Sorry bro, there are days when I go mad.
Hanged, drawn and quartered. Let readers comprehend that! You are too harsh, scroobal.
Hanged, drawn and quartered. Let readers comprehend that! You are too harsh, scroobal.
This disabusement paragraph is a gem...Laconic and cynical, more hard than the Other Hard Truth tomb..Agree bro, in this world of skeptics, anyone can CHOOSE to believe what they will, evidence/ arguments/ logic are sadly malleable or deemed so....Takes sanity and peace to discern : of course please always include humor, otherwise life's not worth living
They assassinated village chiefs, towkays, uninformed staff, utility workers etc.
Dear Scroo
There is an old joke about a competition between the KGB , MI6 and the CIA after the cold war during a Summit between the leaders of their respective countries. All of them were boasting about how good their respective security services were at keeping their countries safe from terrorist and assorted villains. So in order to settle the issue a particular white rabbit was let loose into a forest full of grey rabbits and each agency was tasked to bring it in. Well the KGB sent in a trained female white rabbit but after one day the KGB gave up and said she had slept with every rabbit in the forest except the correct one. MI6 sent in an English white rabbit but alas came out suspiciously in the company of the russian female rabbit, The CIA well it just sent in their top agent who came out of the forest after a day leading a black bear. All the leaders started laughing at the work of the CIA, until the agent looked at the bear and the bear just said, " I am a white rabbit. "
Guantanomo and Al Gharib has proven that torture and excessive pressure leads to inaccurate interrogations and people telling their interrogators what they want to hear in order to to stop the treatment.
I am not to sure what was the "approved' technique in the sixties and seventies but the accounts sees to indicate some degree of physical and mental pressure. It hopefully will prove to be accurate.
Locke
sounds like they punished a doctor just for being a doctor. theseadays doctors would only heal you if you have any money, or they're sure that your insurance company won't sue them.
I know several old couples in their 70s now, obviously well educated but condemned to a life of being tuition teachers and small time businessmen. Honest, hardworking people.
They never talk of their past and seldom turn up for class gatherings. But old classmates will tell you they were exceptionally bright and displayed leadership qualities during their student days back in the 50s and 60s. And during the best years of their life, they "went missing" .
Strange, cos they don't seem the sort who have handled firearm or explosives before.
Bottomline of story is: those were dangerous times; you eat or be eaten.
Legacy: we dont trust those imprisoned who claimed they were innocent; we also dont trust the man who put them in.
You also will never ever know whether innocent people could be imprisoned for spurious reasons in future.
Bottomline of story is: those were dangerous times; you eat or be eaten.
Legacy: we dont trust those imprisoned who claimed they were innocent; we also dont trust the man who put them in.
These are men of conviction, resolve and not out to make money. They wanted to save those who could not help themselves. They preferred a classless society.
Bottomline of story is: those were dangerous times; you eat or be eaten.
"If you were young and not a Communist, you didn't have a heart. If you are old and still a Communist, you don't have a brain."
Bottomline of story is: those were dangerous times; you eat or be eaten.
Legacy: we dont trust those imprisoned who claimed they were innocent; we also dont trust the man who put them in.
You also will never ever know whether innocent people could be imprisoned for spurious reasons in future.
Thanks for the enriching discussion. I do agree with the statement below; as an armchair historian, I also feel there's more good in accepting our history as it is, with warts, pimples and all, rather than trying to turn historiography into a battle between demons and angels.
I had a teacher who grew up during those times. He used to say, "If you were young and not a Communist, you didn't have a heart. If you are old and still a Communist, you don't have a brain."
Here is piece of history that many have placed the leading protagonists on the wrong side.
The Hock Lee Bus Riots and some pictures of the event have been etched in the minds over the decades from school books to newspaper article and review repeats. The impression created was that the PAP was on one side fighting the communist who were behind the riots on the other side.
Guess what? - The incidents were started by key people in the PAP, some of whom were elected members of the legislative assembly. The Govt was led by David Marshal. The PAP was in opposition. The 2 key people directly involved were Fong Swee Suan and Devan Nair who were founding members of the PAP. Just before the riots began, the old man went to the hill near Tanglin and watched Alexander Road erupt. When it did erupt, he took leave and headed for a Fraser's hill for his holiday and golf that very night.
Ask anyone from a doctor to a clerk and they will tell that PAP was in Govt and fighting the communist at that time. Only those who are familiar with history or those lived during those times will tell you otherwise.
Here is piece of history that many have placed the leading protagonists on the wrong side.
The Hock Lee Bus Riots and some pictures of the event have been etched in the minds over the decades from school books to newspaper article and review repeats. The impression created was that the PAP was on one side fighting the communist who were behind the riots on the other side.
Guess what? - The incidents were started by key people in the PAP, some of whom were elected members of the legislative assembly. The Govt was led by David Marshal. The PAP was in opposition. The 2 key people directly involved were Fong Swee Suan and Devan Nair who were founding members of the PAP. Just before the riots began, the old man went to the hill near Tanglin and watched Alexander Road erupt. When it did erupt, he took leave and headed for a Fraser's hill for his holiday and golf that very night.
Ask anyone from a doctor to a clerk and they will tell that PAP was in Govt and fighting the communist at that time. Only those who are familiar with history or those lived during those times will tell you otherwise.
Right! My 88 yr old Mum lived thru those tumultous times. She used to work in the rubber factories which processed the latex from the rubber trees. FSS, LCS clique were really stirring up the unions and LKY would be the lawyer defending them. Of cos, he didnt just defend them - he advised them which legal loopholes to exploit so that thye would escape thru the cracks in the law. That's why he was legal adviser.
When his turn came to be the govt, he already knew the tricks of these guys, that's when he began to see monsters under his bed when he went to sleep. Over the years, he saw them everywhere he looked.
The end game is that history belongs to the victors. Sad but true.
Dr Poh, Raman, Soh Lung and those from USC etc were all idealists as it was then fashionable to be, but to me they were harmless - as harmless as English-educated revolutionaries can be (LKY always had believed so). Unwittingly, they were caught up as pawns in a dangerous struggle for supremacy between the British proxies and the real Communists who were faceless and would resort to violent means to overthrow estab govts.
Still, the PAP govt in the case of the Marxist conspiracy overplayed their hand. Seen against a backdrop of collapsed Communism in Russia and China, and the decimated MCP since 1957, the prolonged and undemocratic detention was unjustified without a trial. All that the "conspirators" deserved was a rap on their knuckles to wake up their idea not to be used as proxies by the Vietnamese (which was on the ascendacy) or the Chinese which was declining.
they are muddled if they credit PAP to this..
this was in 1955...PAP only won election in 1959.
back then it is still David Marshall...
i heard LKY abolished the jury system becos of this guy...is it true?
You will surprised. A lot of people think that the PAP was fighting the rioters during the Hock Lee Bus Riots when they were the ones behind it. Check the Hansard and you can see the old man getting crucified in the legislative assembly for the PAP involvement.
The jury was removed not because of Marshal but I believe because of the old man himself. He defended one of those who killed a white man during the Maria Hertogh riots and managed to get him acquitted via the gullible jury.
Still, the PAP govt in the case of the Marxist conspiracy overplayed their hand. Seen against a backdrop of collapsed Communism in Russia and China, and the decimated MCP since 1957, the prolonged and undemocratic detention was unjustified without a trial. All that the "conspirators" deserved was a rap on their knuckles to wake up their idea not to be used as proxies by the Vietnamese (which was on the ascendacy) or the Chinese which was declining.