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Operation Spectrum (Chinese: 光谱行动), also known as the 1987 "Marxist Conspiracy", was the code name for a covert security operation that took place in Singapore on 21 May 1987. 16 people were arrested and detained without trial under Singapore’s Internal Security Act (ISA) for their alleged involvement in "a Marxist conspiracy to subvert the existing social and political system in Singapore, using communist united front tactics, with a view to establishing a Marxist state." On 20 June 1987, 6 more people were arrested, bringing the total number of detainees to 22. The mostly English-educated group was a mix of catholic lay workers, social workers, overseas-educated graduates, theatre practitioners and professionals.

According to the government, Operation Spectrum was conducted to “nip communist problem(s) in the bud”. The mastermind behind the Marxist plot was Tan Wah Piow , a former University of Singapore Students' Union president who had been in de facto exile in London since 1976. His "key man" in Singapore was Vincent Cheng, a full-time Catholic Church worker in the Justice and Peace Commission. Cheng's role was to use the Catholic church in Singapore as a "ready cover" to organise the infiltration of disparate groups of influence including the Law Society, the opposition Workers' Party and various student bodies. These would become pressure groups that would eventually come into open confrontation with the government.

By December 1987, all the detainees had been released except for Cheng. However, in April 1988, nine of the released detainees issued a joint statement accusing the government of ill-treatment and torture while under detention. They also denied involvement in any conspiracy and alleged that they were pressured into making confessions. Eight of the nine were re-arrested and detained for a second time. They were eventually released after they signed statutory declarations denying everything they had said in their press statement.

The truth of the allegations has often been questioned. Historians C.M. Turnbull and Michael D. Barr have described the conspiracy as “myths” and a “fanciful narrative”, arguing that the arrests were politically-motivated. Singapore's current Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has stated on record that he believes the ex-detainees were "social activists but not out to subvert the system". However, the People's Action Party (PAP) government has continued to maintain its stand that the ex-detainees “were not detained for their political beliefs, but because they had involved themselves in subversive activities which posed a threat to national security.”

The Marxist conspiracy

On 21 May 1987, 16 people were arrested in a pre-dawn raid carried out by the Internal Security Department. They were Vincent Cheng Kim Chuan, Teo Soh Lung, Kevin de Souza, Wong Souk Yee, Tang Lay Lee, Ng Bee Leng, Jenny Chin Lai Ching, Kenneth Tsang Chi Seng, Chung Lai Mei, Mah Lee Lin, Low Yit Leng, Tan Tee Seng, Teresa Lim Li Kok, Chia Boon Tai, Tay Hong Seng and William Yap Hon Ngian.

Over the next two months, Singapore's national broadsheet The Straits Times published numerous articles about the unraveling of what the Ministry of Home Affairs described as a "Marxist conspiracy" to "subvert the existing system of government and to seize power in Singapore." The conspirators were "hybrid pro-communist types who...augment traditional CPM (Communist Party of Malaya) tactics with new techniques and methods, using the Catholic church and religious organisations."

The Catholic Church and the State

The Catholic organisations that were named by the government as having been used by Cheng to further the Marxist cause included the Justice and Peace Commission (of which Cheng was the executive secretary), the Student Christian Movement of Singapore, the Young Christian Workers Movement and the Catholic Welfare Centre, which assisted foreign workers and maids working in Singapore. The government also said that the detainees had links with Filipino leftists and advocates of liberation theology as well as Sri Lankan separatists.

Initial reaction

Following the arrests, Archbishop Gregory Yong, the head of the Catholic Church in Singapore, issued a joint statement with his priests that expressed support for the 4 full-time church workers and 6 volunteers who were detained. It also affirmed that "the Catholic Church...must continue its mission of spreading its teachings on matters pertaining to justice as they apply to social, economic and political issues." The joint statement and a pastoral letter supporting the Church workers were read in all Catholic churches on 31 May 1987. The Church also held a special Mass for the detainees and their families. All this led to a build-up of tension between the Church and the government.

