18 Jul Poh Soo Kai: Living in a Time of Deception

By any measure, Poh Soo Kai has lived an extraordinary life at the forefront of the political struggle for justice and equality in Singapore. The publication of his long-awaited memoir, Living in a Time of Deception (Function8), and its Penang launch, offers an opportune moment to reflect on both the historic and contemporary significance of Poh Soo Kai and the politics he stands for. In his memoir, he shatters the conventional history of Singapore espoused by Lee Kuan Yew and the People’s Action Party. With a fine attention to detail – and a thorough knowledge of the archival sources – he exposes the tactics of Lee as a master politician: how he made use of his friends and foes to achieve his goals and how they were discarded or punished when they switched allegiance or were no longer useful to him. Poh Soo Kai’s refusal to let Lee have his way cost him his family and an illustrious career in medicine. He spent a total of 17 years in prison without trial. Singapore today is the result of what Lee Kuan Yew did to his political opponents in the 1960s and 1970s. The publication of this memoir is exceedingly important to all those who wish to understand how and why Singapore’s politics deny basic political rights even to this day.

SPEAKER Poh Soo Kai first became active in student politics in Singapore in the early 1950s, and was one of the members of the University Socialist Club who were charged – and acquitted – of sedition in the celebrated trial of the Fajar Eight in 1954. He was one of the founders of the People’s Action Party before leaving to help found Barisan Sosialis to challenge the right-wing turn of Lee Kuan Yew. He was arrested in the notorious 1963 Operation Coldstore and was, as a consequence, imprisoned for 17 years. He is the co-editor of The Fajar Generation (SIRD) and The 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore (SIRD).

DISCUSSANT Soh Sook Hwa is a former student activist at Universiti Sains Malaysia who remains active in non-governmental organisation circles. She is the current treasurer of Parti Sosialis Malaysia.

Nusantara Forum, Wednesday 20 July 2016, 7.30pm, The Star Building, Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling