Only days after the PAP committee election, Lim Yew Hock engaged in widespread arrests. On 22 August 1957, under Operation Apple 39 arrests and detentions took place. Of the 39 people, one was a case of mistaken identity and released. Of the remainining 38 detainees, 19 were leaders of the PAP Cultural and Education Committee (including 5 who were also members of the Central Executive Committee), 15 union leaders affiliated with the dissolved Middle Road group (Factory and Shop workers Union),and 4 members of the Sin Pao newspaper. The following day the Singapore government issued a Command Paper “the Communist threat in Singapore” giving the reasons for the arrests.
Various operations by the British and the Singapore authorities against the PAP members that did not support Lee Kuan Yew are well documented in Alexander Shaw’s “The British Intelligence Community in Singapore, 1946-1959 : Local security, regional coordination and the Cold War in the Far East” PhD thesis.
Operation Banana refers to the arrest and detention of 48 students on 25 September 1957 followed by the arrest of the Principal of Chung Cheng High School the following day.
In public Lee Kuan Yew had taken a harsh line against the Lim Yew Hock government. In August 1957 he denounced the White Paper issued by the Lim Yew Hock Government which had a section on the “communist penetration of the PAP” deploring its inaccuracies. James and others in detention accepted Lee’s story. On 2nd September 1957, on Lee’s urging, James wrote a letter to Lee, pledging full support for the PAP. This letter was published by Lee Kuan Yew in the Battle for Merger.
New research has revealed that during this period Lee was secretly working with the Colonial Chief secretary, William Goode and the Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock, to eliminate the leftwing influence in the PAP. In March 1957 although Lim Yew Hock led the Singapore delegation, Lee played a crucial role in sweeping away the earlier obstacles to agreement on internal security by resurrecting the proposal for an Internal Security Council. Lee also gave support to a so-called subversives clause in the Constitution that would bar ex-detainees from elections (– See Tim Harper Comet in our sky page 29).
Geoff Wade in his article “Suppression of the Left in Singapore 1945-1963” comments :-
“This remarkable coincidence of the Right-wing PAP leaders stepping down and the Lim Hock Yew government serendipitously arresting the radical left leadership has suggested to some people that there was some agreement between the British government, the Lim Yew Hock administration and the Right-wing PAP leaders on this matter.” (pp18-19)
Shaw makes the following comment :-
“These two operations – Apple and Banana – dealt a devastating blow to the communist front. The extent to which Lee Kuan Yew was complicit in these actions is uncertain. Lim Yew Hock certainly implied that he had been tidying up Lee’s house for him. Lee found himself having to steadfastly deny any involvement. It is perhaps worth recalling that Lee was not averse to passing communist material on to the Special Branch and tipping them off about MCP overtures to the PAP. Certainly his moderate faction benefitted enormously from Operation Apple” (page 273).
The significance of these events is that they allowed Lee Kuan Yew to remove any opposition he may have faced from the leftwing faction of the Central Executive Committee. At the third Annual Conference of the PAP held on 6 July 1956 the leftwing faction of the PAP increased its presence in the 12-member Central Executive Committee from 1 to 4. (Lim Chin Siong, Devan Nair, Chia Ek Tian and Goh Boon Toh). But this did not mean that Lee’s faction made up the rest of the membership. It was reported that “Lee can be sure of the support of Toh Chin Chye, Ong Eng Guan and Tann Wee Tiong with Ismail bin Rahim (a friend of Samad Ismail) providing a doubtful fifth” (FCO 141/14783)
The detention of several people in October 1956 including Lim Chin Siong and Devan Nair meant that Lee Kuan Yew’s faction had an edge over the leftwing group. But in the 4th Annual Conference of the PAP held on 12 August 1957 the two factions received the same number of members, 6 each.
One would have thought that this would mean a CEC that consisted of persons more representative of the people’s wishes and thus the creation of better policies. But Lee and Toh Chin Chye refused to take office forcing the leftwing leaders to assume key posts.
So in what can only be described as a remarkable coincidence , just 10 days after the PAP party election, the Lim Yew Hock government carried out the purge that came to be called Operation Apple. With the 5 leftwing members of the CEC in prison, Lee’s faction held a special party conference on 20 October 1957 and elected a new CEC.
Whatever goodwill these two leaders had in 1957 soon dissipated the following year. This is reflected in two memos. In a memo to the Secretary of Lennox-Boyd dated 22 January 1958, Goode mentions the increasing infiltration of the communists in the PAP which is known to both Lee Kuan Yew but adds:-
“So is the Chief Minister, who, at least for the moment, is not prepared for a second time, to rescue Lee Kuan Yew by a purge” (FCO141/14766)
The second memo also from Goode to the Secretary of State for the Colonies dated 25 January 1958 , states:-
“He (Lim Yew Hock) told me that he had avoided contact with Lee Kuan Yew and did not want to see him; he could no longer work with him and and was thinking over the question of somehow joining forces with the Liberal Socialists: (FCO 141/14783).
It seems that even though Lee Kuan Yew’s involvement is uncertain, it is clear that Lim Yew Hock felt that he had helped Lee by carrying out these purges which resulted in Lee being able to revise the party constitution in 1958 introducing a cadre system that made it impossible for the left-wing faction to gain access to top leadership positions in the party and influence party policy.
During his visit to London, Lim Yew Hock boasted of how he helped Lee Kuan Yew by arresting 5 members of the Executive Committee of the PAP. This allowed Lee Kuan yew and moderates to take control of the party. Lee said he could not openly support the arrests and Lennox-Boyd agreed to “carry the odium”. This allowed Lee and the moderates to take control of the Party and the PAP constitution was changed to include new rules for who qualified as party cadres (had to be Singapore citizen over 21 years old). This resulted in many left wing members being excluded from voting for the executive committee.