opinion

'Often in the course of a people's struggle for freedom, a remarkable leader emerges. In Singapore nearly 50 years ago, such a leader was Lim Chin Siong -a name which struck terror in the hearts of our foreign oppressors and their collaborators.

No historian can objectively write about the history of our people's struggle for freedom and social justice without focusing on the pivotal role that Chin Siong played in compelling Britain to relinquish its political power in Singapore.

Five years have passed since Chin Siong left this mortal world, but his name is immortalised in the glorious history of our people's struggle against colonialism.

It is a pity that Chin Siong's untimely death has deprived us of his personal account of his experience and contributions. The book we are launching today on Chin Siong is but only a token of our tribute to this remarkable person.

We are gathered here to honour the noble and indomitable spirit in which Chin Siong had lived his life - a life that was totally dedicated to the liberation of oppressed people of all races and cultures from poverty and social injustice.

It was Chin Siong's leadership that aroused and mobilised the people of Singapore to free themselves from foreign domination and it was the strength of this mass movement in the early 1950s that compelled Britain to relinquish its political power in Singapore.

Worms and vermin

Chin Siong and his comrades were, however, robbed of the fruits of their struggle by the most ruthless and vicious repression launched by the colonial power and its collaborators in 1963.

In Singapore, as in many other British colonies, Britain brutally suppressed a genuine anti-colonial movement to facilitate the transfer of power to those whom Britain could rely upon to safeguard its vested interest.

Today, the British government has the temerity to pose as international arbiters on political morality and human rights. But when we examine Britain's past records, particularly in its former colonies like Singapore, we find that this self-anointed angel is standing on a pedestal reeking with worms and vermin.

Unless and until the British government could come clean with its past shameful deeds and sincerely atone for its crimes and sins, its present pious protestation of high morality will sound hollow and pretentious.

No amount of distortion of history could possibly rob Chin Siong of the glory of his heroic struggle against colonialism in Singapore.

Genuine reunification

Chin Siong is a hero of his time - a national hero in the history of our country. It is most fitting that this book on Chin Siong is being launched here in Kuala Lumpur because it emphasises that his political struggle, although largely confined to Singapore, has always been to attain freedom for Singapore within a united and democratic Malaya, including Singapore.

In 1963, Chin Siong opposed the discriminatory terms of merger for Singapore because he was convinced that they would only aggravate the division of our people. The racial riots in Singapore in 1964 and the subsequent separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965 had totally exonerated Chin Siong's political stand.

Chin Siong had consistently stood for a genuine reunification of Singapore with peninsular Malaya to establish a truly united, democratic, peaceful and prosperous country. When Chin Siong opposed the terms of Singapore's merger with Malaysia, he was branded as "anti-national" by those same persons who are now feverishly trying to inculcate a separate identity for the people in Singapore.

The true story of Singapore's separation from Malaysia on 9 August 1965 has not been written. The official story was that Singapore was expelled from Malaysia by Tunku Abdul Rahman.

But in an interview with Dr Melanie Chew in 1996, published in her book called Leaders of Singapore , Dr Goh Keng Swee revealed what he described as hitherto a "state secret" that on July 20,1965, it was he who persuaded Tun Razak, then Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, to allow Singapore to secede from Malaysia.

Dr Goh admitted that the separation was well planned and was not foisted upon Singapore. The British-sponsored merger of Singapore with Malaysia in 1963 failed primarily because it was never intended to unify our people in the first place but merely to protect Britain's vested interest and the political fortune of its collaborators in Singapore.

The whole evil scheme collapsed in 1965 because certain politicians in Singapore had attempted to pursue their personal political ambitions in Malaysia with total disregard to the unity and harmony of our people.

History shall pass judgement on who are the real "anti-national" elements responsible for the present division of our country and our people - who are guilty of abusing and destroying the golden historic opportunity of reuniting our country and our people 40 years ago.

In recent years, ill feelings have been generated among our people to meet the political agenda of those politicians who have never believed in national unity.

Transitory phase

The most fitting way for all of us to remember and honour Chin Siong is to reaffirm the aims and aspirations of his struggle - the establishment of a united and democratic country, including Singapore, where our people can live in peace, harmony and prosperity.

Much has happened since 1965 to render it politically unrealistic to reunite our country in the near future. But it is the sacred task of all of us who truly believe in national unity to help to condition the hearts and minds of our people on both sides of the causeway for an eventual reunion, for reunification can only come about when the people in both territories are fully conscious of their common historical, geographical and cultural heritage as well as ties of kinship and are fully convinced of the mutual benefits of reunification.

Because of the objective and subjective differences that have arisen from the long years of separation, reunification would more realistically be accomplished gradually, perhaps with a transitory phase to permit our people to adjust and accommodate their differences, so as to regain mutual understanding, confidence and trust.

Whatever the form, reunification can only succeed with the free will of the people in both territories, openly expressed in a genuinely democratic process, without coercion, without deception, and with total transparency, sincerity and goodwill.

Friends and comrades,

It is with these thoughts and aspirations that I hope we will remember the person we are here to honour - an extraordinary person whose name has become a legend among our people who treasure freedom, democracy, national unity, peace and prosperity - Lim Chin Siong.

Thank you.'

DR LIM HOCK SIEW, a Singaporean, delivered the above speech on June 10 in Kuala Lumpur on the occasion of the launching of the book on Lim Chin Siong, entitled Comet in Our Sky: Lim Chin Siong in History .