Operation Spectrum - a dark page in Singapore's history?

SingaporeKopi Tok, a blog writing in Singaporean matters, have a posting questioning Alex Au's article  where Au brought up that the Archbishop Chia had written a letter of support for Function 8 (a group of Ex-detainees of the ISA that are fighting for the abolition of the ISA), but was subsequently invited for lunch with DPM Teo. After the session he abruptly asked for the letter to be withdrawn.

I wrote under the comments :

"All these letter and retractions tie back to the ISD's Operation Spectrum in 1987. Function 8 and Alex Au's assertion is that the social workers arrested then was falsely accused of involvement in a Marxist conspiracy.

Amongst those arrested was Vincent Cheng, a full time church worker who was previously studying to be a priest. Catholic Priests issued statements questioning the detentions, and Church services were held for the detainees, leading to the build-up of tension. A meeting was arranged between then PM Lee Kuan Yew and Archbishop Gregory Yong which led to the Church backing down and suspending the priests who issued earlier statements.

Was there a Marxist Conspiracy? So far the consensus seems to be doubtful of such - the few sparse government statements so far have nothing in reply to accusations of torture and ill-treatment to obtain confessions; and even Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, speaking in 2001, declared, “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.” Indeed there have been repeated calls for the government to unveil their evidence of the Marxist Conspiracy, or to have an independent commission - so far the government have resisted any and all calls for transparency on this matter.

So, if we were to approach this matter from the angle that the detainees of Operation Spectrum might be innocent, is it then far-fetched to see Archbishop Chia write them a letter of support, since it will also mean that the Church have abandoned their own back in 1987?"

In my opinion, the heart of the matter is whether the detainees under Operation Spectrum are guilty as charged or innocent victims. If the detainees are guilty as charged, the Archbishop then should be praised for standing with the government and reining in parties within the church that supports subversive elements out to undermine our society.

However, if the detainees are just innocent social workers, the outlook of the matter changes dramatically - not only would the ISA had been grossly abused, the Church leaders at that time would have abandoned and forsaken their own, because of direct intimidation from the then PM.

Why would the government arrest a handful of social workers in 1987 for nothing? Speculations was that the detainees were open in their support for the Workers Party, and that most of them were English educated professionals and graduates - if they were to stand as candidates for the WP they will be a force to be reckoned with, especially with their ties to the ground as social workers, and ties to the Church, for parties like Vincent Cheng. (In perspective, the GE was called in 1988, and that was the GE where GRCs are introduced. The PAP still lost 1.6% of the total votes as compared to 1984.)

  

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Looking back at the MHA statement in regards to this matter, it was mentioned that "As part of building trust and understanding and to maintain religious harmony in Singapore, government ministers meet regularly with various religious leaders in Singapore." - we can say that it is a fact Chia had met up with DPM Teo. Interestingly enough, the MHA statement did not challenge Au's sequence of events - i.e. that after Chia have sent his letter, he was summoned to meet DPM Teo.

So with the above perspective - I personally find it believable that DPM have indeed intervened with the current Archbishop Chia, who backed down like Archbishop Gregory Yong did in 1987.

 

To be fair, if the allegations of a Marxist Conspiracy are true, the government are doing themselves a disservice by being so tight lipped. They owe it to the people and to themselves to expose the evidence they have - in a single stroke they would be able to vindicate themselves, instead of leaving the shadow of this matter to fester as a dark page in Singapore's history.