What do you think?
Rate this book
1987: Singapore’s Marxist Conspiracy 30 Years On
Survivors of Operation Spectrum—the alleged Marxist conspiracy—speak up in this volume. For many of them, this is the first time that they cast their minds back to 1987 and try to make sense of the incident. What they did in that period was meaningful and totally legitimate. Their families and friends share the same view.
The detainees were subjected to ill-treatment, humiliation, and manipulated television appearances. Under duress, and threatened with indefinite imprisonment without trial, they had to make statutory declarations against their will.
It is hoped that with this publication (which has more than 35 contributors), Singaporeans will know about what actually happened and decide for themselves if there was a national security threat that necessitated the mounting of Operation Spectrum.
The detainees were subjected to ill-treatment, humiliation, and manipulated television appearances. Under duress, and threatened with indefinite imprisonment without trial, they had to make statutory declarations against their will.
It is hoped that with this publication (which has more than 35 contributors), Singaporeans will know about what actually happened and decide for themselves if there was a national security threat that necessitated the mounting of Operation Spectrum.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
385 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 1, 2019
1 person is currently reading
70 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 16, 2018
A valuable collection of testimonies and memories by the detainees, their family members, their lawyers, the campaigners for their release, and other supporters. This is not the place to obtain a full historical understanding of Operation Spectrum, the detention of 22 people in May 1987 for allegedly conspiring as Marxists to overthrow the state of Singapore; the pieces here are too fragmented and personal to give a steady picture. This is the place, however, where an agonizing silence has been broken, as the different participants of the historical incident recount, explain, and wonder aloud. The two most penetrating insights to emerge are, one, the then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew might have ordered the detention to initiate the new generation of government leaders, including his son Lee Hsien Loong, the current Prime Minister, into the blood sport of politics. They found themselves having to accede to and explain the draconian and unjust action. The few who could not do so, such as S. Dhanabalan, ultimately quit politics. The second insight, which is also part of hindsight, is that Operation Spectrum set back civil society and social advocacy for 20 years. Singapore was not allowed to grow up.
June 3, 2018
By the time I was at college, the Student Christian Movement (SCM) was no longer really around at the schools I attended, though I was involved with faith communities that participated in SCM-organized gatherings (mostly run by SCM chapters from Toronto). The SCM (established 1889 in the UK) has had an interesting history as it once was an umbrella organization to the UCCF (Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) in the UK, also known at the time as the “Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions”. I was also involved with a marginal Inter-Varsity campus group in my undergraduate years, while simultaneously attending a church that was more in the orbit of SCM, and so I straddled both those worlds as an undergrad. To frame the divergence of these two groups, the UCCF by 1919 had defected from SCM over the fact that it’s leadership did not necessarily recognize the ‘atoning blood’ of Christ as central to the Christian faith, though it still acknowledged it as a part of the tradition. In Canada today, the SCM is a small yet very important hotbed for ecumenical justice organizing and activism. It’s an organization I deeply admire and cherish.
That’s why I became really fascinated with Operation Spectrum, a crackdown on a supposed ‘Marxist conspiracy’ by the Singaporean government in 1987, where a number of church workers were arrested, along with student activists (some involved with SCM), social workers, academics, lawyers, and theatre performers. Yes, theatre performers were a threat to the 1987 government.
This reminds me of Artaud talking about Augustine in “The Theatre and Its Double.” In it he says theatre “without killing, provokes the most mysterious alterations in the mind of not only an individual but an entire populace.” Artaud then goes on to quote from Augustine’s “City of God”:
“...these plays, sinful spectacles… for the strategy of the evil Spirits, forseeing that the contagion would end with the body, seized joyfully upon this occasion to introduce a much more dangerous scourge among you, one that attacks not bodies but customs… such is the blindness, such the corruption produced in the soul by plays…” (Chapter 32-33)
Artaud of course agreed with Augustine in some respect. He expected and wanted theatre not just to entertain people or serve as an escape, but to really transform people and the way they lived their lives. In a sense, the Singapore government’s crackdown on the theatre collective “Third Stage” legitimized the power of theatre. If theatre can threaten the powers that be, I think that’s all a performer or playwright could really hope for.
