power in 1959 in expectation that the detainees would be freed. Huge fanfare accompanied the immediate release of the eight biggest names. The women detainees were released only three months later. The majority continued to be imprisoned.
It has taken fifty years before information on the number of detentions under the Internal Security Act was given in parliament. During the ‘Marxist Conspiracy’ debates in parliament, it was Chiam See Tong, then the sole opposition MP who demanded accountability for the government’s action.
The launch of this important book reminds us of how little we know about our history and how much the ISA is tied to our politics.
Book launch details:
The 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore: Commemorating 50 years, ed. Poh Soo Kai, Tan Kok Fang and Hong Lysa
Venue: Harvest Care Centre
165 Sims Avenue
Date: 16 November 2013
Time: 2.30 pm (to be seated by 2.15 pm)
Facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/267604823387089/