Hock Lee Bus Riots of May 1955 - Know your history

scroobal · Jan 30, 2010

Which political party was behind the Hock Lee Bus Riots in 1955 and student riots over this tumultuous period and who was the leader of the party. 2 Policemen, 1 foreign correspondent and 1 student died in the Hock Lee bus riots.

Bear in mind, this party was been elected to the legislative assembly and was member of the opposition. 4 of 10 will claim that they have no clue and 6 of 10 will say the communist when it was no longer a registered party.

halsey02 · Jan 30, 2010

scroobal said:
Which political party was behind the Hock Lee Bus Riots in 1955 and student riots over this tumultuous period and who was the leader of the party. 2 Policemen, 1 foreign correspondent and 1 student died in the Hock Lee bus riots.

Bear in mind, this party was been elected to the legislative assembly and was member of the opposition. 4 of 10 will claim that they have no clue and 6 of 10 will say the communist when it was no longer a registered party.

Wasn't born yet!...our comrades PAP? :p

Ramseth · Jan 30, 2010

It was PAP. Those who accused communist remained PAP. Those who were clueless became BS.

SotongMee · Jan 30, 2010

You got long and good memory, PAP blames their "communist" PAP elements for instigating the roit.

Then later arrests all the "PAP communist" elements and become white than white after that.

That is politics. Once into the arena. Don't expect a level playing field.

All political parties started as mafia-like gangs anyway.

Ramseth said:
It was PAP. Those who accused communist remained PAP. Those who were clueless became BS.

elephanto · Jan 30, 2010

In the 'Comet' book, Lim Chin Siong's version is that one thing leads to another - Hock Lee riot was unplanned.

It seems Chinese High students went to support the striking drivers. But there are drivers who decided to drive having been persudaded by management. So, strike & non-strike parties collide. Bus depot entrances blocked, scuffles broke out .... eventually mayhem.

Lim suggested Hock Lee bosses have gotten gangsters to come & rough up dissenters, was Lim naive/innocent or were MCP agents working unseen to hype up the strikers even more without his knowledge....

The rest is history.

scroobal · Jan 30, 2010

It was indeed the PAP and they were in the opposition in the legislative assembly while David Marshal's Labour Front was in Government. The leader of the Union that led the confrontation was Fong Swee Suan, a PAP founder member and PAP had only recently formed. The riots was not condemned nor any sanctions imposed on its members by the PAP leadership. Old Man was the leader and a day after the riots began, left for Cameron Highlands for a holiday for 3 weeks. The holiday was never planned.

Old Man has also the distinction of leading the first industrial action/strike after the lifting of Emergency Regulations imposed. Old Man had the distinction of being the legal advisor of nearly every striking unions led by the communists over a 5 year period.

Old man was not riding the tiger, he was instigating the tiger and creating havoc in Singapore and gave hell to the government. Only when the communist took majority of the seats in PAP's CEC that he had to throw them out. Interestingly, this period after was so much quieter.

Privpho · Jan 30, 2010

wow I wonder where he got his genius for playing politics from?

Ramseth · Jan 30, 2010

scroobal said:
It was indeed the PAP and they were in the opposition in the legislative assembly while David Marshal's Labour Front was in Government. The leader of the Union that led the confrontation was Fong Swee Suan, a PAP founder member and PAP had only recently formed. The riots was not condemned nor any sanctions imposed on its members by the PAP leadership. Old Man was the leader and a day after the riots began, left for Cameron Highlands for a holiday for 3 weeks. The holiday was never planned.

Old Man has also the distinction of leading the first industrial action/strike after the lifting of Emergency Regulations imposed. Old Man had the distinction of being the legal advisor of nearly every striking unions led by the communists over a 5 year period.

Old man was not riding the tiger, he was instigating the tiger and creating havoc in Singapore and gave hell to the government. Only when the communist took majority of the seats in PAP's CEC that he had to throw them out. Interestingly, this period after was so much quieter.

Notably, Old Man was also legal advisor to Tang Liang Hong's student union movement.

scroobal · Jan 30, 2010

Yes, and no academic wants to touch this. If anyone wants tackle the birth of Singapore covering the period from 1953 to 1956 and phase II from 1957 to 1965 using the Hansard, straits times, the singapore standards as well as the chinese press, they will get the answers.

Ramseth said:
Notably, Old Man was also legal advisor to Tang Liang Hong's student union movement.

kingrant · Jan 30, 2010

My mother, now 80, wasn't an academic but in 1950s, she had the grandstand to see everything. She worked in the rubber factories then. Rubber slabs after being produced from latex had to be cut into strips. Over the years, she would tell me bits now and then. She would curse "Lay Kong Yew hum kar charn" for "playing the trade unions", that 'curly haired orange peel face kid'.

scroobal said:
Yes, and no academic wants to touch this. If anyone wants tackle the birth of Singapore covering the period from 1953 to 1956 and phase II from 1957 to 1965 using the Hansard, straits times, the singapore standards as well as the chinese press, they will get the answers.

kingrant · Jan 30, 2010

There is a book "The Open United Front" by Lee Ting Hui.This covers the period 1955-1966. Another one by him is "The Communist organisation in Singapore:its techniques on manpower mobilisation and management 1948-66". I havent read them but they could be informative. Avail at the NLB.