In "Mandate To Difference", Walter Brueggemann said that, “the city is not only a monopoly of technological capacity or a monopoly of power and control. The city is also an ongoing act of artistic imagination, artistic in the sense that subversive alternatives are regularly rendered… It is there that actors, musicians, poets, and prophets — all the performers — give expression to alternatives in human life…the banks are always on edge with the artists; they fund them and they worry about them!” Of course not only the banks but governments. The plays of “Third Stage” were not only approved by Singapore’s Ministry of Culture, but received a few government grants also.
Among other faith groups, the Student Christian Movement was expelled from Singapore after Operation Spectrum. The Christian Conference of Asia’s office was shut down and its leaders deported. The Geylang Catholic Welfare Centre and the hub of social work initiatives it hosted in aid of exploited migrant workers were all terminated. While liberation theology can seem like just an idea for someone who lives comfortably outside extreme labour exploitation, merely an intellectual exercise in theology for marginal Western academics interested in radical Latin American faith, to see it in action in Singapore and to see how threatening it was to the powers that be, was something else. It gives me hope that faith communities and art collectives do have power. They do transform society. They do offer us potential ways to make more space for justice to flourish in this world. They do matter.
At the same time, reading this book was also heartbreaking. It was tragic to see how families were broken up, how people were expelled from communities and people they loved, exiled abroad. And how people were humiliated and subject to torture, often times a violent sort of torture. I had marked down Francis Seow’s “To Catch a Tartar” (Yale University Press) as a book I wanted to read a couple years ago, but had no idea that this was the same issue he was arrested over also.
This book, “1987” is a collection of short essays written by people who witnessed the so-called ‘Marxist Conspiracy’ unfolding, and a few who did not but actively worked to raise awareness about it later on. The prison poems and recollections were particularly moving.
Philippians 4:5-7 reads: “Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Lee Kuan Yew approvingly quoted Deng Xiaoping’s statement: “If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.” It seems to me that Lee Kuan Yew, like many leaders practicing Hobbesian statecraft, was a lot less interested in ‘peace’ than ‘order’ and ‘stability’. The ‘peace of God, which surpasses all understanding’ was not understandable for Harry Lee, and therefore not relevant to his hyper-pragmatic regime. I find it surprising that so many evangelical Christians I know in Singapore admire Lee Kuan Yew to the extent that they do, when his life bore such little resemblance to that of Christ’s. Was Lee Kuan Yew’s time in office characterized by ‘gentleness’? Or was it characterized by a sort of violent anxiety that manifested itself in pre-emptive detainments of political opposition without trial?
Marilynne Robinson quotes a prescient verse from Leviticus:
“In the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus we find a description of the state the people of Israel will find themselves in if they depart from their loyalty to God: ‘The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues.’”
I have come to think that a certain loyalty to Lee Kuan Yew and his conception of the world is at odds with loyalty to the Christian God. The heart of Christian faith centers on ‘grace’, on the conception that we are not in control and that all good things are ‘gifts’ that we did not earn. Only by such a conception of grace can Christians truly express a proper gratitude and thanksgiving towards God. How then, can Christians hold up as an exemplar a man who was far more interested in some imagined ‘meritocracy’ than unmerited grace, ‘control’ rather than ‘self-emptying love’, an egotistical narrative that he single-handedly brought Singapore from the so-called ‘third world’ into the ‘first’ rather than a narrative of God's providence. Lee Kuan Yew in a sense has replaced himself as God. That once passed as idolatry for Christians. What has changed?
Stanley Hauerwas once summarized Christianity as coming down simply to “Jesus is Lord, and everything else is bullshit.” This conception is especially vital in the context of Singapore, and therefore exhibited so characteristically by Christians and non-Christians alike who were carrying out what I as a Christian happen to call ‘the work of Christ’ in Singapore. Unfortunately, they had to pay for it with their freedom. Christians should know that people who live as if Jesus is Lord, by definition, live as if Caesar is not Lord, and that always makes Caesar very anxious and upset at these uncontrollable ‘subversives’ that destabilize his empire. That’s why people stirring up trouble like Jesus were put on a cross. What better indicator is there that one is a ‘citizen of heaven’ and not a ‘citizen of Rome’, than your government getting riled up and concentrating state-sanctioned violence at you for no legitimate reason?