Meeting with the Prime Minister

On 2 Jun 1987, a meeting was arranged between Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Archbishop Yong as well as nine other Catholic Church representatives who had been cleared by the ISD. Lee was concerned about the reaction of the Catholic community to the detentions. When the Archbishop asked for proof that nine of the detained church workers had been involved in a clandestine communist network, Lee interrupted him by saying: "It is not a practice, nor will I allow subversives to get away by insisting that I’ve got to prove everything against them in a court of law or evidence that will stand up to the strict rules of evidence of a court of law."

In a press conference given immediately after the meeting, Archbishop Yong said that he accepted the ISD's evidence against Cheng and was satisfied that the government had nothing against the Catholic Church when they arrested him. Yong said: "That the man himself [Vincent Cheng] admitted that he was using the Church...I think this is one of the biggest reasons why I have to accept the Government's statement. ...After going through the depositions made by the person concerned himself, I have no way of disproving this statement." Lee stressed that the government upheld freedom of religion but would not tolerate the use of religion for subversive activities.

However, two years later in 1989, speaking in court during the defamation suit launched by the government against the Far Eastern Economic Review, Father Joachim Kang gave a different account of the meeting. One of the Catholic priests who was present at the meeting, Kang said that the Prime Minister was dismissive of Vincent Cheng and the detainees, saying they were "stupid novices" and calling Tan Wah Piow a "simpleton". Instead, Lee turned the spotlight on 4 priests: Fathers Edgar de Souza, Joseph Ho, Patrick Goh and Guillaume Arotcarena. Edgar D'Souza was the associate editor of The Catholic News and press liaison officer of the Church; Joseph Ho was the chairman of the Justice and Peace Commission; Patrick Goh was the national chaplain of the Young Christian Workers' Movement and a commission member; and Guillaume Arotcarena was the director of the Catholic Centre for Foreign Workers. The Prime Minister criticised them for venturing into the political arena and gave the impression that he considered the priests to be "subversives, Marxists or communists", and mentioned that the government had full rights under the ISA to arrest them. It left Kang feeling "dead worried" about the fate of the priests and the Church. Kang also said that he got the impression that the real target of the government's action was not the 16 detainees but the 4 priests.

Subsequent actions

Following the press conference, Archbishop Yong implemented measures that were an about-turn from his earlier stance. He withdrew the most recent issue of The Catholic News which focused on the Church's support for the detainees and accepted the resignation of the 4 priests involved with the organisations named in the conspiracy as well as suspended them from their preaching duties. He also ordered his priests not to mix politics and religion in sermons and shut down the Catholic Centre for Foreign Workers.

TV confessions

During their time in prison, all the detainees eventually signed confessions of their involvement in the Marxist plot. Most of them also made their confessions on television as it had become customary for the government to televise confessions of those held without trial under the ISA. An interview with Vincent Cheng was broadcast on 9 June, some 19 days after his arrest. For two hours, Cheng answered questions from four journalists about his role in the Marxist plot. Over the next few days, the Singapore press published lengthy extracts from the interview.

In a two-part television documentary titled Tracing The Conspiracy, broadcast on 28 June, other detainees spoke of the purported roles they played in the conspiracy. Tang and Teo said that they targeted the Law Society as a pressure group to oppose the government. Wong spoke of how the drama group, Third Stage, used plays as a tool to portray Singapore's social and political system in an unfavourable light. Low, Chung and Tan Tee Seng talked about their student activist days. The detainees said Tan Wah Piow had insisted that they infiltrate the Workers' Party, which was why they helped to print and distribute Workers' Party pamphlets during the 1984 General Elections. After the elections, Tsang and Tan Tee Seng moved into positions of influence within the party. They later took control of the party's publication, The Hammer, and used it as a channel to propagate anti-government sentiments and influence public opinion against the government.

International response

Reactions to the news of the arrests arrived swiftly from abroad. Senior Minister S. Rajaratnam revealed that the detentions had drawn protests from about 200 organisations in the United States, Europe, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Major Asian news publications such as the Far Eastern Economic Review, Asiaweek and The Star (Malaysia) followed the affair closely and offered minute analyses, generally taking a critical tone with regard to the actions of the Singapore authorities.