scroobal said:
Yes, and no academic wants to touch this. If anyone wants tackle the birth of Singapore covering the period from 1953 to 1956 and phase II from 1957 to 1965 using the Hansard, straits times, the singapore standards as well as the chinese press, they will get the answers.

kingrant · Jan 30, 2010

He was then a political innocent, subscriber to the British style of Labour Politics, Fabian Society and MDU. His first stint was campaigning for a Labour MP while he was still at Cambridge. Very mild type. Back in Singapore, he was invited to join his law firm's boss, John Laycock's party but he refused. It was only after he met Lim Chin Siong when the latter brought some workers who had been charged for the Postmen Union strike and thereafter became exposed to the unions teeming with dynamism and energy that he was galvanised and realised that he could make use of LCS and his unions power base to grab power. It was a revelation for Old Man. Before that, he was neither here nor there, not making headway at all, and having no inkling how before that.

Privpho said:
wow I wonder where he got his genius for playing politics from?

Glaringly · Jan 30, 2010

I studied at Barisan Socialist Kindergarten, and recites "Long Live Chairman Mao" regularly. :rolleyes:

There was once this stage play with adult actors, where they portray LKY as the "traitor dog" etc...

The next couple of weeks, one by one of our Kampong neighbours that were involved disappeared without trace. If my little memory serves me correctly.

Those were the days of the power struggle.

Sideswipe · Jan 30, 2010

Is LKY a left or right wing politician now?

kingrant · Jan 30, 2010

I am quoting from D J Enright's book Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor,

"For he (LKY) has also given them ( Singaporeans) to understand that, since by the very nature of Singapore there can be no Rightist opposition, what opposition there was would have to beLeft of the PAP. And what lies to the left of the PAP is Communism".

And further down the page,

"If they (Communists) didnt exist, we (PAP) would have to invent them."

So where do you thnik the PAP is.

Sideswipe said:
Is LKY a left or right wing politician now?

elephanto · Jan 30, 2010

Glaringly said:
I studied at Barisan Socialist Kindergarten, and recites "Long Live Chairman Mao" regularly.

There was once this stage play with adult actors, where they portray LKY as the "traitor dog" etc...

走狗，二毛子！were favourite descriptions of traitors & English-educated angmo-wannabes then....

Ah Guan · Jan 30, 2010

Sideswipe said:
Is LKY a left or right wing politician now?

Depends on who he is speaking to

eatshitndie · Jan 30, 2010

kingrant said:
He was then a political innocent, subscriber to the British style of Labour Politics, Fabian Society and MDU. His first stint was campaigning for a Labour MP while he was still at Cambridge. Very mild type. Back in Singapore, he was invited to join his law firm's boss, John Laycock's party but he refused. It was only after he met Lim Chin Siong when the latter brought some workers who had been charged for the Postmen Union strike and thereafter became exposed to the unions teeming with dynamism and energy that he was galvanised and realised that he could make use of LCS and his unions power base to grab power. It was a revelation for Old Man. Before that, he was neither here nor there, not making headway at all, and having no inkling how before that.

nah. not that innocent. ask the ghosts of masayuki oishi and tsuji masanobu. anyone who was tall, educated, chinese, young, male, english-speaking and had some ties to the british either as a subject, a servant or a student in ww2 would have been rounded up in shingapōru daikenshō or the kakyōshukusei operation. yet, he survived the kakyōgyakusatsujiken, and not only that, he pledged allegiance to the emperor, the ija, and kempeitai and served in the kempeitai till the jap surrender to the allies. as a collaborator of a brutal occupation force, he had the nerve to rewrite his own version of wikipedia history when much of his english-educated cohort were either butchered, bullet-ridden or bayoneted. he learned how to be mean and how to betray and backstab when he was a young man.

kingrant · Jan 30, 2010

Yes, your version is more cynical.

In one of Alex Josey's books (can't recall), Old Man was on a ship to Cambridge for his studies, and there was water rationing, so every passenger could only use his quota of 1 pail of water for washing and drinking. To circumvent that quota restriction, the slimy bastard woke up very early before anyone else, and use up other people's quotas. See what kind of a leader we have?

eatshitndie said:
nah. not that innocent. ask the ghosts of masayuki oishi and tsuji masanobu. anyone who was tall, educated, chinese, young, male, english-speaking and had some ties to the british either as a subject, a servant or a student in ww2 would have been rounded up in shingapōru daikenshō or the kakyōshukusei operation. yet, he survived the kakyōgyakusatsujiken, and not only that, he pledged allegiance to the emperor, the ija, and kempeitai and served in the kempeitai till the jap surrender to the allies. as a collaborator of a brutal occupation force, he had the nerve to rewrite his own version of wikipedia history when much of his english-educated cohort were either butchered, bullet-ridden or bayoneted. he learned how to be mean and how to betray and backstab when he was a young man.

moolightaffairs · Jan 30, 2010

every independent mind know that lky made used of unions and communists to rise to the power, not that he ride the tiger.

a lot of the old generation know that lky is traitor during japanese occupation.

Hock Lee Bus Riots of May 1955 - Know your history

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