傅树介医生于2023年1月24日
致千禧楼春茗聚餐会新春献词

Dr Poh Soo Kai's Chu San speech (24 Jan 23)
by Dr Poh Soo Kai

I am very happy that this Chu San lunch gathering is still going strong, even though many of its original attendees are no longer with us.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Operation Coldstore. It is Operation Coldstore and other arrests and detentions in the name of “national security” that bring us together as a community today.

Chu San gatherings originated with the return of Lim Chin Siong to Singapore in 1979, after 10 years of exile in England. His close friends wanted him to meet his comrades. Gradually, this gathering enlarged to include English educated friends.

In earlier times, Chu San was just a lunch gathering. There were no political speeches. The organisers did not want to attract the attention of the authorities. This cautious approach permitted the annual event to continue undisturbed and the number of lunch guests grew.

I think our earlier organisers will be proud at the way Chu San is celebrated today.

I am heartened that this gathering is no longer confined to just ISA survivors. It is enriched by the inclusion of younger friends who may or may not speak Chinese. This was unthinkable in earlier days.

Ten years ago, the organisers of Chu San commemorated the 50th Anniversary of Operation Coldstore at Hong Lim Park after the Chinese Chamber of Commerce rejected their booking of its auditorium. It was a blessing in disguise. Former ISA prisoners came out in the hundreds, discarding their fear of being identified. They flocked to examine the names of those arrested under the ISA that were displayed on a banner. They wanted to make sure that their names were on the list which they jokingly referred to as the “Roll of Honour”.

On that day at Hong Lim Park, comrades sang Tuan jie shi li liang.

Since then, Chu San has taken on new dimensions. Let me mention a few of these changes and achievements:

1. At every Chu San gathering, political speeches are no longer taboo.

2. Every year, the organisers publish a commemorative book.

3. The setting up of xingmarenmin.com, an online website enables documents that are stashed away by comrades for decades to be published. These documents which would otherwise have been lost are now available online. It was networking at Chu San gatherings that enabled these materials to be located and uploaded. Maintaining this site involves formidable work, time and money.

We have looked at the past and the present.

What of the future?

Today in the international arena, we are entering a new epoch where American hegemony (domination) is in decline. In its place, we have the emergence of a multi polar world.

Ever since its independence in 1965, Singapore’s policy has been, in the words of Lee Kuan Yew, to shamelessly support the one “with the heaviest gun”. This stand must change.

We witness with growing unease around us, the appearance of QUAD (Indo-Pacific Quadrilateral Dialogue comprising Australia, India, Japan and the United States), AUKUS, a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States and the rearmament of Japan.

Third world countries – from Latin America to South Africa to Saudi Arabia are changing their attitude to ensure and safeguard their own sovereignty. They no longer can tolerate the neo colonial status that the West has relegated them to since the Second World War.

We – who are the survivors of Operation Coldstore of February 2, 1963 recall that six decades back, we were the youth that launched the constitutional and non-violent struggle for a genuine independent Singapore that would be free from colonial fetters. We wanted to deny the British colonialist the use of the naval base in Singapore which was aimed at suppressing the great Indonesian Revolution under Sukarno, and threatening newly liberated China with its nuclear bombs.

Former colonies established the Non Aligned Movement to support one another in our fledgling steps toward being full sovereign nations.

Unfortunately for us, in Singapore, that constitutional path to independence and sovereignty was brutally truncated on the night of February 2, 1963 where almost the entire leadership of Barisan Sosialis and many of its supporters, were arrested and imprisoned without trial – some for long periods of nearly two decades.

Neo colonialism has triumphed in Singapore on that fateful night 60 years ago. Today we are reaping the consequences of that set back. That we have become a nation led by those, who would neglect our sovereign interests by supporting the one with the heaviest gun.

Singapore is at the dangerous historical juncture today, where in the international arena, a gigantic geopolitical shift to shake off the policy of the aggressive elites of the West,

We are at this historic milestone on the 60th anniversary of Operation Coldstore, where it is abundantly clear that we are vindicated in having fought against colonialism and neo colonialism.

Comrades and friends, the struggle for Singapore’s sovereign development did not lapse with Operation Coldstore. Waves after waves of arrests had been perpetuated by the Lee Kuan Yew regime in carrying out the dictates of British and American interests in the region. From Operation Pecah to the ridiculous Marxist conspiracy of Operation Spectrum, we salute each and every fighter for his or her brave stand for an independent Singapore path to development.

To each and every Singaporean – going forward in this recently formatted global geo political configuration, it is our sacred duty not to be bullied by the heaviest gun, but to boldly reassert our claim to peace and development. That is our genuine sovereignty.

Thank you.

Poh Soo Kai