Prominent examples of external organizations that challenged the PAP during the 1987 ISA arrests are the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Amnesty International, World Council of Churches and Asia Watch. Amnesty International sent a group to Singapore to investigate the case, later adopting all 22 detainees as prisoners of conscience. The ICJ also sent a mission to Singapore. Its report on 12 Oct 1987 stated that there was no evidence which justified the detainees being labelled 'Marxists' or 'communists'; that the treatment of the detainees by the ISD amounted to "clear and grave violations of human rights"; and that "the Mission’s report endorses world opinion that the real motive for these detentions is to quash internal opposition and criticism of the Singapore government."

The affair was also brought to the attention of the European Parliament. On 4 July, 55 members of the American Congress among whom were several presidents of Justice Commissions signed a letter demanding that legal procedures begin or else that the detainees be set free. At a meeting, the ministers of Foreign Affairs of the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia asked their Singapore counterpart for explanations of the affair. 15 deputies of the Japanese Diet also sent a letter to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

The joint statement and re-arrests of 1988

With the exception of Vincent Cheng, all the detainees were released, on various dates, before the end of 1987.

On 18 April 1988, nine of the ex-detainees released a joint statement to the press. In the statement, Teo Soh Lung, Kevin Desmond de Souza, Tang Lay Lee, Ng Bee Leng, William Yap Hon Ngian, Kenneth Tsang Chi Seng, Wong Souk Yee, Chng Suan Tze, and Tang Fong Har said that even though they had hitherto kept a "fearful silence", they decided to release a statement because of "the constant barrage of Government taunts and its public invitation to speak the truth". The following are extracts from the statement:

"We categorically deny the Government's accusation against us. We have never been Marxist conspirators involved in any conspiracy.

"...we were subjected to harsh and intensive interrogation, deprived of sleep and rest, some of us for as long as 70 hours inside freezing cold rooms.

Under these conditions, one of us was repeatedly doused with cold water during interrogation.

Most of us were hit hard in the face, some of us for not less than 50 times, while others were assaulted on other parts of the body, during the first three days of interrogation.

We were threatened with arrests, assault and battery of our spouses, loved ones and friends. We were threatened with INDEFINITE detention without trial. Chia Thye Poh, who is still in detention after twenty years, was cited as an example. We were told that no one could help us unless we "cooperated" with the ISD.

These threats were constantly on our minds during the time we wrote our respective "statements" in detention.

We were compelled to appear on television and warned that our release would depend on our performances on tv. We were coerced to make statements such as "I am Marxist-inclined..."; "My ideal society is a classless society..." ; " so-and-so is my mentor..."; "I was made use of by so-and-so..." in order to incriminate ourselves and other detainees."

One day after release of the statement, all the signatories except Tang Fong Har, who was in the UK at the time, were re-arrested. Patrick Seong Kwok Kei, a Law Society Council member and one of the lawyers who had acted for several of the detainees in 1987 was also arrested on the same day.

On 6 May 1988, lawyer Francis Seow who was representing Teo and Seong was himself arrested under the ISA while waiting inside the ISD headquarters to meet his clients. He was supposed to have filed for writs of habeas corpus for his clients on the same day. The government accused him of "colluding with foreign diplomats and officials to lead a group of opposition lawyers and professionals into Parliament." He was alleged to have misused his status as a legal counsel as a cover for political propaganda and agitation. Seow was held in detention for 72 days and was released, subject to restrictions on his freedom of movement and association, as a result of pressure by international human rights organizations. He was later charged and convicted in absentia for tax evasion, having left Singapore to live in exile in the United States where he became a Fellow at the Department of Asian Studies at Harvard University.

In response to the ex-detainees' allegations of ill-treatment, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced on 19 April that a Commission of Inquiry would be held to determine if the Marxist conspiracy was a government fabrication and whether the detainees were assaulted and tortured. Trade and Industry Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that "the Government does not ill-treat detainees. It does however apply psychological pressure to detainees to get to the truth of the matter...the truth would not be known unless psychological pressure was used during interrogation." Ow Chin Hock, MP for Leng Kee, revealed later that Singaporeans, notably intellectuals, had "harped on the need to protect detainees' rights".

