Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas

by Han Fook Kwang

  I searched through the Conservative Party manifesto for some statement of policy on the Empire. All I found was a vague generalisation about “promoting the welfare of the Empire”. And here is where they give a hint of their true colours: “Both Britain and America will gain to the advantage of all.” All, that is, except the colonial peoples themselves.

  The Tories squashed trade unions in colonies before the war just as they have squashed them here before the war. I myself am not a state or government scholar and I have nothing to gain by speaking for the Labour government.

  Nationalism has come to stay in Asia, and we believe it is only the Labour Party that is honest enough to face the facts. Labour has a colonial policy. It had one in 1945 and its four years’ record in Malaya is impressive. Reforms long overdue have been carried out in the midst of postwar difficulties and shortages. The Tories talked for years about the need for a university in Malaya. The Labour government last year founded the University. The Tories had long groaned about the white man’s burden to the coloured peoples – but they did little to help these coloured peoples to help themselves. Under a Labour government the first social surveys have been carried out in Malaya and the first social welfare services started. The Tories gave four scholarships a year to students to study in England. The Labour government has now more than 200 Malayan students on scholarship in English universities, studying medicine, law, the sciences and social welfare. The Tories squashed trade unions in colonies before the war just as they have squashed them here before the war. I myself am not a state or government scholar and I have nothing to gain by speaking for the Labour government. I say these things because they are the truth and because they are not so generally known in this country.

  We have confidence in Labour because we have seen Labour carry out its last election promises. We have no confidence in the Tories. They have not promises at all. They merely string out general phrases. Remember Lord Woolton’s broadcast last Saturday: “Stand by the British Empire and Commonwealth.” But he did not say what he proposed to do in specific terms and I have grave suspicions of what he might have meant when he went on to say that he was going to “develop the vast untapped resources of the Empire”. Mr Churchill said at Sevenoaks, “And all that great Empire must be raised, and roused, to a sense of its grandeur and its strength.” Does anyone here really believe that the British Empire is asleep? This Empire needs no rousing. Have we all not heard of the recent troubles and riots in West Africa, of the terrorists in Malaya, and have we so quickly forgotten the civil disobedience in India when the Tories were in power before the war? This Empire, far from wanting to be roused, needs tact and a good deal of understanding. And we in the colonies know that it is only Labour that is fully alive to our difficulties and our aspirations to self-government. If you want to keep Malaya in the Empire, and keep the dollars that Malayan tin and rubber earn within the sterling area, more dollars than Britain gets from her export drive, then keep Labour in office.

  There are some of my fellow countrymen who would like to see a Tory government back in office – not because they have any faith in a Tory government, but because they know that with a Tory government which thinks in terms of the world of yesterday, with a government determined to repress and suppress the nationalist spirit of colonial peoples, a government determined to bring back the grandeur and might of the 19th century empire, unrest will mount and disorder will break out. And in the mood of discontent and violence more will go over to the extremists and the communists. Then the Malayan Communist Party will be strong enough to drive the British Army out of the country. You all know about the bandits and terrorists in Malaya. But let me tell you that behind these virulent outrages there lies a tightly-knit communist organisation. How far their bid for power succeeds or fails will depend on how far they can get the genuine nationalist aspirations of the people behind them. A Tory government determined, like the French government in Indo-China, to thwart the nationalist aspirations of the people will send all moderate nationalists over to the communists – and this indeed is what has happened in Indo-China.

  If you want to keep Malaya in the Empire, and keep the dollars that Malayan tin and rubber earn within the sterling area, more dollars than Britain gets from her export drive, then keep Labour in office.

  With a Labour government in Britain these extremists have so far failed to get any appreciable support from the people, for we believe that from Labour Britain we can get what we want by constitutional and orderly methods.

  I have met many students in this country from India, Pakistan and Ceylon. I have not met one of them who believes in the sincerity of Tory proclamations of equal Asiatic partnership and cooperation within the Commonwealth.

  There are over 300 of my fellow countrymen studying in this country. We are all unanimously agreed that a Tory government back in office would mean more trouble out in the East. My hope and our hope of a peaceful solution of this pressing colonial problem is in Labour.

  To those who are still open to reason and argument I say that if you value fairness and social justice not only to the people of Britain but also to the millions of British subjects in the colonies, return another Labour government. But even if you care nothing for fairness or social justice to the colonial peoples, then for the sake of your own self-interest, your own economic well-being, for the sake of the dollars you get out of Malaya and your other colonies, return a government that has the confidence of these peoples, who will then gladly cooperate with and be happy to grow up within the British Commonwealth and Empire.

