“When the Hong Lim by-elections took place, I did not participate because it was an entirely Chinese constituency, and my impact would be minimal. I remember at the Fullerton Square rally, Lee Kuan Yew said the kind of work we are producing is much much better and high quality. That was on the basis of my plan that I was writing at the time.”
“One day I went to the fifth floor of the Fullerton Building to talk to Keng Swee. I said ‘Keng Swee, how is the election campaign getting on?’ And he said ‘Fine. Very well, very good response.’ And I said ‘Don’t be lulled by the statements that all the electors / voters say to you. Can you find out what they don’t say to you.’ I felt that Jek Yeun Thong would lose to Ong Eng Guan and I told Keng Swee that we must ‘scrub him out'”
“Keng Swee agreed with me, he said ‘Yes we must scrub him out in one way or another”. He went on to say that after this we have to scrub some more chaps out of the Party. And he mentioned the names Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan, S T Bani and Dominic [Puthucheary]. I think he must have slipped. I went back and I felt uneasy because I had never believed that the revolution must ‘eat its own children’. “
“I thought about it for a few days and then I called Chin Siong to my office. He was on the fifth floor and I was on the third floor. I had a chat with him. I said ‘You know if the PAP wins the Hong Lim election, you better watch out.'”
The PAP lost the election.