Independent Singapore PROSPECTS FOR NEXT MONTH’S ELECTIONS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28870, 15 April 1959, Page 12

Independent Singapore PROSPECTS FOR NEXT MONTH’S ELECTIONS

[By

JAMES MOSSMAN,

“Sydney Morning Herald" Correspondent in

‘ ’ South-East Asia! (Reprinted by Arrangement)

General elections are to be held in Singapore at the end of May, when under the new Constitution, this colony will become a self-governing State with a freelyelected Legislative Assembly of 51 members. Most observers agree that the Left-wing People’s Action Party, which already dominates the Singapore City Council, will win the elections. They find it harder to predict how the P.A.P. will behave once it is in power. The secret of the P.A.P.’s success in its campaigning lies in its superior organisation, its mass appeal, and the enthusiasm and sincerity of its leaders. The poor and largely Chinese electorate. in this teeming city tends to divide political parties into those it thinks are serving the interests of the British colonialists and those it thinks are the champions of the underdog. There can be no doubt that it places the more moderate groups, such as Tun Lim Yew Hock's Peoples Alliance, in the former group, and Lee Kuan Yew’s P.A.P. in the latter.

So strong is this “underdog’’ mood that it is estimated that even today the Communists win more secret supporters than any legal political party in Singapore. The P.A.P., which has tried to expel all suspected Communists from its ranks, is probably the one legal party that has reached the masses and can hence challenge the Communists on their own ground. Spectacular Attitudes

It has done so, of course, only by adopting aggressively anticolonial policies. Indeed, to many Europeans, the party's tone has been set by the behaviour of the Mayor of Singapore, Ong Eng Guan, who is apt to strike spectacular if rather childish attitudes at the expense of the British and the wealthier groups in the city. Despite the Mayor's pyrotechnics and the electoral invective of other P.A.P. notables, the party has a strictly democratic political programme, which includes upholding the public security ordinance directed against Communist activity.

In a belated attempt to rally the moderates against the P.A.P., the Chief Minister, Tun Lint Yew Hock, formed the Singapore People’s Alliance last November in the hope of replacing the three relatively weak and diverse political parties which opposed the P.A.P. with a unifled front. Leading members of the Rightist Liberal Socialist Party and of David Marshall’s Workers' Party, which has been steadily losing influence in the last six months, as well as members of Lim’s own Labour Front, rallied to the new coalition. But the defactors failed to carry the hard c6re of their respective central committees with them so that all three moderate parties are likely to contest the elections as well as the new Alliance. This will further weaken the chances of the Alliance and strengthen those of the P.A.P. Violence Unlikely Although much has been said about the danger of violence during the elections there is little evidence to support this except memories of what Singapore mobs can do when they go on the rampage. The P.A.P. would certainly have nothing to gain by inciting its followers to anti-British excesses, as has happened before. The party is bidding for supreme political power and would hardly wish its debut to be a bloody one.

Only the large floating Communist element in the city, which is allied to no-one in particular but which might decide to “support” any party it thought would best serve its ends, could conceivably want violence. But even this is doubtful. On present evidence it seems likely that the elections will merely be verbally savage.

It has been widely assumed since November that Tun Lim Yew Hock enjoyed British support for his move to form the Alliance. Critics of the new body say that if this is so it is a bad mistake by the British. The Alliance cannot hope to win the elections, they say. so why back it when the P.A.P. is the party you will have to deal with in the future? And what will happen if the

P.A.P. does get in? Many Britons shake their heads and say it win mark the. beginning of the end of British economic interests and also might threaten the security of Britain’s main base in the Far East. Infiltration by Communists They argue that the present leaders of the P.A.P. are extreme enough as it is, but that the real danger will come from the Com. munists, who will infiltrate the party, if they have not done io already. They also assume that, ’ despite his undertaking to abide by the anti-Communist provision! of the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance, Lee Kuan Yew will release the seven leading Communists at present in gaol, and that these men will domin. ate him and distort his party's programme. Others disagree with this and say that although life may become less pleasant for the British under a P.A.P. Government the party’s leaders understand the importance of British business to the life of Singapore and will, in any event, be sobered by their desite to impress the Conservative Gov. ernment of Malaya into accenting Singapore into the Federation. So far the Tungku and hli colleagues have shown no inclination to do so.

As for the security of the great base, the optimists recall that the new Constitution leaves a lot st discretion with the British. Not only win they control foreign policy, but they will also be able to suspend the Constitution if they believe the base is endangered by communism or any other subversive force.

Whether the British would use their powers would depend largely on the importance they attached to the base as time passed. The main point is that the powers will exist and have been acknowledged by the P.A.P. as well as by the present Government.