60th anniversary of Operation Coldstore – Press Release

MHA response (Updated)

In response to the statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said later on Thursday that the allegations and assertions in the statement by the former detainees are not new.  It added: “The Government has addressed it comprehensively in past public communications, which are a matter of public record.”

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Operation Coldstore was a security operation conducted in Singapore on 2nd February 1963, detaining left-wing politicians and trade unionists who were suspected of being communist subversives. This operation was carried out by the police and security forces and resulted in the arrest of over 100 individuals who were suspected of being involved in leftist activities. Including individuals such as Lim Chin Siong, Secretary General of Barisan Sosialis, Dr Poo Soo Kai, Assistant Secretary General of Barisan Sosialis and more.

The individuals arrested during Operation Coldstore were held without trial for varying periods of time, ranging from a few months to several years. Some were eventually released, while others were held for many years without trial or any formal charges being brought against them.

The operation has been widely criticized for its lack of due process and has become a controversial and sensitive issue in Singaporean politics and society. Critics argue that the operation was used as a means to silence opposition voices and consolidate political power. They also argue that many of those arrested were not actually involved in leftist activities, but were targeted for their political views and beliefs.

In recent years, there have been calls for greater transparency and accountability in relation to Operation Coldstore, including calls for the release of government documents related to the operation. Some activists have also called for an official inquiry into the events of Operation Coldstore, including the treatment of those arrested and the reasons behind their detention.

A release of statement signed by over 50 former political prisoners on the 60th anniversary of Operation Coldstore, held at The Arts & Civil Space (TACS), calling for the abolition of the Internal Security Act, an official apology from the PAP government, and compensation. This statement, released on the 60th anniversary of Operation Coldstore, has been signed by an unprecedented number of former political prisoners and their families, from 1956 to 1988, The former political prisoners are making three demands:

1. Immediate abolition of the Internal Security Act;

2. An apology from the PAP government to rectify the grievous crimes it had committed against them; and

3. Compensation for former political prisoners and the families of those who are deceased.

PUBLIC STATEMENT ISSUED ON THE 60th ANNIVERSARY OF OPERATION COLDSTORE

We, the undersigned former political prisoners, affirm and support Dr Poh Soo Kai’s statement below. We ask for an apology from the People’s Action Party (PAP) government and reparation, whether symbolic or substantive, for physical and psychological mistreatment, and consequential deprivation of livelihood suffered by some of us during and after our imprisonment without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA). The ISA has to be abolished. It has been used by the PAP government repeatedly against those it feared would be threats to its power. The ISA has done tremendous damage to us, our families and the people of Singapore.

DR POH SOO KAI’S STATEMENT
Sixty years ago, on 2 February 1963, I was imprisoned without trial along with over a hundred others. I was then the Assistant General Secretary of the Barisan Sosialis. I am now 91 years old and am one of about 50 survivors of Operation Coldstore alive today. In 1963, most of us were in our youthful twenties. The PAP government has been relentless in using the ISA, arresting and imprisoning people without trial. Those of us who refused to sign “confessions” were imprisoned indefinitely, some for almost two decades. Dr Chia Thye Poh, then an elected Member of Parliament, was arrested at age 25 and imprisoned for 23 years; for nine more years he was forced to live with severe restrictions – three years confined to Sentosa Island and six years within the limits of Singapore.
Today, I demand accountability for myself and all political prisoners, so that Singaporeans can understand the roots of our draconian political system. The PAP has been the only ruling party in Singapore since 1959. Its younger members may not be fully aware of how their party managed to defeat its political opponents and critics so thoroughly. It is time they know the party’s history.

On 19 September 2011, 16 ISA survivors signed a statement calling for the Singapore government to abolish the ISA when the Malaysian government announced that it would repeal their ISA. The Ministry of Home Affairs responded that the signatories were involved in “subversive activities which posed a threat to national security” and that they were not detained for their political beliefs but were “actively involved in Communist United Front activities in support of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), which was committed to the violent overthrow of the constitutionally-elected governments in Singapore and Malaysia”.

I CATEGORICALLY REJECT such spurious and unsubstantiated allegations and fabricated charges. The PAP government has continued to repeat such lies for 60 years.

I CHALLENGE the PAP government to produce evidence to substantiate their allegations against me.

I STRONGLY MAINTAIN that I was arrested under Operation Coldstore because of my political beliefs, which were based on the anticolonial and proworking-class manifesto and constitution of the PAP when it was formed. I was one of its founding members.

Operation Coldstore was about Lee Kuan Yew, the compliant successor of the British colonialists, needing to keep his position as prime minister. An account of the key political events in the 1960s will bear this out. The people of Singapore were anticolonial. They were against the Lim Yew Hock government for arresting innocent students and trade union leaders in 1956. I now know from de-classified archival documents that Lee Kuan Yew was secretly plotting those arrests with Lim Yew Hock to win over the British, who wanted to retain her military base in Singapore.