In Philippians 1:29-30 Paul wrote: “God has granted you that, on behalf of the king, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. You are engaged in the same struggle which you once watched me go through; and as you now hear, I’m still going through it.” And of course Paul was still going through it because Philippians was one of his prison letters. In a commentary on this verse, N.T. Wright writes:
“suffering is bound to come, sooner or later, if they really are loyal to Jesus. The world, the opponents of the gospel, will turn on loyal Christians for being out of line, out of step." I actually rolled my eyes when I read that, but as I read Wright's elaborations, I better understood what he was getting at. Wright continues:
"Try telling people with heavy investments in the Third World that one of the major gospel issues today is global debt, and watch the angry or scornful reaction you get. Try telling people who believe they have the right to inflict their military solutions on the rest of the world — or who make a lot of money from making and selling weapons — that the lordship of Jesus stands for a radically different way of resolving conflict.”
Or in the case of Singapore, try telling exploited migrant workers from different countries that they deserve dignity and that they have rights, such that it starts costing local Singaporean profit and economic stability. Try telling them about Paulo Freire, about labour strike action tactics, about legal rights. Try telling the government that it is not doing enough to protect these people and it is not treating them like the precious children of God that they are. Try telling telling the populace that there is an alternative to authoritarian government.
Edgar K D’Souza, a Catholic priest at the time of Operation Spectrum, wrote of Archbishop Yong's statement after meeting with the Singaporean government, saying: “In his detailed report to the Vatican concerning the arrests and meeting with the government, Archbishop Yong referred to this meeting… [saying he was told] to order the priests not to mix religion and politics in their sermons. The Archbishop conceded to the requests...”
Singapore’s state-run Infopedia says that “Lee stressed that the government upheld freedom of religion but will not tolerate the use of religion for subversive activities.” Yet how can Christian faith not be political or subversive. Proclaiming that “Jesus is Lord” is the most political thing a Christian can claim, and is called to claim. It’s what got Jesus killed. And its what got all these people arrested and tortured. It’s what compelled the 'powers that be' to place these detainees, without any trial, in frigid cold rooms filled with interrogators in winter jackets, where they were violently assaulted and tortured, deprived of sleep, locked up for months in solitary confinement, with no windows, and lights on for 24 hours a day. All this to coerce confessions from them that aligned with the government's narrative.
Apparently, the American diplomat at the US Embassy in Singapore (under the Reagan administration) was looking into the issue of these detainments as a concern and the repression of political opposition. He was accused by the PAP government of trying to establish political opposition in Singapore, and was expelled by the Singapore government. This was known as the Hendrickson affair and was what involved Francis Seow in this ordeal, as he was allegedly encouraged by the US to run as opposition in a constituency, and he nearly won. This was also the issue that got Devan Nair booted out of Singapore, eventually to settle in Hamilton, Ontario. (My family saw him a couple times at a local Singaporean restaurant in Mississauga.) Historians from Michael D. Barr to Mary Turnbull have thought Operation Spectrum to be mostly about political opposition rather than national security.
One of the key leverage points for the government was Chung Lai Mei, who Michael D. Barr describes in this way:
“Chung became famous as the detainee who had visited a Tamil Tiger training camp in Sri Lanka and brought home a snapshot of herself brandishing an M-16 rifle. ISD agents found the framed photo on her bedside table when they arrested her. Chung was active in the Students Society of the Singapore Polytechnic (SSSP) and the Asian Students Association, but she was not a Catholic nor was she active in any Catholic groups. The leaders of the Catholic groups certainly knew her and even accepted her presence in some “social analysis training sessions” organized by the JPC, but as her behavior became more flamboyant and unpredictable they tried to both discourage her revolutionary chic enthusiasms and keep her at arm’s length. Relations between her and the leading Catholic activists were so fraught that there were periods in which she was completely estranged from them. Yet after the arrests of May 1987 she was one of the first to “confess” to her participation in a Marxist conspiracy headed by Vincent Cheng, and the government used her as a prime exhibit to demonstrate the revolutionary intent of the alleged conspirators.”
Anyways, the diplomat in the Singaporean Embassy was expelled from the US in retaliation for Singapore’s expulsion of Hendrickson. Yet I would admit, it was somewhat ironic of the US to raise issue with this, when they have engaged in far more horrific interrogation tactics with their own prisoners. Laleh Kahlili’s work on American black sites (e.g. Time in the Shadows, published by Stanford University Press) explores among other things how American torture tactics legitimize human rights violations in many other countries across the world. It would be wise to also see the tragedies documented in “1987: Singapore’s Marxist Conspiracy 30 Years On” as reflective of a much larger problem. Regarding the Hendrickson affair, it was of course ironic for Singapore to use the discourse of colonialism to say “It is disturbing and dismaying that U.S. diplomats have seen fit to act as if they were the colonial power and Singapore their protectorate.” Especially since Singapore was able to detain all these alleged ‘Marxist conspirators” under the ISA (Internal Security Act), law leftover from colonial British repression. Yet at the same time, it is incredible to me how the US can see human rights abuses in other countries, yet fail to acknowledge how its own military perpetrates these same abuses all over the world. US governmental rhetoric has often used human rights abuses as an excuse to initiate wars and invasions that only perpetuate this same human rights problem.
To conclude, in the Gospel of Luke Jesus quotes (in reference to himself) Isaiah 61 saying: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Many detained under Operation Spectrum organized their lives around this same mission statement Jesus identified with, and they ended up in prison. I believe it is the duty of Christians to see to it that freedom is proclaimed for such prisoners, so that the work of justice can continue.
I’ve written far too much irrelevant stuff, so I will stop here, but if you’re interested in this 1987 'conspiracy', I’d recommend checking out Jason Soo’s documentary, “Untracing the Conspiracy” which is free to watch online.
That’s why I became really fascinated with Operation Spectrum, a crackdown on a supposed ‘Marxist conspiracy’ by the Singaporean government in 1987, where a number of church workers were arrested, along with student activists (some involved with SCM), social workers, academics, lawyers, and theatre performers. Yes, theatre performers were a threat to the 1987 government.
This reminds me of Artaud talking about Augustine in “The Theatre and Its Double.” In it he says theatre “without killing, provokes the most mysterious alterations in the mind of not only an individual but an entire populace.” Artaud then goes on to quote from Augustine’s “City of God”:
“...these plays, sinful spectacles… for the strategy of the evil Spirits, forseeing that the contagion would end with the body, seized joyfully upon this occasion to introduce a much more dangerous scourge among you, one that attacks not bodies but customs… such is the blindness, such the corruption produced in the soul by plays…” (Chapter 32-33)
Artaud of course agreed with Augustine in some respect. He expected and wanted theatre not just to entertain people or serve as an escape, but to really transform people and the way they lived their lives. In a sense, the Singapore government’s crackdown on the theatre collective “Third Stage” legitimized the power of theatre. If theatre can threaten the powers that be, I think that’s all a performer or playwright could really hope for.
In "Mandate To Difference", Walter Brueggemann said that, “the city is not only a monopoly of technological capacity or a monopoly of power and control. The city is also an ongoing act of artistic imagination, artistic in the sense that subversive alternatives are regularly rendered… It is there that actors, musicians, poets, and prophets — all the performers — give expression to alternatives in human life…the banks are always on edge with the artists; they fund them and they worry about them!” Of course not only the banks but governments. The plays of “Third Stage” were not only approved by Singapore’s Ministry of Culture, but received a few government grants also.
Among other faith groups, the Student Christian Movement was expelled from Singapore after Operation Spectrum. The Christian Conference of Asia’s office was shut down and its leaders deported. The Geylang Catholic Welfare Centre and the hub of social work initiatives it hosted in aid of exploited migrant workers were all terminated. While liberation theology can seem like just an idea for someone who lives comfortably outside extreme labour exploitation, merely an intellectual exercise in theology for marginal Western academics interested in radical Latin American faith, to see it in action in Singapore and to see how threatening it was to the powers that be, was something else. It gives me hope that faith communities and art collectives do have power. They do transform society. They do offer us potential ways to make more space for justice to flourish in this world. They do matter.
At the same time, reading this book was also heartbreaking. It was tragic to see how families were broken up, how people were expelled from communities and people they loved, exiled abroad. And how people were humiliated and subject to torture, often times a violent sort of torture. I had marked down Francis Seow’s “To Catch a Tartar” (Yale University Press) as a book I wanted to read a couple years ago, but had no idea that this was the same issue he was arrested over also.
