By the time Messrs Rajaratnam and Othman arrived at Singapore House, it was already past eight in the morning on Saturday, Aug 7. Mr Barker had taken the first flight home. While Mr Othman parked his car, Mr Rajaratnam strode briskly inside, found Dr Toh scribbling away and was told the news. It hit him between the eyes. Both he and Dr Toh, who were born, respectively, in Seremban and Taiping, were unwilling to sign the agreement - so deeply had they held their belief in the concept of the two territories as one.
Looking back, Mr Rajaratnam puts it this way: "We were against it initially. We were quite prepared to take the risk of resisting separation. We felt very strongly, and eventually, the PM had to report to the Tunku that we were against it."
At about 12.30 pm, Mr Lee and Dr Goh drove to the Tunku's Residency, where the Malaysian Premier and some of his senior ministers had been waiting. Mr Lee wanted a word in private with the Tunku. According to the 1965 Yearbook, he argued for other solutions such as a looser federation.
As he later explained in a post-proclamation press conference: "I didn't believe that there was no other way. I believed then that I could still convince the Tunku that there were a number of other ways to reduce communal tension, such as a looser federation. After what he told me when we were alone, I realised there was no other way... I knew from what he said - and he has an intuition about these matters - that we would all be in for big communal trouble if Singapore, or if I and my colleagues, insisted on going on with Malaysia as it is."
Mr Lee also told the Tunku about how strongly Dr Toh and Mr Rajaratnam had resisted separation and suggested that the Malaysian Premier write Dr Toh a letter to explain. This the Tunku did, in his own hand. He wrote: "There is absolutely no way out. If I were strong enough and able to exercise complete control of the situation, I might perhaps have delayed action, but I am not, and so while I am able to counsel tolerance and patience, I think the amicable settlement of our differences in this way is the only possible way out."
Given the strong hint that the situation would get out of control, resulting in bloodshed, Dr Toh and Mr Rajaratnam agreed reluctantly to put their signatures to the agreement. Explains Mr Rajaratnam, who was 50 at that time: "That was a very compelling argument because there had been bloodshed before... In the light of this, Dr Toh and I talked about it, and we realised we could be responsible for loss of lives and worse."
Dr Toh, then 43, responded to the Tunku in writing the next day, describing the decision as sad and a blow to him and his colleagues, who had rejoiced at the reunification of Singapore with Malaya in 1963.
But, he added in his letter, which was later made public, if expulsion was the price for peace, "then we must accept it, however agonising our inner feelings may be".
Agonising it indeed was for all who had believed in Malaysia, not least those PAP leaders who were born there. For instance, Mr Ong Pang Boon, then 36 and Singapore's Education Minister, was struck speechless for quite a while when a grim Dr Toh broke the news to him in Singapore House that afternoon. He had been in Kuala Lumpur that week helping to set up PAP branches. When he recovered his voice, his first question was: "Is this the only way?" Dr Toh told him the alternative was bloodshed. Mr Ong, who has since retired from politics and is now an adviser to the Hong Leong group of companies, recalls: "It did take me some time to accept that it was better this way. The rational part of me accepted it but the emotional part took some time."
Othman Wok, former Social Affairs MinisterBut he too signed. Mr Othman reacted differently. When he was shown the Tunku's letter, he held it in his hand and looked at it for a long time. He recalls that his feeling then was more one of relief - that the bickering was going to stop - than grief. But Mr Lee, he says, thought that as a Malay, he would want to stay in Malaysia, which was why he pulled him to another room so they could talk privately. He recalls: "PM asked me: 'Othman, would you sign?' I said: 'Yes, I would, certainly, but I'm worried about the communists in Singapore.' He said: 'Don't worry. That's my problem, I'll handle it.' He assured me on that."
Next: One last ditch effort
Copyright © 1998 Singapore Press Holdings. All Rights Reserved.