The PAP had a landslide victory in the 1959 general election. There was no political crisis or instability in the country in its initial years as government. Once in government, Lee collaborated with the British who pressed him to act against the left faction of the PAP led by Lim Chin Siong. Instability emerged within the PAP itself when Lee expelled his rival Ong Eng Guan. Ong defended and retained his seat convincingly as an independent in the Hong Lim by-election of April 1961. He had campaigned on the platform of keeping the PAP government true to its election pledges, including freeing prisoners held without trial by Lim Yew Hock.

From the Hong Lim by-election, the British realised with alarm that the PAP was no longer the force it was when it came into power in June 1959, and that the electorate had a mind of its own. In July 1961, the PAP lost the Anson by-election in the face of the same demand to free those imprisoned without trial. When the seat of Sembawang became vacant not long after, Lee (having lost two by-elections) did not dare to face another by-election.

The British threw Lee Kuan Yew a “lifeline”, as they put it. They gave Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman the merger deal of a Malaysia which included British North Borneo and Sarawak and which put Singapore’s internal security in the Tunku’s hand. Lee relentlessly called the PAP left “communists” and expelled them when they refused to give him complete control to decide on the terms for merger. The expelled PAP left-wing formed the Barisan Sosialis which was then the strongest political force in Singapore. But Operation Coldstore totally decimated them.

Operation Coldstore was ordered by the British, Singapore and Federation of Malaya members of the Internal Security Council to overcome the challenge from the Barisan Sosialis. Nine out of the 16 Central Working Committee members led by Lim Chin Siong were arrested and imprisoned. Their imprisonment eliminated the Barisan’s top echelon from the September 1963 general election, giving the PAP a clear win. Despite that, the government almost immediately ordered another wave of arrests, including of another three members of the Barisan Central Working Committee who were successful in the general election.

Separation took place less than two years after merger, and the ISA continued to be the instrument used to suppress political activities which were constitutional but which the government labelled “subversive”, without needing to provide evidence. I remained in prison at the pleasure of the PAP government even when Barisan’s objections to the terms of merger were shown to be valid.

After 60 years, the PAP government should go beyond just repeating unsubstantiated allegations. It should provide evidence to support the justifications they gave for launching Operation Coldstore.

The 2011 Ministry of Home Affairs’ statement repeated the lies that Barisan Sosialis was ready to join forces with “groups resorting to violence and bloodshed as in the Brunei revolt” and that national defence and Singapore’s security were jeopardised.

Nothing can be further from the truth. What Barisan Sosialis did was no more than issue a statement of moral support for the Brunei revolt of December 1962. It was a statement of solidarity with all colonies rising to overthrow colonial rule. As the PAP government well knew, Barisan Sosialis did not possess or supply any weapon to the Brunei People’s Party led by A. M. Azahari who had won the election but was denied the right to govern Brunei.

The 2011 Ministry of Home Affairs statement also mentioned that one of the signatories had given medical aid to a CPM saboteur. While the person was not named officially, I believe it was a reference to me. I was arrested for a second time in June 1976. A month earlier, the Dutch Labour Party had tabled a memorandum to expel the PAP at the Socialist International meeting. My speeches highlighting the prolonged imprisonment without trial in Singapore were cited.

However, no mention was made of the Socialist International memorandum as reasons for my arrest. Instead the government alleged that in December 1974 I had given medicine for an injured bomber who had intended to assassinate the managing director of the Nanyang Shoe Factory.

The person who came to my clinic made a televised “confession” that he had passed on medicines from me to his injured comrade. At the same time, the ISD said to me that their raid of my clinic showed that I had given him medication for his sore throat and that my records were in order. They were showing me that they were free to make false accusations and I was in no position to stop them.

Then in 1977, I was alleged to have also treated the other injured bomber hiding in Masai, Johor. My wife, a nurse was alleged to have accompanied me there.

This “Masai incident” was a total fabrication. I only found out about this alleged incident later. “Masai” was never mentioned in my prison interrogations.

I have categorically denied and rebutted these allegations for the last ten years and more. I have done this in my speeches and writings, and whenever the authorities repeated the lie.

Operation Coldstore carried out on 2 February 1963 was the start of the pernicious use of state power by the PAP government to imprison political opponents without trial and for as long as it chooses.

ON THIS THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF OPERATION COLDSTORE, THE UNDERSIGNED FORMER ISA PRISONERS AND I ARE PUTTING ON RECORD THAT WE DEMAND:
1. The immediate abolition of the ISA;
2. An apology from the PAP government to rectify the grievous crimes it had committed against us; and
3. Compensation for us, former political prisoners and the families of those who are deceased.
We ask this as a matter of right, as survivors of the most serious and baseless allegations which the PAP government has chosen to ignore.

Dated this 2 February 2023
Dr Poh Soo Kai傅树介医生 (arrested on 02.02.1963, 04.06.1976

Names of signatories