The ex-detainees who were arrested eventually signed statutory declarations (SDs) reaffirming their original statements to the ISD. Five of the detainees said that they were not ill-treated. In Patrick Seong's SD, he admitted to encouraging the release of the joint statement as he saw it as "an opportunity to discredit the Government and embarrass it externally", as well as feeding information to foreign correspondents to generate “hostile publicity” to pressure govt to release the detainees. He was released after 30 days in detention together with Tang Lay Lee and Ng Bee Leng. Vincent Cheng was conditionally released after 3 years in mid-June 1990. He had to abide by six restrictive conditions, one of which was not to engage or get involved in any activity that advocated a political cause.

Even after the signing of the SDs, there were continued calls for a public inquiry. Minister for Home Affairs S. Jayakumar explained that there was no longer a need to hold a Commission of Inquiry as investigations had showed that the ex-detainees "were not...seeking judicial or legal redress but were acting as political propagandists out to discredit the Government." He also revealed that the foreign press had "hysterical" reactions to the news of the re-arrests, which did not come as a surprise to the government.

Habeas corpus

See Changes to the law

After the re-arrests, four of the detainees - Teo, Tsang, Wong and De Souza - were issued with one-year detention orders. They engaged Anthony Lester and Geoffrey Robertson, Queen's Counsels (QC) from Britain, to apply to the High Court for writs of habeas corpus, a legal action that requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge to challenge detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence. They were unsuccessful. They then appealed to the Court of Appeal. In a landmark ruling, the Court of Appeal ordered the four detainees to be released but they were immediately re-arrested under new detention orders. The detainees filed fresh applications for writs of habeas corpus, but - with the exception of Teo - later withdrew their applications and were released. Teo's application was dismissed by the High Court after the government amended the Constitution of Singapore and the Internal Security Act to reverse the Court of Appeal's earlier decision. The amendments were expressed to operate retrospectively.

The legality of these amendments was unsuccessfully challenged by Teo in Teo Soh Lung v. Minister for Home Affairs (1989–1990) and Vincent Cheng in Cheng Vincent v. Minister for Home Affairs (1990).

Impact of Operation Spectrum

Changes to the law

Main article: Chng Suan Tze v. Minister for Home Affairs

Main article: Teo Soh Lung v. Minister for Home Affairs

Main article: Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act

The legal challenges mounted by the detainees led the PAP government to introduce bills in Parliament to amend the Constitution and the Internal Security Act to remove the power of the judiciary in cases related to internal security. Although the Court of Appeal held in the seminal 1988 case Chng Suan Tze v. Minister for Home Affairs that the courts could review the legality of detentions under the Act, the effect of the case was reversed through amendments to the Constitution and the ISA in 1989. The legality of the amendments was challenged by Teo in Teo Soh Lung v. Minister for Home Affairs (1989–1990) and Cheng in Cheng Vincent v. Minister for Home Affairs (1990). However, the amendments were determined to be effective by the High Court and Court of Appeal in 1989 and 1990 respectively. The ISA is now shielded from unconstitutionality by Article 149 of the Constitution.

Appeals to the Privy Council were also abolished because the government averred that only the local courts should be involved in matters that involved Singapore's national security.

Following this episode, the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act was passed in 1990 as an additional legal instrument to keep politics and religion separate in Singapore. The law gives the Minister for Home Affairs the power to issue restraining orders against any religious leader whose sermons, speeches or actions threaten Singapore's religious harmony.

Gazetting of foreign media

The Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), a weekly news publication under Dow Jones Inc., was gazetted and its circulation restricted as a result of an article about the Marxist conspiracy, "New Light on Detentions", that offended the Singapore government. Its circulation was reduced from 9000 copies to 500 copies per issue per week. In addition, the prime minister commenced a personal action for defamation against the FEER, its editor, the reporter, and all those connected with its publication.

Asiaweek, a regional weekly owned by Time Inc., was also gazetted due to its refusal to publish two letters from the government concerning the magazine's cover story on the detentions. The magazine's circulation was reduced from 10,000 copies to 500 copies per week. When Asiaweek softened its stance against the government, its circulation was raised to 5,000 copies, but not before its resident correspondent, Lisa Beyer, was transferred out to Hong Kong. Lisa Beyer had written articles relating to the 1987 arrests. When she chose to resign, the circulation of Asiaweek was raised to 7500 copies weekly per issue.

