Lee Siew Choh trying to rewrite story

DR LEE Siew Choh (ST, June 3) complained that the National Referendum in 1962 on merger was unfair and undemocratic because it did not put a simple yes/no question, and the important questions were posed by the ruling PAP alone with no consultation of opposition parties. He forgets his history.

In Nov 1961, the PAP Government published the White Paper setting out its proposals for the merger between Singapore and the Federation of Malaya. Dr Lee admitted that "the proposals were debated thoroughly in the then Legislative Assembly". The debate lasted from Nov 20, 1961 to Dec 6, 1961. No party objected to the merger in principle.

Dr Lee himself spoke for a record 7 1/2 hours. He quoted Barisan Sosialis' policy statement: "we pledge ourselves to wholeheartedly exert our influence to win the people of Singapore to accept full and complete merger forthwith, that is, with Singapore as the 12th state of the Federation and Singapore citizens automatically becoming Malaysian citizens ..."

The Referendum Bill itself was sent to the Select Committee to receive representations from the public. The Legislative Assembly debated its Third Reading for 15 days from June 27, 1962 until July 11, 1962, with eight midnight sittings. Dr Lee moved an amendment to propose that the referendum should pose only one question: a "yes" or "no" to the merger. But Mr Lim Yew Hock of the Singapore People's Alliance counter-proposed that three questions be posed, offering Alternatives A, B and C. Dr Lee's amendment was defeated and Mr Lim's accepted. How was this process undemocratic?

This was the White Paper proposal: merger as a state within the Federation with special conditions and a large measure of local autonomy. Dr Lee in his letter, and the Barisan in 1961, criticised this as making Singapore citizens second-class citizens of Malaysia. The late Mr David Marshall and his Workers' Party had also opposed strongly Alternative A.

But before the Referendum, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Goh Keng Swee got Tunku Abdul Rahman to agree that all citizens of Singapore would become citizens of Malaysia automatically. In a radio forum with Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Marshall agreed that this meant there was now no difference between Singapore citizens and other Malaysian citizens. He conceded that this was what he had asked for and had now been given. Thus Mr Marshall demolished Barisan's position.

This was the Barisan Sosialis' proposal for full and complete merger as the 12th state of the Federation. Dr Lee dismisses as PAP propaganda the objection that this would disenfranchise more than 300,000 Singapore citizens on merger. He claimed that the Barisan stand was that Singapore citizens would become Federal citizens automatically on merger. But the Tunku had already stated unequivocally, in a letter to Mr Lee Kuan Yew, dated Nov 12, 1961, which Mr Lee read out in the Legislative Assembly, that if Federation citizenship and representation laws were applied, large numbers of Singapore citizens would be disenfranchised.

In a radio forum between Dr Lee and Dr Goh Keng Swee on Sept 21, 1961, Dr Lee claimed that under the Barisan proposal, as Singapore would have the same status as the other states, its citizens would automatically be Federal citizens. Dr Goh pointed out that under the Federal Constitution, in Penang and Malacca only those born there were automatically citizens, and all others had to apply for registration. In all other states of the Federation, even those born there were not automatically citizens. In Singapore, out of an electorate of 630,000, only 320,000 were born in Singapore. The rest would be disenfranchised. Dr Lee had no answer.

This was Mr Lim Yew Hock's proposal for merger on terms no less favourable than the Borneo territories. Dr Lee claims that no one knew what those terms were. The Cobbold Commission studied the question of Sabah and Sarawak's entry into Malaysia. Its report was published on Aug 1, 1962, one month before the Referendum on Sept 1, 1962. The report included recommendations for citizenship by operation of law and registration. Alternative C, based on the Cobbold Report, was set out clearly in the Referendum papers.

Dr Lee says the referendum was "criticised severely" by the United Nations Committee of 17, that is the United Nations Special Committee on Colonialism. Nineteen Barisan and other Legislative Assemblymen had appealed to this committee, to object to the way the referendum questions were formulated.

The committee heard Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Goh Keng Swee from the Government, and Dr Lee, Mr S. Woodhull and Mr Marshall from the opposition. Of the 17 countries on the committee, only Poland and the Soviet Union, both communist countries, supported the opposition stand. After deliberation, the committee decided not to take any action on the petition. In other words, it respected and upheld the actions of the freely-elected Government of Singapore.

Dr Lee says that as 71 per cent had already voted for Alternative A in the Referendum, the PAP's offer to allocate the blank votes according to the wishes of the opposition was a crude attempt to mock and poke fun at the opposition. But before the vote, the PAP had already declared that if there were large numbers of blank votes, they might well have to be counted as votes for Alternative B, the Barisan's alternative. Of course, all those not born in Singapore could then lose their citizenship.

When the Barisan Sosialis split away from the PAP in 1961, its party platform was identical to the PAP's: "a democratic, independent, socialist, non-communist Malaya, comprising the Federation and Singapore". The PAP Government published a White Paper on the form of the merger and debated it fully in the Legislative Assembly. It held Select Committee hearings on the Referendum Bill. It provided two other alternatives in the Referendum question, one of which was the Barisan position. Despite all this, the Barisan demanded a yes/no question in the Referendum, and mounted a campaign to get Singaporeans to cast blank votes. Their motive was obvious: to try, increasingly desperately, to stall merger at all costs.

The Barisan lost the argument and lost the Referendum. The PAP carried the majority of the people and 35 years later, in defiance of the facts, Dr Lee is trying rewrite the record and reverse that verdict of history.

MOHAMAD MAIDIN B.P.M.
Parliamentary Secretary for Education:

Singapore story based on facts

Lee Siew Choh trying to rewrite record, reverse history

DR LEE SIEW CHOH:

That’s the PAP’s version of history

I beg to differ, Mr Maidin