INTEGRATED HUMANITIES

Lim Yew HockA Biography

By Jordan Leong

9/6/2010

A biography of Lim Yew Hock and some of his contributions

Introduction

Lim Yew Hock was not as well-known a figure as Dr Goh Keng Swee. However, he still played a vital role in the making of Singapore as a nation. He was sometimes called “The man who thumped the Reds”, which shows how important a role he had in suppressing anti-colonial activists and the communist threat to Singapore. While his action did not make him popular with some community groups, it made a difference to what Singapore is today.

Early Information

Lim Yew Hock was born in Singapore on 15 October 1914. He was good in his studies and graduated from Raffles Institution in 1931, under a four-year scholarship program. He wanted to further his studies in England, but the sudden death of his father changed his plans for further education.

He began work as a clerk as he only had a school certificate. However, not satisfied to remain as a clerk, he worked hard to improve himself through self-study, and later became a confidential stenographer with Cold Storage, where he stayed till 1947. He got married during the period and was father to four children, one son and three daughters.

His life took a different route when he became involved in public affairs and took on the position of Secretary-General of the Singapore Clerical and Administrative Workers’ Union in late 1946.

Start of His Political Career

As the Secretary-General of the Singapore Clerical and Administrative Workers’ Union, he was appointed to represent trade unions as an Unofficial Member of the Legislative Councils in 1948. In 1950, he became the President of the Singapore Clerical and Administrative Workers’ Union. In 1951, he helped found the Singapore Trade Union Congress and became a founding member of the Labour Front political party in 1954.

Labour Front

The Labour Front Party was an offshoot of the Singapore Labour Party. It was formed in 1955 under the leadership of David Marshall. Lim Yew Hock and Francis Thomas were founding members. It had goals modelled along those of the British Labour Party. Like the mood on the ground at that time, its stance was decidedly anti-colonial. Among its declared goals were self-government for Singapore, an early Singapore-Malaya merger, an implementation of the multi-lingual policy in the legislature, the granting of citizenship together with political rights for the China-born Chinese, and dynamic socialism over communism.

It was formed to contest the watershed election for the Legislative Assembly in 1955. Although the party emerged victorious in the election, the Labour Front government only lasted one term. It fared badly in the subsequent elections of 1959 and 1963, contesting as part of a coalition under the banner of the Singapore People’s Alliance and Singapore alliance, respectively.

The Labour Front won the 1955 elections, based on its campaign against colonialism and communism. Although, they were the biggest surprised winner, with 10 out of 25 seats, it did not have enough seats to form a government. It then formed a coalition government with the Alliance Party. The People’s Action Party (PAP) won 3 out of 4 seats and contested to join the opposition. David Marshall, the leader of the Labour Front, who won a landslide victory at the Cairnhill constituency, became the first Chief Minister. Lim Yew Hock became the Deputy Chief Minister and Labour Minister, because of his close links with the trade unions.

His Rise

Trouble starts soon after the coalition government was formed. After one month, communist activists began a series of violent strikes and demonstrations, including the bloody Hock Lee bus riots. 1

David Marshall appeared soft and incapable as the communist continued its violent activities and was able to pressure the newly-formed government. Despite its anti-communism stance during the election, it was not effective in dealing with the communist activists. In the following year, April 1956, David Marshall decided on an all-party mission to London to seek self-government from the British government, despite the communist problems. David Marshall achieved little progress with the talks and eventually fell through. This further exposed David Marshall’s capabilities. On 6 June 1956, David Marshall resigned as the Chief Minister and Labour Front member, for having failed to gain self-government.

Two days later, Lim Yew Hock who was Deputy Chief Minister and Labour Minister, took over as Chief Minister. He literally had power thrust upon him, although he had earlier (before David Marshall’s resignation) told the press that he did not want the top job “if he had the choice”. Despite his reluctance, he assumed his new responsibilities confidently and smoothly. He picked up where Marshall had left off. Unlike Marshall, he took a firm stance against the communists. He moved quickly and came down hard on the anti-colonial activists and communisms and tried to suppress them.

In one incident, he banished two Chung Cheng High School teachers and dissolved the Chinese Middle School Student’s Union. Chinese scholars were known to be sympathetic to the communists’ movement. Under his direction, the Special Branch detained Chia Ek Tian, a trade unionist and member of the PAP Central Executive Committee, for suspected involvement in the communist activities.

