Jeremy Lim
The book on the history of the People's Action Party by three senior Straits Times journalists has come under close scrutiny, with critics alleging that the writers were less than thorough. First, blogger Martyn See questioned why they had not approached two former ISA detainees for interviews – an allegation that turned out to be false. Then, a former CPIB director fumed that he had not been asked to quit, contrary to the book's account. This mistake originated from an erroneous 1971 statement by then-PM Lee Kuan Yew that had been reported in ST and was not corrected at the time.
Men in White: The Untold Story of Singapore’s Ruling Political Party was launched on 8 September. The book draws on some 500 interviews, including accounts by PAP members and their political opponents. It was commissioned and published by Singapore Press Holdings. Click here for AsiaOne’s article on Men in White.
Why two ISA detainees were not interviewed
According to blogger Martyn See, the authors “failed to contact two founding PAP members”, Poh Soo Kai and Lim Hock Siew. In 1961, both of them left the PAP to join the Barisan Sosialis. In 1963, they were detained under the Internal Security Act, as part of Operation Coldstore.
Sonny Yap then clarified in an email that he had contacted Lim Hock Siew sometime in 2002 or 2003. Yap said that Lim “refused to be interviewed and gave me a tongue lashing instead, accusing SPH of being closely linked to the government”.
Yap added that he did not interview Poh Soo Kai because Poh had emigrated to Canada. However, he did refer to Lim’s oral history transcript in the National Archives. Click here for Martyn See’s first blog post and here for Sonny Yap’s response.
In a second blog post, See suggested that Yap should have tried harder to interview Lim. In a column in ST, Yap robustly defended the efforts he and his team had taken, and slammed bloggers such as See for not getting their facts right: “So many allegations, misperceptions, innuendoes, errors, distortions, smears and taunts are swirling in cyberspace about the book that we wonder how we can respond without sounding needlessly defensive or engaging in a your-word-against-mine verbal tussle.”
The case of the former CPIB and ISD chief
Former Internal Security Department (ISD) director Yoong Siew Wah successfully requested a correction from SPH. In a letter to SPH on 28 September, Yoong pointed out mistakes regarding his actions as director of the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau (CPIB), back in 1971. Page 441 of Men in White reads:
“…But in 1971, after a police raid on his (Francis Seow's) woman friend's apartment, he used his influence and friendship with the then director of the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau, Yoong Siew Wah, to have the four officers who had conducted the raid sacked. The attorney-general Tan Boon Teik intervened to reinstate the four officers. Seow was allowed to resign rather than have his actions investigated because of his track record in the Legal Service. Yoong was also asked to quit."
Yoong explained that Francis Seow had made a formal complaint and the CPIB investigated the four detectives. The Deputy Commissioner of Police made the decision to dismiss the detectives. Yoong added that he was never asked to quit and was subsequently appointed ISD director.
Men in White co-author Richard Lim replied on 1 October that the erroneous material was taken from then-PM Lee Kuan Yew’s speech at the Select Committee Hearing of the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill. The material was published in the Straits Times on 10 October 1986.
The authors also apologised for not getting back to Yoong to verify the reports. They will do a correction in the next reprint of the book.
In a blog post on 9 October, Yoong said, “The most decent thing for the Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to do now is to undo the harm he has caused me and to restore my reputation…” Click here for Yoong Siew Wah’s letter to the Straits Times Forum page and here for his blog post.
Click here for Channelnewasia’s coverage of the issue.