THE SITUATION IN SINGAPORE
SIR,—S. Rajaratnam is guilty of misleading your readers in his letter (Spectator, January 10) and must, therefore, be corrected. Before 1 comment on the important points he has raised, let me deal with his factual errors.
1. Dominic Puthucheary is still in prison and never
signed any statement that S. Rajaratnam attributes to him. In the case of S. Woodhull, he was physically and mentally broken down after eleven months of solitary confinement. Surely, S. Rajaratnam should have tried to use someone else, if indeed he could find him, instead of a man who has been so heavily under duress.
2. The PAP 'hasn't got overwhelming support; it
is a minority Government in that it polled merely 47 per cent of the electorate, as compared with 43 per cent by the anti-Malaysia parties. The Barisan Sosialis did poll 35 per cent of the electorate in alliance with its sister party—Partai Rakyat.
3. If Malaysia was not created 'at the point of
British bayonets,' as Rajaratnam claims, then he should be told of the Northern Borneo uprising—I would recommend the Spectator's editorial of the same issue which carried Rajaratnam's letter. Better still, I shall remind him of a statement-by Lee Kuan Yew, made in London not long ago: 'Without British troops rushing into Borneo in time, it is conceivable that Azahari would be Prime Minister there now.'
, Sir, I maintain that it is hypocritical for S.
Rajaratnam and his superiors in Kuala Lumpur to justify the creation of 'Malaysia' by quoting the United Nations Report." As is well known, these same people decided that 'irrespective of the UN Report,' they were going to form Malaysia, as indeed they did. It was at that time that they had &Ilion- strated to the world that they did not care for that organisation.
To justify the arrests of the island's political
leaders and trade unionists in the name of 'saving democracy' is ironical indeed. The 'bleached bones of democracy' are the result of so-called 'democrats' using every conceivable means to maintain them- selves in power, including 'flick knives and bicycle chains.' But recent events have shown that the PAP has 'been reduced to playing the 'role of fifth columnists for the external foe,' i.e. Britain, in the latter's attempt to preserve, in the words of a notable Australian paper, 'a lost Imperial cause.' The Barisan Sosialis are indeed committed to support, as honour certainly demands, the right of the Northern Borneo people's desire for self-determination. Even the dimmest intellect recognises that.
190a Finchley Road, NW3 ABDUL RAHIM KARIM
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