  This is probably the most important political speech Lee Kuan Yew made in his early years as a student in Cambridge. He was speaking at the Malayan Forum, a political grouping of Singapore and Malayan students formed by Goh Keng Swee, Tun Razak and Maurice Baker. In this speech, in January 1950, he analysed the political situation in Malaya, the race problem there, and the coming battle with the communists. His message: the English-educated, especially those like him, studying in England, were the best placed to assume power from the British. But ultimately the battle would be with the communists, in a struggle which he predicted would be a violent one.

  The returned student

  Platitudes and controversy

  This is not a learned paper with carefully garnered and marshalled facts, buttressed by an impressive mass of statistics. Rather it is a personal evaluation of the political problems facing us, and a personal interpretation of the lines along which we should act if we are to rise up to the situation instead of waiting passively for events to overtake and overwhelm us. Its purpose is to stimulate rather than to inform. Many of my propositions may be controversial, but where it is a choice between platitudes and personal convictions, I feel it is my duty to state my convictions vigorously, for one great obstacle to a rapid and orderly political development of Malaya has been and still is the Malayan habit of ignoring unpalatable facts and avoiding unpleasant controversy.

  I feel it is my duty to state my convictions vigorously, for one great obstacle to a rapid and orderly political development of Malaya has been and still is the Malayan habit of ignoring unpalatable facts and avoiding unpleasant controversy.

  Crumbs from the table, British and Japanese

  The superior social and economic position of the returned student is a fact in Malayan society. Whether this privileged position enjoyed as a class is justifiable is quite another matter. But it is the inevitable accompaniment of the supremacy of the British in the country. The English in Malaya forms the ruling caste. He has superimposed on the people his language, institutions and way of life. His is the model of perfection, and the closer an approximation to his standards the individual Asiatic attains the better his social and economic position. That is beyond controversy. In the few years the Japanese were the ruling caste, there were already signs that the nearer one was to being a Japanese, the better off one was going to be in a Japanese-dominated Malaya. Had they stayed long enough, I have no doubt that those of us w
ho could speak Japanese, who behaved like the Japs and who had been educated in Japan would have been the most favoured class of Malayans. For they would have been the most acceptable to the rulers, who because of their economic and military hold on the country, could dispense extra privileges. Many of us will remember the unhappy spectacle of English-speaking, Western-educated colleagues suddenly changing in their manner of speech, dress and behaviour, making blatant attempts at being good imitation Japs. Indeed some were sent to Japan so as to be better educated, to enlighten their ignorant countrymen in Malaya and doubtless also to become the privileged class, second only to the genuine Japanese himself. It is pertinent to note that the Malayan student returned from Britain ceased under Japanese domination to occupy that second-class status, except in so far as it was impracticable to dispense with his services for the time being.

  Many of us will remember the unhappy spectacle of English-speaking, Western-educated colleagues suddenly changing in their manner of speech, dress and behaviour, making blatant attempts at being good imitation Japs.

  It is four years now since the British have returned. For them, nothing could be better than to revert to the pleasant orderly society of 1939. Once again the English-educated are given their old privileges; and of this English-educated class, the returned student forms the uppermost crust.

  Our eminent neighbours

  It is relevant to observe the part this class (the returned student) has played in British-dominated India, Dutch-dominated Indonesia, and American-dominated Philippines. In the brief space of four years, we have seen the emergence of six Asiatic countries to national independence: India, Pakistan, Burma, Ceylon, Indonesia, Philippines. Malaya now finds herself the only remnant of colonial imperialism left in Southeast Asia surrounded by these new Asiatic national states. The only other fragment of colonialism left in Asia is French Indo-China, and at this very moment, we are watching the last desperate French attempts to salvage what little they can from that unhappy country for the French national income.

  In all these new Asiatic states, it is the returned students who have led the fight for independence. The Indians, Pakistanis, Ceylonese and Burmese returned from England, the Indonesians returned from Holland, the Philippines returned from America – they have formed the spearhead of national movements. We now see as prime minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, educated at Harrow and Cambridge; as premier of Pakistan, Mohamed Liaquat Ali Khan, educated at Oxford; as premier of Burma, Thahin Nu, educated at Cambridge; as premier of Indonesia, Dr Hatta, educated at Leyden University, Holland; and last but not least, as leader of Viet Minh, Dr Ho Chi Minh, educated at Paris, where he first joined the Communist Party.

  What might have been

  If this should conjure visions of future greatness in any of us, I hasten to add that the pattern of events never quite repeats itself, and there are cogent reasons for believing that this pattern will not do so in Malaya. Had there not been the difficult racial problem in Malaya, had there not been a Chinese community almost as large as Malays, had the population been six million, all Malays, I venture to suggest that British imperialism in Malaya would be well on its way out. But the facts being what they are, we must accept British rule for some time, time during which we can attain a sufficient degree of social cohesion, and acquire a sufficient degree of civic and political consciousness among the various races of Malaya. This time is vital if we are to avoid a political vacuum that may otherwise follow British withdrawal from Malaya.