Doubts about the Marxist Conspiracy

Many political commentators, academics and even members of Singapore's ruling elite have expressed scepticism over the years that there was ever a Marxist conspiracy.

Renowned historian C.M. Turnbull wrote that "The alleged Marxist conspiracy and the Liberation Theology menace turned out to be myths". Michael D. Barr, a historian at Flinders University, called the conspiracy a "fanciful narrative".

Singapore's current Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam stated on public record in 2001 that he disagreed with the arrests and that "although I had no access to state intelligence, from what I knew of them, most were social activists but not out to subvert the system.”

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong (the former Prime Minister of Singapore) revealed in his interviews for Men in White: The Untold Stories of the PAP that former National Development Minister S. Dhanabalan left the Cabinet in 1992 because he was not comfortable with the way the PAP had dealt with the 1987 Marxist conspiracy. “At that time, given the information, he was not fully comfortable with the action we took...he felt uncomfortable and thought there could be more of such episodes in future. So he thought since he was uncomfortable, he’d better leave the Cabinet. I respected him for his view,” Mr Goh said.

Law lecturer Walter Woon, who would later assume the post of Attorney-General, said in a 1991 interview with the Straits Times that “As far as I am concerned, the government’s case is still not proven. I would not say those fellows were Red, not from the stuff they presented. I think a lot of people have this skepticism.”

Most importantly, there is evidence that the Prime Minister himself did not believe that those arrested were part of any Marxist conspiracy. According to notes taken by the ISD at a private meeting on 2 June 1987 at 3 p.m. between Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Catholic church leaders, the PM said that he was “not interested in Vincent Cheng and his group”, that he “did not believe Tan Wah Piow was in control,” and that he regarded the detainees as nothing more than “do-gooders, who wanted to help the poor and dispossessed”. According to Catholic priest Joachim Kang, who was present at the same meeting, PM Lee also dismissed Vincent Cheng and the others as "stupid novices" and called Tan Wah Piow a "simpleton".

See also

• Internal Security Act (Singapore)
• Internal Security Department
• Operation Cold Store
• Operation Lalang

References

• Francis T. Seow (1994), To Catch a Tartar: A Dissident in Lee Kuan Yew's Prison, (Monograph 42/Yale Southeast Asia Studies), ISBN 0-938692-56-9.
• Haas, ed., Michael (1999). The Singapore puzzle (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Praeger. ISBN 978-0275963798. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
• Michael D. Barr (2008), "Singapore's Catholic Social Activists", in Michael D. Barr and Carl A. Trocki, eds., Paths not taken: political pluralism in post-war Singapore, Singapore: NUS Press, ISBN 9789971693787.
• Michael D. Barr (2010), "Marxists in Singapore? Lee Kuan Yew's Campaign against Catholic Social Justice Activists in the 1980s", Critical Asian Studies, 43(3), 335-362.
• Tan Wah Piow, foreword by G.Raman (2012). Smokescreens & mirrors : tracing the "Marxist Conspiracy". Singapore: Function 8 Limited. ISBN 9789810721046.
• Teo, Soh Lung (2010), Beyond the Blue Gate: Recollections of a Political Prisoner, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, ISBN 978-967-5-83201-7 (pbk.) {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help).

External links

• Timeline of the "plot"
• Fang, edited by Fong Hoe (2012). That we may dream again (2nd ed.). Singapore: Ethos Books. ISBN 9789810708672. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Leng, edited by Teo Soh Lung, Low Yit (2012). Escape from the lion's paw : reflections of Singapore's political exiles. Singapore: Function 8. ISBN 978-981-07-2103-9. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Rerceretnam, Marc. "International response to 'Marxist conspiracy' arrests" (PDF). Asia Rights (Five).
• Tang Fong Har's account of her arrest
• Vincent Cheng's speech at SDP's Pre-Election Rally in 2010 Part 1 and Part 2
• Transcript of Francis Seow's interview with The Straits Times
• 'Marxist Conspiracy' anniversary remembered
• 15th Anniversary of May 21 ISA Arrests
• Geoffrey Robertson, "Torture: the human-rights answer"
• That We May Dream Again (Function 8 website)

Category:Politics of Singapore Category:History of Singapore Category:1987 in Singapore