36. Albar Stokes Up Malay Passions

Syed Ja’afar Albar was the hatchet man of the UMNO leaders hostile to Singapore. Originally from Indonesia but of Arab descent, he was small, balding, a bundle of energy with a round face, a moustache and a good, strong voice. In the early 1950s, he had seemed friendly. In February 1955, when I was seeing the Tunku off on the ship that would take him to England for the Constitutional Conference, Albar urged me to get closer to the Tunku so that we could be photographed together for the press, saying in Malay, “take a ride on the old boy’s fame”. But he was a great rabble-rouser, skilful in working up the mob and, as I was to learn, totally ruthless and unscrupulous in his methods. His English was not adequate for public speaking, but his Malay was superb, his delivery powerful. He did not need to be reported in the English-language press, which would have shown him up as a racist to English speakers not only in Malaysia but internationally. He concentrated on the Malay newspapers, and his most strident lines were confined to them, especially to the Utusan Melayu, which was printed in Jawi (the Arabic script) and not read by the Chinese, Indians, British or other Europeans. The Utusan had been bought by UMNO, and was Albar’s weapon of choice for multiplying the effect of his speeches.

Albar and the Malay press kept repeating the falsehood that I had belittled the Tunku as a leader of little calibre. They now mounted a campaign to work up a sense of grievance among Malays over specific issues, real or imaginary, playing on the fact that theirs was the least successful and the poorest of the different communities in Singapore. The truth was that the Malays were never discriminated against by the PAP government. On the contrary, they were given free education, something not accorded to children of other races, and although there was no Malay quota for taxi or hawker licences as in Malaya, we made sure that there were always Malay shops and stalls to cater for Malay customers in our Housing and Development Board neighbourhoods. Nevertheless, on 13 May 1964, the Utusan reported that there was anxiety and unrest among Malays over the allocation of stalls in the new Geylang Serai market, and in June claimed that the PAP’s policy on schools had led to Malay education becoming retrogressive.

Albar’s offensive had started on 21 September 1963, immediately after Singapore’s general election, when Singapore UMNO accused members of the PAP of intimidating the Malays in Geylang Serai on the eastern side of the island, by throwing firecrackers at their homes after the PAP had won in the three Malay constituencies. I did not realise then that this was part of a campaign. If our supporters did throw firecrackers I should apologise, and I did so on television. On investigation, the charges proved completely unfounded. But regardless of the truth, UMNO leaders were able to work up enough feelings to have me burnt in effigy a week later.

More distortions were to follow. For instance, after Chin Chye announced on 1 March 1964 that the PAP was going to take part in the federal election, the Utusan ran this headline: “1,500 Malays threatened with quit notices”. The reality was that the land they were asked to quit was private property. The owner was within his rights to issue the notices, and he would have to negotiate with the tenants and pay them compensation. It had nothing to do with the Singapore government. The Utusan conveniently ignored this, and on 28 May, reported that 3,000 Malays were threatened with eviction from their homes in Crawford, Rochor and Kampong Glam. I toured these constituencies to tell the people that the quit notices were sent to Malays, Chinese and Indians impartially in order to implement a plan submitted by a United Nations expert to rebuild the city, starting from the outer parts and working towards the centre. We had to demolish old buildings and rehouse the people affected by this urban renewal scheme. We would provide them with temporary accommodation nearby, and each family would be given $300 to cover the cost of moving and priority to return once the new buildings were completed.

We were also under attack on more general grounds. On 23 May, an editorial in the Utusan accused the PAP and me of inciting non-Malays to demand the abolition of the special rights of the Malays. On 11 June, the paper proclaimed, “Singapore UMNO directed to take steps to save PAP victims”. The next day, another headline: “Malays in Singapore today facing threat, pressure and oppression by the government. Do not treat the sons of the soil as stepchildren”. A week later, the Utusan urged all Malays to “stand solidly behind UMNO in making strong and effective protests against the PAP government”, and to call on Kuala Lumpur to take immediate action to protect their special rights. UMNO then published a “white paper” setting out “in detail the sufferings of the Malays under the PAP led by Lee Kuan Yew”. Once more, they accused us of treating them as stepchildren, saying that the Malay traitors to their own race who had voted for us were realising their mistake, because now the government intended to turn Geylang Serai into another Chinatown.

That all these were flagrant falsehoods was irrelevant as long as they succeeded in inflaming the Malay ground. A good example of this principle was provided on 4 July, when the Utusan twisted a speech I had made in Seremban, in which I had said “40 per cent of Malays in Malaysia cannot drive away the 60 per cent non-Malays”. The Utusan reported this as: “Those able to drive others away from Malaysia are the Chinese and other non-Malays and those who are driven away are the Malays because their numbers are very small.” They repeated this over the next few days, claiming again that the PAP was out to destroy the “special rights” of the Malays, when we had pointed out that the Singapore constitution recognised only their “special position”.

Earlier, I had decided to counter this campaign by inviting all the Malay leaders in Singapore to meet me on 17 July for a face-to-face discussion to expose the lies and innuendoes. On 30 June, UMNO pre-empted me; the Utusan announced that UMNO would organise a convention of Malay parties on 12 July to “discuss the fate and plight of Malays in Singapore under PAP rule”. This meeting was attended by all Malay political parties, although three of them were anti-Malaysia and pro-Indonesia. No matter; this issue demanded the unity of the Malay race, and Albar set out to work up their emotions, saying that the fate of the Malays was even worse than it had been during the Japanese occupation. This excerpt from one of his speeches was typical:

“I am very happy today we Malays and Muslims in Singapore have shown unity and are prepared to live or die together for our race and our future generation. If there is unity no force in this world can trample us down, no force can humiliate us, no force can belittle us. Not one Lee Kuan Yew, a thousand Lee Kuan Yews … we finish them off …” (Handclapping. Shouts. “Kill him … Kill him … Othman Wok and Lee Kuan Yew … Lee Kuan Yew … Lee Kuan Yew … Othman Wok.”) “However much we are oppressed, however much we are suppressed, however much our position has been twisted and turned by the PAP government, according to Lee Kuan Yew’s logic: Hey, shut up, you, you minority race in this island. Here I say to Lee Kuan Yew: You shut up and don’t tell us to shut up.”

The entire proceedings were shown over Television Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur the same evening. Among the resolutions passed was a call to boycott the government’s convention on 17 July at which I was to address the Malay grassroots leaders. The intense racial agitation in the Malay newspapers fanned Malay emotions throughout the Federation. On 14 July, federal police headquarters announced that incidents had occurred as far away as Bukit Mertajam in Province Wellesley, 500 miles to the north of Singapore, where two persons had been killed and 13 wounded. Malay-Chinese clashes had already taken place on several occasions in this former crown colony of Penang after it was absorbed into the Malayan Federation in 1948 and Malay special rights became applicable there, where it had not applied before.