1 The Hock Lee Bus Riots occurred on 12 May 1955 when workers from Singapore Bus Workers Union went on strike for better pay. 4 were dead and 31 injured in the violent and bloody riot.

Lim Yew Hock confirmed his reputation for toughness in another incident, handling of the Chinese Middle School riots in October 1956. Tear gas and helicopters were brought in, resulting in many key pro-communist union leaders in the PAP being detained under the Public Security Act.

His tough actions cost him dearly. It earned him the reputation of “The man who thumped the Reds” but alienated a large portion of the Chinese-speaking electorate. The PAP capitalized on this situation in the 1959 general election, leading to his party’s defeat.

In 1957, Lim Yew Hock led a five-member delegation – two from the Labour Front, one from UMNO, one from the Liberal Socialists and one from PAP (Lee Kuan Yew) to London for independence talks with the Britain. Unlike David Marshall, his motion was realistic and modest: “To secure from Her Majesty’s Government the status of a self-governing state with all the rights, powers and privileges pertaining to internal affairs, and the control of trade,

commerce and cultural relations in externals affairs”. They were successful in obtaining self-government and the Constitutional Agreement was eventually signed on 28 May 1958.

The Fall from Power

Having lost his popularity with the Chinese and mounting pressure from the opposition party, PAP, Lim Yew Hock formed the Singapore People’s Alliance (SPA) on 10 November 1958 in preparation for the 1959 election. The SPA is a coalition of the Labour Front and Liberal Socialist Party. During the 30 May 1959 election campaign, the SPA suffered a severe setback. The PAP disclosed that the SPA had received large sums of money from foreigners. This scandal led to the resignation of Chew Swee Kee who was then Minister of Education. It gave the perception that the SPA was corrupted and had sold Singapore to the foreigners.

As a result, SPA won only 4 of the 39 seats contested (including Lim Yew Hock’s win at Cairnhill). The PAP had a landslide victory, securing 43 of the 51 seats available.

Two years later in 1961, he formed another coalition party - Singapore Alliance, to contest the 1963 election. The new party was an alliance with the Singapore branches of UMNO, MCA and MIC. It emulates the Alliance in Malaya. Although he backed the PAP’s White Paper proposals for merger with Malaya, the party failed to win any seats in the 1963 election. With the loss, he resigned from politics altogether, stepping down from his position as chief of the Singapore Alliance.

Life after Politics

After losing the election in 1963, Lim Yew Hock left his political life behind. In the following year, he accepted the appointment as Malaysian High Commissioner to Australia. This was probably due to his close relationship with the leaders in Malaya and also ties with the main political parties of UMNO, MCA and MIC. He served in that position for about five years, even after the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965.

He lived a relatively quiet life after retiring from politics. He kept a low profile even in Australia as Malaysia High Commissioner. He subsequently became a Malaysian citizen and worked for the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs until August 1968, when he retired to Malacca. The reasons why he gave up on Singapore and took up Malaysian citizenship was a mystery. This was a man who did much and fought much for what Singapore is today. He retired at the age of 55.

In the last 15 years of his life after retirement, he was known to have converted to Islam, although we do not know when that happened. He took on the name Haji Omar Lim Yew Hock. He was apparently a very devout Muslim. At the time of his death, he was living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he was working as a special assistant to the president of the World Islamic Development Bank. He was 70 when he passed away on 30 November 1984. He was buried in Mecca, a holy place for Muslims.

Contributions to Singapore

Lim Yew Hock gained importance when he took up leadership with the labour unions in 1947/1948. His contributions to Singapore in his short political life of about fifteen years may be summed up in two events:

- Taking over from David Marshall as Chief Minister and obtaining self-government

- Crushing the influence of the violent communists

While Lim Yew Hock did not have a lasting influence in the making of Singapore history, the above two events were critical in how Singapore developed in its early stage of government. His actions paved the way for the PAP to build a more stable government after they come into power during the 1959 election.

Sources

http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/independence/ref/lyh1.htmlhttp://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_822_2004-12-28.htmlhttp://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1149_2010-06-14.htmlThe Singapore Story, Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew