PROFILE Harry Lee Seeks To Lead Malaysia

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 6

PROFILE Harry Lee Seeks To Lead Malaysia

IB V

SIMON KAVANAUGH!

Suddenly the ferment of Far East politics throws up a new name—Lee Kuan Yew. Until relatively recently it was a name familiar only to students of South-east Asian affairs. Today, Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore, is seen as an ambitious challenger for the leadership of the new Federation of Malaysia—or as a rock on which the whole concept of the new federation might founder.

Malaysia, as conceived, would be a powerful bulwark against a Communist Power monopoly in the East. At its head is 60-year-old Tun k u (Prince) Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaya, a powerful and respected figure in South-east Asia, but no firebrand. He is the most obvious choice as leeder for Malaysia and there las been a tendency to take his leadership for granted. Now. some of his most powerful and influential supporters are making no secret of their suspicion and Lee Kuan Yew wants to take over the reins. Already they are hinting broadly that the whole concept of Malaysia might have to be abandoned unless Lee Kuan Yew is brought into line. Only events will prove how well-founded are their suspicions and how determined they are not to allow them to be realised. Among those who know the situation there is a disinclination to believe that Lee Kuan Yew would be content for long to play second fiddle to Tunku Abdul Rahman. Not that there is any personal entnit. between the two men. They are good friends. Both are Cambridgeeducated lawyers. family men and keen golfers. They are also wellmatched. The genial, shrewd, Tunku at 60 has experience on his side. Lee, 20 years his junior, can counter this with a brilliant, mercurial mind that often places him one jump ahead. The Tunku, an eversmiling man of great personal charm and popularity <he is president of the local football association) is a father-figure to the Malaya and is also popular with the Chinese of the Peninsula. Convinced Socialist Lee, a convinced socialist, is respected by both, but unloved. He appeals always to the intellect, seldom—if ever —to emotion. The career of Harry Lee (as he was known until he made a public point of asking that he be called by his Chinese personal names) has meteoric. Grandson of a wealthy proBritish shipping magnate, he is third generation Straltsborn Chinese, with a solid, middle-class background. He is married to a Girton - educated lawyer and they have three children. Lee was given an English education so that, as he puts it: “I could become an educated man ... the equal of any Englishman." He distinguished himself first at Raffles College, Singapore and Later at Cambridge, where he took a double first in law. (The Tunku had to try more than once before he passed his finals.)

It was before he went to Cambridge in 1946 that Lee first began to think as a Malayan. The Japanese invasion of Singapore changed his basic values overnight and for the first time Lee felt, and reacted, like a Malayan —not an Englishman. Colonialism Spurred An admirer of British democracy as he saw it in England, Lee returned from Cambridge in 1950 bitterly opposed to the British colonial system. He said: "I can understand Nehru when he said: ‘I cry when I think I cannot speak my own mother tongue as well as I can speak the English language.’” He added: ‘‘l am a less emotional man. I do not usually cry. but that does not mean that I feel any the less strongly about it.” The following year he was called to the Singapore bar and scented his political possibilities. He became honorary adviser to the local trade unions. When demands for more pay for the Postman’s Union were ignored, Lee threatened a strike. The Government posted Gurkha troops outside the Post Office. Troops Questioned Then, from the Government, Lee demanded to know why troops to Malaya to fight the Communists should be used in a wage dispute to which the Government itself was one of the parties. Public sympathy swung in favour of the s'.rikers. The troops were removed and within. 10 days the wage claim was settled in favour of the postmen. The lesson taught by that victory of Lee Kuan Yew was a vital one in the East. It showed that workers did not have to be led by Communists to better their conditions. In November, 1954 with eight friends he founded the People’s Action Party, confident of strong union support. The following year the party put up four condidates for the Legislative Assembly, three of whom including Lee swept in with strong majorities. In five years Lee’s party had an overwhelming electoral command: 43 of the 51 seats in the Assembly. In treading his early political tight-rope. Lee believed that if colonialism was eliminated first, he could make communism lose its attraction by offering alternatives to meet the peoples’ demands. His gamble paid off in June, 1959. Lee In Charge Singapore ceased to be a colony and became a selfgoverning state with the British Commonwealth. Lee’s party had full control of the island's internal affairs. He became Prime Minister at the age of 36, at that time the youngest in the Commonwealth. Lee was never proCommunist. During his Cambridge days he rejected the Communist approaches after

first reading their literature and listening to their arguments. He looked for something less rigid but which also con ained the belief in co-operative effort to achieve high ideals. Socialism, he felt, was the answer. Lee describes his party as ‘‘non communistic” and wiH not commit it to any form of solidarity within the international socialist movement. At the same time he is guarded in his public attitude to international communism. While Malaya’s Tunku openly states his hatred of communism, Lee says that though communism is not right for Malaysia, it may be for Russia and China. For all that, Sinapore’s estimated 50,000 Communists are determined to topple Lee Kuan Yew. In turn. Lee who has infuriated the Communists by bringing quick progress to his country, has proclaimed that he is equally prepared to fight them every inch of the way. Union Hostility The irony of the situation is that the main challenge to Lee's power comes from some of the trade unions that helped him to power, for they have since been infiltrated by Communists. This month Lee struck out against them by freezing the funds of the three biggest Communist-dominated unions. The stated reason for freezing the funds was that union officials had been drawing out big sums to stir up trouble against the formation of Malaysia on September 16. At the same time Lee’s determination to keep up Singapore’s end in the new federation has not altogether eased its formation. The original federation date was August 31 Lee started haggling with the Tunku because. Singapore was scheduled to give 55 per cent of its revenue to the new federal treasury. Tunku Antagonised

The figure was reduced to 40 per cent but when he held out for a further reduction, Lee made the Tunku so furious that the Malayan Prime Minister refused to go to London for the final bargaining talks. In London Lee demanded compensation tor Britain’s use of the islands’ naval and military facilities. A compromise was reached, but discussions name to a standstill when negotiations turned to matters such as Singapore’s continued status as a free port and its financial contribution to impoverished North Borneo territories. At this stage the oil of rich British protectorate of Brunei had suddenly pulled out of the proposed federation. The Commonwealth Secretary, Mr Duncan Sandys did his best to smoo'h over relations between Lee and the Tunku resulting in the Tunku’s flying to London at the eleventh hour to await the signing ceremony. Compromise With Sabah Lee has agreed to compromise on financial issues and will lend, rather than give. North Borneo money. A federation common market will eventuaUy replace Singapore's free port status. If the attempts of Indonesia’s Soekarno to sabotage the idea of Malaysia is frustrated a new nation will be launched into troubled waters. Who is best equipped to pilot it? The princely, wise elder statesman of Malaya, or the aggressive young lawyer from Singapore? It would be illuminating to know which of the two the Communist most fear.