This book, “1987” is a collection of short essays written by people who witnessed the so-called ‘Marxist Conspiracy’ unfolding, and a few who did not but actively worked to raise awareness about it later on. The prison poems and recollections were particularly moving.
Philippians 4:5-7 reads: “Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Lee Kuan Yew approvingly quoted Deng Xiaoping’s statement: “If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.” It seems to me that Lee Kuan Yew, like many leaders practicing Hobbesian statecraft, was a lot less interested in ‘peace’ than ‘order’ and ‘stability’. The ‘peace of God, which surpasses all understanding’ was not understandable for Harry Lee, and therefore not relevant to his hyper-pragmatic regime. I find it surprising that so many evangelical Christians I know in Singapore admire Lee Kuan Yew to the extent that they do, when his life bore such little resemblance to that of Christ’s. Was Lee Kuan Yew’s time in office characterized by ‘gentleness’? Or was it characterized by a sort of violent anxiety that manifested itself in pre-emptive detainments of political opposition without trial?
Marilynne Robinson quotes a prescient verse from Leviticus:
“In the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus we find a description of the state the people of Israel will find themselves in if they depart from their loyalty to God: ‘The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues.’”
I have come to think that a certain loyalty to Lee Kuan Yew and his conception of the world is at odds with loyalty to the Christian God. The heart of Christian faith centers on ‘grace’, on the conception that we are not in control and that all good things are ‘gifts’ that we did not earn. Only by such a conception of grace can Christians truly express a proper gratitude and thanksgiving towards God. How then, can Christians hold up as an exemplar a man who was far more interested in some imagined ‘meritocracy’ than unmerited grace, ‘control’ rather than ‘self-emptying love’, an egotistical narrative that he single-handedly brought Singapore from the so-called ‘third world’ into the ‘first’ rather than a narrative of God's providence. Lee Kuan Yew in a sense has replaced himself as God. That once passed as idolatry for Christians. What has changed?
Stanley Hauerwas once summarized Christianity as coming down simply to “Jesus is Lord, and everything else is bullshit.” This conception is especially vital in the context of Singapore, and therefore exhibited so characteristically by Christians and non-Christians alike who were carrying out what I as a Christian happen to call ‘the work of Christ’ in Singapore. Unfortunately, they had to pay for it with their freedom. Christians should know that people who live as if Jesus is Lord, by definition, live as if Caesar is not Lord, and that always makes Caesar very anxious and upset at these uncontrollable ‘subversives’ that destabilize his empire. That’s why people stirring up trouble like Jesus were put on a cross. What better indicator is there that one is a ‘citizen of heaven’ and not a ‘citizen of Rome’, than your government getting riled up and concentrating state-sanctioned violence at you for no legitimate reason?
In Philippians 1:29-30 Paul wrote: “God has granted you that, on behalf of the king, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. You are engaged in the same struggle which you once watched me go through; and as you now hear, I’m still going through it.” And of course Paul was still going through it because Philippians was one of his prison letters. In a commentary on this verse, N.T. Wright writes:
“suffering is bound to come, sooner or later, if they really are loyal to Jesus. The world, the opponents of the gospel, will turn on loyal Christians for being out of line, out of step." I actually rolled my eyes when I read that, but as I read Wright's elaborations, I better understood what he was getting at. Wright continues:
"Try telling people with heavy investments in the Third World that one of the major gospel issues today is global debt, and watch the angry or scornful reaction you get. Try telling people who believe they have the right to inflict their military solutions on the rest of the world — or who make a lot of money from making and selling weapons — that the lordship of Jesus stands for a radically different way of resolving conflict.”
Or in the case of Singapore, try telling exploited migrant workers from different countries that they deserve dignity and that they have rights, such that it starts costing local Singaporean profit and economic stability. Try telling them about Paulo Freire, about labour strike action tactics, about legal rights. Try telling the government that it is not doing enough to protect these people and it is not treating them like the precious children of God that they are. Try telling telling the populace that there is an alternative to authoritarian government.
Edgar K D’Souza, a Catholic priest at the time of Operation Spectrum, wrote of Archbishop Yong's statement after meeting with the Singaporean government, saying: “In his detailed report to the Vatican concerning the arrests and meeting with the government, Archbishop Yong referred to this meeting… [saying he was told] to order the priests not to mix religion and politics in their sermons. The Archbishop conceded to the requests...”
