The only thing LKY had was his British ways and mannerisms when he first came back from UK. He wanted to partake in the nationalist process and was quite inspired by the likes of Nehru. He had no power base and for a time, he was fucking around with Fabian Society, the Democratic Forum, and even helped his boss Woodcock (what a name!) who was in the People's Progressive party (PPP) in his election campaign. But he was not making any headway and going nowhere. This all he admitted in his memoirs. Even the initial much touted meetings in the basement of his Oxley house didnt bear much fruit.
Until he stumbled upon a different underground world where Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan and comrades were operating. He recounted it was a world teeming with vitality, energy, of thousands of students and trade unions mobilised by pple like Chin Siong. Here was his chance to make the breakthru into politics and involved himself in the fashionable battles for independence that were ringing across Asia. Here was a powerbase he could not afford to ignore and which he could use. However, he was an infant in this game of mass agitation cf. to LCS, but he knew he had a powerful ally. Altho he would later label LCS a communist, he himself was not abashed in defending their methods and unashamedly stepping on their backs to win popular elections later, and then betrayed them.
Acc to books I have read on Chin Peng and the MCP, Lim Chin Siong's faction may not be real Communist working on the command of the MCP in malaya. This is because Communist ops were supposed to comply with directives from the Town Committee in Singapore which was in charge of all Singapore communists cells. In fact, LCS faction used to exceed their directives and did their own things on their own initiatives, due to spontaneous reaction to very fast ongoing and emerging developments on the local scene, so they could not afford to wait for orders.This made the Communist label on LCS and his gang doubtful but of cos LKY was to press the case often and hard enough on the British behind their backs, so that LKY himself would be the eventual one that would endear himself to them.
The point is that LCS could have been just as good a PM or an even better one. LKY was an anglophone whereas LCS was not. LCS was a straight forward guy, unassuming, lovable, a lady's man, handsome boyish looks, and had far more EQ than the Old man.
LCS could not beat LKY in being a weasel, a dirty rat who ratted on his comrades and allies. To say he fought for our independence is a joke. It was handed to him on a platter. Twice (see my signature).
If he had drifted along wthout LCS, he would,like the SDP Chee, have been a loser as well to this day.
Certainly not the "lesser mortals" struggling to pay their HDB mortgages, car loans, utility bills, .... We as citizens are not even allowed to know how much of our CPF is left,
