The trouble is we never know what's really in those letters. We only have Old Man's word. Seeing how words and phrases can be twisted to suit his agenda, can we really take things at face value? Take for example, this Malik affair. There seems to be enough inertia in the system to jumpstart into overdrive of persecution, paranoia, and playing oversafe. When in doubt, arrest and detain and torture the confessions out of the victims, if the fishing fails.
I'm just waiting for these files to be declassed so the whole Singapore would know whetehr it was all a witch hunt because Old Man kept seeing the ghosts of communist trade unions and middle school students.