Singapore’s state-run Infopedia says that “Lee stressed that the government upheld freedom of religion but will not tolerate the use of religion for subversive activities.” Yet how can Christian faith not be political or subversive. Proclaiming that “Jesus is Lord” is the most political thing a Christian can claim, and is called to claim. It’s what got Jesus killed. And its what got all these people arrested and tortured. It’s what compelled the 'powers that be' to place these detainees, without any trial, in frigid cold rooms filled with interrogators in winter jackets, where they were violently assaulted and tortured, deprived of sleep, locked up for months in solitary confinement, with no windows, and lights on for 24 hours a day. All this to coerce confessions from them that aligned with the government's narrative.
Apparently, the American diplomat at the US Embassy in Singapore (under the Reagan administration) was looking into the issue of these detainments as a concern and the repression of political opposition. He was accused by the PAP government of trying to establish political opposition in Singapore, and was expelled by the Singapore government. This was known as the Hendrickson affair and was what involved Francis Seow in this ordeal, as he was allegedly encouraged by the US to run as opposition in a constituency, and he nearly won. This was also the issue that got Devan Nair booted out of Singapore, eventually to settle in Hamilton, Ontario. (My family saw him a couple times at a local Singaporean restaurant in Mississauga.) Historians from Michael D. Barr to Mary Turnbull have thought Operation Spectrum to be mostly about political opposition rather than national security.
One of the key leverage points for the government was Chung Lai Mei, who Michael D. Barr describes in this way:
“Chung became famous as the detainee who had visited a Tamil Tiger training camp in Sri Lanka and brought home a snapshot of herself brandishing an M-16 rifle. ISD agents found the framed photo on her bedside table when they arrested her. Chung was active in the Students Society of the Singapore Polytechnic (SSSP) and the Asian Students Association, but she was not a Catholic nor was she active in any Catholic groups. The leaders of the Catholic groups certainly knew her and even accepted her presence in some “social analysis training sessions” organized by the JPC, but as her behavior became more flamboyant and unpredictable they tried to both discourage her revolutionary chic enthusiasms and keep her at arm’s length. Relations between her and the leading Catholic activists were so fraught that there were periods in which she was completely estranged from them. Yet after the arrests of May 1987 she was one of the first to “confess” to her participation in a Marxist conspiracy headed by Vincent Cheng, and the government used her as a prime exhibit to demonstrate the revolutionary intent of the alleged conspirators.”
Anyways, the diplomat in the Singaporean Embassy was expelled from the US in retaliation for Singapore’s expulsion of Hendrickson. Yet I would admit, it was somewhat ironic of the US to raise issue with this, when they have engaged in far more horrific interrogation tactics with their own prisoners. Laleh Kahlili’s work on American black sites (e.g. Time in the Shadows, published by Stanford University Press) explores among other things how American torture tactics legitimize human rights violations in many other countries across the world. It would be wise to also see the tragedies documented in “1987: Singapore’s Marxist Conspiracy 30 Years On” as reflective of a much larger problem. Regarding the Hendrickson affair, it was of course ironic for Singapore to use the discourse of colonialism to say “It is disturbing and dismaying that U.S. diplomats have seen fit to act as if they were the colonial power and Singapore their protectorate.” Especially since Singapore was able to detain all these alleged ‘Marxist conspirators” under the ISA (Internal Security Act), law leftover from colonial British repression. Yet at the same time, it is incredible to me how the US can see human rights abuses in other countries, yet fail to acknowledge how its own military perpetrates these same abuses all over the world. US governmental rhetoric has often used human rights abuses as an excuse to initiate wars and invasions that only perpetuate this same human rights problem.
To conclude, in the Gospel of Luke Jesus quotes (in reference to himself) Isaiah 61 saying: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Many detained under Operation Spectrum organized their lives around this same mission statement Jesus identified with, and they ended up in prison. I believe it is the duty of Christians to see to it that freedom is proclaimed for such prisoners, so that the work of justice can continue.
I’ve written far too much irrelevant stuff, so I will stop here, but if you’re interested in this 1987 'conspiracy', I’d recommend checking out Jason Soo’s documentary, “Untracing the Conspiracy” which is free to watch online.
June 15, 2025
It’s important to know our history and evolution, warts and all, particularly from fellow Singaporeans. Civil society in the 1980’s was subject to great suspicion by leadership in government, which had raised a country out of poor circumstances to forge ahead with capitalism, from an entwined proximity with communism. Interestingly, this unneeded episode illustrates the drawbacks of a dominant party with dominant leadership. Society and governance has dramatically changed with time, and this and other books are freely available and are openly discussed now albeit just by a small section of politically aware individuals.
The book contains concise, matter of fact accounts by the numerous individuals and the immediate family and friends who bore the brunt of the crackdown. A few academics offer some analysis and suggestions about the motivation but there are gaps in knowledge about the motivation of the state. It is also fascinating to appreciate how they organised abd communicated in a pre-internet age, with solidarity with others in and out of the country, whilst under scrutiny. A lot is possible with motivation.
It’s good to hear the voices, and they have made a commendable contribution by leaving behind this account. This a valuable episode to reflect on alongside the many accomplishments, to guide us with open eyes towards a mature society. These are remarkable people whom more have come to know, from the Cold War era. Also read “Beyond the Blue Gate,” by Teo Soh Lung (2011) and Priest In Geylang: The Untold Story of the Geylang Catholic Centre by Fr. Guillaume Arotçarena (2015). Instructing,y, Teo Soh Lung once responded to a question at a public seminar that ‘it wasn’t personal.’ And Fr. Arotçarena hoped readers look to the future. With an understanding of our past and of human nature — the Cold War is over, but we have other challenges ahead of us.
Kindle ebook.
The book contains concise, matter of fact accounts by the numerous individuals and the immediate family and friends who bore the brunt of the crackdown. A few academics offer some analysis and suggestions about the motivation but there are gaps in knowledge about the motivation of the state. It is also fascinating to appreciate how they organised abd communicated in a pre-internet age, with solidarity with others in and out of the country, whilst under scrutiny. A lot is possible with motivation.
It’s good to hear the voices, and they have made a commendable contribution by leaving behind this account. This a valuable episode to reflect on alongside the many accomplishments, to guide us with open eyes towards a mature society. These are remarkable people whom more have come to know, from the Cold War era. Also read “Beyond the Blue Gate,” by Teo Soh Lung (2011) and Priest In Geylang: The Untold Story of the Geylang Catholic Centre by Fr. Guillaume Arotçarena (2015). Instructing,y, Teo Soh Lung once responded to a question at a public seminar that ‘it wasn’t personal.’ And Fr. Arotçarena hoped readers look to the future. With an understanding of our past and of human nature — the Cold War is over, but we have other challenges ahead of us.
Kindle ebook.
August 28, 2020
Was an unusual find and pick considering that such topics are usually off the shelves for me and it didn't have the most exciting book cover or anything. YET, it was on sale and everything is worth a first try hence the purchase. Turned out to be a very engaging read and definitely a controversial one that makes one want to verify facts, find out more and continue the conversation. As a Singaporean, I feel it's important that I know and uncover the past - both beautiful and ugly parts of nation building. Nobody likes talking about scary or unpleasant events but if something did happen, it needs to be known and acknowledged. We move forward from there.
June 23, 2019
There is no doubt that this book is important and give a chance for Singaporeans to learn about this event - 2 year before Tiananmen.
That said, it is still rather boring and dry.
Read it for its facts.
That said, it is still rather boring and dry.
Read it for its facts.
September 12, 2021
A necessary book for Singaporean history, no matter what I believe or don't believe.
Edit: a little bit more reading around some claims - such as around Francis Seow, and opposition, and the allegation that the arrests were apparently successful attempts to cow Singaporeans - has made me a little more skeptical about what's said in this book.
I still think it's a necessary, important book, but it's best read as closely and as critically as any establishment account (eg LKY's memoirs)
Edit: a little bit more reading around some claims - such as around Francis Seow, and opposition, and the allegation that the arrests were apparently successful attempts to cow Singaporeans - has made me a little more skeptical about what's said in this book.
I still think it's a necessary, important book, but it's best read as closely and as critically as any establishment account (eg LKY's memoirs)
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews