Soon after the election victory, Lee declared: "PAP does not propose to be, or even appear to be, the handmaid of the Communist Party. A PAP government will not continue the purge started by the previous government but, as and when necessary, the PAP government will take steps to ensure the security of the state and the survival of democracy." At the same time, PAP insisted that it would not form a government until seven of its most leftist leaders, who had been jailed for violent Communistic activities, were released first. The demand was promptly met by the British governor.
This event has been greeted with mixed and rather uncertain reactions from the press of the free world. The British both in Singapore and at home grumbled and expressed great fear of Communist domination. The London Daily Express, for instance, said that the British Government's action, in giving independence to Singapore was tantamount to reckless surrender. The comment of the New York Times Weekly was that twenty years ago the Japanese sneaked into Singapore through the back door, and last week the Communists did the same thing without even firing one shot. Other complacent observers, however, saw it only as a natural success of nationalism, expressed by the will of the people in a free election, and feared little danger of Communist control since the 'British are still responsible for Singapore's foreign affairs and defense and there is a seven-man committee (three Singaporeans, three British and one appointee of the Federation of Malaya) who have the authority to decide on internal security problems.
While it may be too early to make any definite prophesy of events that will develop in that strategic region, there are certain signs which make one smell a rat. In the first place the tactics used by Lee and his party both in winning the election and in appeasing the public of not being a handmaid to Communism while, in the same breath, demanding the immediate release of its most leftist members, seem all very similar to the Communist tactics used before by Communists on the China mainland and elsewhere. In the second place, a close look at PAP shows that it is nothing but a red-blooded Communist party.
During the last decade, Malaya has been fighting the Communists with good results, and both the Malayan and Singapore governments have been openly anti-Communist. The Communists in Singapore had therefore to seek cover under legalized political organizations and PAP is just one of these leading organizations. In the 1956 issues of the Singapore Yearbook and the White Paper issued by the Singapore government, there are comprehensive accounts of the subversive Communistic activities, in which PAP members played leading roles, and for which eight of its leading members were arrested and jailed three years ago under the authority of the emergency law. It is said that the present success of PAP is due largely to the organization of a united front by Lee. Since Singapore is the place which is most infested by Communist agents, this "united front" smells of a union of Communist-infiltrated parties. To believe Lee's word that PAP is not a handmaid to Communism would be as naive as to believe the statement made by the Chinese Communists more than 10 years ago that the Chinese Communist Party was a party of agrarian reformers.
The fundamental cause of PAP's success has to be sought in the blunders of the British policy towards the Chinese population. Chinese overseas living in Singapore occupy about 76% of the total population of 1.4 million, the rest being Malayans (12%), Indians, Parkistanians, Europeans and British. The British government policy has always been favorable to the Malayans, which has been a deep-rooted cause of Chinese hatred and dissatisfaction towards the British colonial government. A few concrete samples of discrimination against the Chinese are suffice to prove that their dissatisfaction is more than justified:
1. The Malayalization program
The aim of this program is to replace the 500 British civil servants by Malayans after the British have been retired. And the new constitution provides that the first Chief of the State after independence should be a native of Malaya.
2. Unfair distribution of educational subsidies
The schools in Singapore are classified into English, Malayan and Chinese, and each class is subdivided into public, subsidized and private. The Malayan schools are nearly all established by public funds and the number of students is almost 25 times larger than the students in the Chinese schools, which mostly belong to the subsidized class and, consequently, are much less well equipped than the public schools. There are about 7,000 students in private Chinese schools which are not benefited by government subsidies.
3. British educational policy
Another most objectionable feature of the British educational policy is that the students are all taught to be loyal to Malaya. This is not only an affront to the patriotic feelings of the Chinese population but is a complete denial of the rights and status of the majority.
These are only a few samples of the injustice that have been inflicted by the British on the Chinese; other minor but equally unfair and undemocratic prejudices must be galore. In such a fertile field of popular discontent, the Communists naturally have little difficulty in turning the general desire for amelioration to become their political capital, by propaganda, by infiltration and by making rosy but false promises.
The immediate effects of the present change of government in Singapore can be envisaged as follows:
1. The anti-Communist sector of the Chinese people, estimated at 240,000, will be subject to oppression and liquidation.
2. The remnant Communists in Malaya will receive a new boost.
3. The dissatisfied elements among the Chinese population in Malaya will become supporters of the PAP and Communist influence will expand in Malaya. Lee's words at the inauguration of his government that PAP would not become Communistic unless Malaya became a Communistic State is worthy of careful thought.
4. Anti-American and anti-British activities will be intensified. At the right moment, Singapore will detach itself from the British Dominion and openly align itself with international Communism.
5. As Lee has already declared, Singapore will someday cease to be a strategic base for England and, for that matter, for U.S.A. and the Free World. The Soviet dream of an Eastern-Asia strategic base can then be realized.
6. Singapore will become a Communist propaganda center for Southeast Asia, for Africa and for Australia.
The dangers of PAP's success are potentially as great as CCP's success on the China mainland, and British policy in surrendering Singapore at this moment is as reckless as its recognition of the Chinese Communist regime. To depend on some agreement such as that which give the power to the "Seven-man Committee" for internal security is as foolish and as ineffective as to sign a gentleman's agreement with a thief.
The situation, however, is not yet beyond repair. The important thing is that the free world must recognize, and be warned by, the fact that PAP is and has always been a Communist Party which is now taking full advantage of growing nationalism and popular discontent among the native people to achieve its own end. The next important thing to recognize is that there can never be any compromise or real cooperation with the Communists. The last but the most important fact to recognize is that the fate of Singapore is still in the hands of the large Chinese population, whose loyalty to the Republic of China is the only link that connects them to the West, and who evaluate the worth of Western, and especially American, friendship with the same yardstick that the Chinese people everywhere use in measuring the value of this friendship to the destiny of the Republic of China.