  And what is

  Returned students in any British colony fall broadly into two classes:

  (1) the rich man’s son

  (2) the impecunious government scholar

  The first, on returning home, finds himself better equipped to be a bigger and more efficient capitalist entrepreneur. The second finds himself linked up with the colonial administrative system, given positions second only to the Englishman, who must necessarily in a colonial system always be at the top. But they will be better off than their fellow Asiatics who have not been to England. Hence both groups, on returning to Malaya, find themselves a part of the vested interests of the country, both somewhat reluctant to dislodge the system under which they enjoy these advantages.

  British dilemma

  It is significant that Colonial Office policy since the war has been to increase the number of scholars sent to England. This is no doubt, in part, a sincere attempt to carry out Labour’s election programme of 1945, when they promised that the colonial peoples should be helped to self-government. But I think there is equally no doubt that this policy is also intended, to a large extent, to ally the potential leaders of a potential Malayan nationalist movement with the existence of British rule in Malaya. These men and women, if left frustrated and underprivileged in Malaya, would turn their energies to the overthrow of a system where they are not given the opportunity to attain what they feel is their rightful due from society. So it is that empires exist, that one nation by economic and military supremacy is able to dominate another and to continue to keep it subject for a long time afterwards, although there is no intrinsic superiority in individuals of the master over individuals of the subject race. But no matter how enlightened a colonial policy, it must finally end. That is the British dilemma. To quote from a learned treatise by a professor of anthropology at London University who was in Malaya before the war, and whose book Malay Fisherman was published before the British re-occupation, at page 306:

  “Quite apart from any disorganisation resulting from the war, and from any conservatism, apathy and suspicion that may be met, there are two major political and economic issues that have to be faced. One is the question of the kind of relations which should exist between Chinese and Malays in Malaya; the other is the question of the place which the British wish to occupy. With postwar reconstruction should certainly come a more positive policy for Chinese-Malay relations in the Malay States, giving more definite political opportunities to the Chinese and more enlarged economic assistance to the Malays. It does seem evident that the old Colonial system, with a comparatively small group of Europeans as the dominant power, is a temporary historical phase; that with the advance of modern technology and education there is almost bound to be ultimately a transfer of responsibility to the major groups resident in the country.”

  These men and women, if left frustrated and underprivileged in Malaya, would turn their energies to the overthrow of a system where they are not given the opportunity to attain what they feel is their rightful due from society.

  The two things we the returned students can help to decide are: firstly, how soon and orderly the change will be, and secondly, whether we shall find a place at all in the new Malaya.

  The sun must set

  Empires never last for ever. Either the master and subject races finally merge into one unified society as in Britain, where the Welsh and Scots, once English-dominated, now form part of one political society, enjoying equal rights with the English. Or the empire ends with the subject races violently resisting and finally emerging as a separate national and political entity as in the case of the Irish Republic, India, Pakistan and Indonesia. The indefinite continuance of the subjugation of one race over another is only possible where the subject race is inherently, both mentally and physically, inferior. Anthropologists are unable to prove any innate superiority of one race over another. This scientific fact and the historical fact that no empire has been able to last more than a thousand years is, I think, no mere coincidence.

  We in Malaya are now seeing British domination after over a hundred years enter its last phase. Colonial imperialism in Southeast Asia is dead except in Malaya, and our generation will see it out. No sane man, whether he be English, Malay, Indian, Eurasian, or Chinese, can honestly study the situation in that part of the world and not come to the conclusion that either with or without the opposition of the Western-educated intelligentsia in Malaya, British imperialism will end. The two things we the returned students can help to
decide are: firstly, how soon and orderly the change will be, and secondly, whether we shall find a place at all in the new Malaya. At the moment it is clear that the only party organised to force the British to leave, and to run the country, is the Communist Party. They are not merely so many bandits, shooting and being shot at in the jungle, and creating terror for the sake of terror. Theirs is a tightly knit organisation making their bid for power.

  A greater evil

  It is this element of international communism which I fear will make the pattern of development that has unfolded in India, Burma, Ceylon, etc. unlikely in Malaya. In all these countries the leaders from the educated classes, the returned students, had time to organise and were already organised, like the Indian Congress Party, before international communism became a force in the political life of these countries. But this does not mean that communism is not a force in these countries. It is, right now, the biggest threat to the newly established national governments of Asia.