All I regret with PAP is PAP probably did not give it [Singapore] political freedom – individual
freedom. It had given it quite a lot of economic advancement. But it [political
freedom] probably couldn’t have worked, how I wished that it could have worked.
Anyhow it’s too late that they turn round and walk the steps again.
“I had some discussions with Harry [Lee Kuan Yew] and I used to go quite often to his office. During one of these chats I said ‘What are these ideas about scrubbing a party of the Party out?’ I said I am very unhappy about this turn of events. But I left it anyway.
In the mean time “this brought Chin Siong closer to me, because he thought I will not betray him. If he was under any kind of danger, I would always do my best to protect him. I mean, I like the man, I always thought he had a great role to play in our country in Singapore. Openly or privately I did not think he was a communist. He was a very radical left-wing.”
“I was very unhappy about the trend of the Party. One night Chin Siong rang up at the civil service bungalow where I was on holiday, and said he wanted to come and see me. That was the first time that he had ever said that he wants to come and see me after the break up in the prison camp. He came at night and spoke to me and he said he had heard that [Lord] Selkirk had told a man called Austen Albu, a British Labour party member of parliament that the detainees were being kept in St. Johns island, not because the British wanted it, but because Lee [Kuan Yew] would not agree to their release. Chin Siong wanted me to find out if this was true.”
“Lee Kuan Yew gave his assurance that all detainees would be released at part of his election promise. During one of my discussions with him while in detention he said ‘James, it is impossible to release all of them with you.’ He can only release them slowly otherwise the Federation is going to get frightened. He told me that he has worked it out that they should all be released and he is all for them to be released and it would be done at great speed as he possible can. I could not believe that it is acceptable for the generals to be released but all the other men are kept in jail. This was a matter of honour for me.”
What Chin Siong told me that night disturbed me greatly. This to me was almost treachery. Previously I had gone visiting St. John’s island with Lee, his wife and his children is a little boat the SS Tekong. During the trip I asked him ‘When are you going to release these people?’. He said , ‘Sometime, it’s no problem its very simple.” I said “Harry, if you don’t release them, I will break with you!'”
So Harry knew my views on the detainees. Even Lee Yew Seng’s arrest was disturbing for me because I didn’t believe that human beings should be kept in ‘cages’. Whether he was my friend or my enemy didn’t matter.