Working Class Heroine

My Elder Half-Sister--Mother of An Alleged "Communist" Son

TAN KIM KEE (AH KEE)

Ah Kee, my eldest half-sister, has three sons--one of whom, the eldest (Low Geok Leong), is already deceased and the youngest (Low Geok Ann), a delivery driver married with children, is living with her--together with her husband (Low Ah Gong)--in a rented HDB flat in Jalan Berseh. She has a married daughter (Low Geok Kwee) who lives with her husband and children at Jalan Jelapang.

Ah Kee likes to bet on lottery but she lives and eats simply. She has to take care of her grandchild with the meagre sum of money given to her by his son Low Geok Ann. She has few leisurely interests and her usual way of spending her leisure hours is watching Chinese dramas and news reports on TV.

I was able to receive, gratefully, many of her unwanted furniture items, kitchen utensils, electrical home appliances an other household paraphernalia to furnish my own newly-purchased HDB flat at Yishun when she moved out of her own flat (located next door to mine) after selling it in order to stay with her daughter sometime in 1997.

I am only now beginning to appreciate how much I owe her for receiving all these items and products from her. Not only had she saved me from spending too much money but she had also passed to me many items and products--especially electrical ones--which are still so useful and functional after more than 10 years!

Years of poverty and hardship have not changed her good-natured and unselfish behaviour. And she is still quite sprightly and healthy for a woman in her seventies!

Alas, she has another son (Low Geok Seng) who is of the same age as mine (55 now) and who caused her much worry and consternation during an incident sometime in the 1970s!

Low Geok Seng, her son, who now owns and manages a shop selling souvenirs to foreigners and tourists, was arrested and detained (and probably tortured) by the PAP Government one day then--for taking part in alleged "Communist" activities.

Ah Seng (as I used to call my nephew) used to play with me and my brothers at my SIT rented flat in Tasek Utara Estate when we were young. He was quite a mischievous but intelligent boy. There were occasions when I became jealous of him, as even my mother took great care of him (while neglecting me), praising his smartness and wits.

Ah Seng, who is married with children and gives financial support to his mother Ah Kee regularly, has never spoken to me about his arrest and detention by the Internal Security Department. This is partly because we, as adults, have been preoccupied with our own business and interest--being too busy to meet up, even on occasions to celebrate Chinese New Year or during my mother's funeral.

Was my nephew tortured while being detained? Why was he released eventually by the PAP Government? Did he confess to being a "Communist"? Did the PAP Government release him without extracting a confession from him? If so, the ISD goons are guilty of destroying the life of a young innocent man--and causing much misery and unhappiness to her mother!

Why I Left MSD, MINDEF (Part 2)

Dedicated to Low Geok Seng, My Nephew--A Victim Of Governmental Paranoia

"At the Washington Summit in 1987, U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet Communist Party general secretary Michael Gorbachev worked out the terms of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, for the first time agreeing to destroy a category of nuclear weapons. In May 1988, at the Moscow summit, the Soviet Communist Party general secretary and the U.S. president finally signed the INF Treaty and resolved a considerable range of remaining Cold War-related regional conflicts. The Cold War began to recede, and with it the threat of humanity-destroying nuclear war."

[Source: Timelines of the 20th Century (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1996) by David Brownstone and Irene Franck]

In 1976, I had a personal encounter with the kind of so-called "threats" posed by alleged "Communists" (who were famously arrested and detained in a massive ISD operation in 1963 under the codename Operation cold Store).

I was working in the Registry of Military Security Department (Ministry of Defence) at that time. As a clerical officer, I read regular reports from secret operatives on their targets (suspected "Communists" in the SAF).

One day, I came across a disturbing Secret report which listed the name of one of my nephews (Low Geok Seng) as one of a few suspected "Communists". I was shocked. I knew then that I could no longer continue to work for MSD. That was one of the major reasons why I decided to resign from MSD, after working for the department for about 10 months (between Dec 1975 and Oct 1976). (I had already disclosed my other major reason for leaving MSD in my other postings in this blog and in other related blogs : see http://wholecity.blogspot.com/; and http://pre-implantationdays.blogpot.com/.)

After leaving MSD, I learnt that my nephew was arrested and detained by the PAP Government for his "Communist" activities. I later found out that he was probably also tortured by the ISD agents or officers to extract information (and a confession?) from him.

Low Geok Seng was eventually released by the PAP Government. I did not have any contact with him before or after his arrest and detention--and also for quite a long time after his release.

Today, Low Geok Seng's mother, my eldest half-sister Tan Kim Kee (or Ah Kee, as we like to call her), lives with his other surviving son, Low Geok Ann, together with her husband (Low Ah Gong) in a rented HDB flat at Jalan Berseh. She has a married daughter, Low Geok Kwee, and another (deceased) son, Low Geok Leong.

Low Geok Seng, who is married with children, now owns and manages a shop selling souvenirs to foreigners and tourists and regularly supports his mother financially.

Was Low Geok Seng a Communist? I have yet to hear him tell me about his days of being tortured by ISD officers or agents during his detention. Was he a victim of the government's paranoia during the Cold War era?

The Nature of Man (and The Nature of the PAP Government)

(I) THE NATURE OF MAN

(A) The Non-Productive Orientations
of Certain Character-Types:

[Source of Reference: The Sane Society (London: Routledge Classics, 2002) by Erich Fromm]



1. The Receptive Orientation

(a) Negative Aspects:

• passive, without initiative;
• opinionless, characterless;
• submissive;
• without pride;
• parasitical;
• unprincipled;
• servile, without self-confidence;
• unrealistic;
• cowardly;
• spineless;
• wishful thinking;
• gullible;
• sentimental.

(b) Positive Aspects:

2. The Exploitative Orientation

(a) Negative Aspects:

• exploitative;
• aggressive;
• egocentric;
• conceited;
• rash;
• arrogant;
• seducing.

(b) Positive Aspects:

3. The Hoarding Orientation

(a) Negative Aspects:

• unimaginative;
• stingy;
• suspicious;
• cold;
• lethargic;
• anxious;
• stubborn;
• indolent;
• inert;
• pedantic;
• obsessional;
• possessive.

(b) Positive Aspects:

• practical
• economical
• careful
• reserved
• cautious
• tenacious
• imperturbable
• orderly
• methodical
• loyal

4. The Marketing Orientation

(a) Negative Aspects:

• opportunistic;
• inconsistent;
• childish;
• without a future or a past;
• without principles and values;
• unable to be alone;
• aimless;
• relativistic;
• overactive;
• tactless;
• intellectualistic;
• undiscriminating;
• indifferent;
• silly;
• wasteful.

(b) Positive Aspects:

(B) The Productive Orientation --

Of A Certain

(Modernist) Character-Type

(a) Positive Aspects:

• confident
• resourceful
• self-understanding
• ambitious
• courageous
• achievement-minded
• artistic
• working class
• modernist
• critical
• discerning
• spiritually indomitable
• socially aware

(b) Negative Aspects:

(II) And The Nature of the PAP Government

(AS NOTED FROM NOTABLE QUOTES

ON THE PAP GOVERNMENT TAKEN

FROM THE READINGS

OF A NATIVE SON):

1. "Distinguishing the state from the government and the PAP is difficult because Singapore has been governed by the one political party for over thirty years, and headed by one continuous prime ministership until 1990. As it stands, the long-heralded succession of Goh Chok Tong to the prime ministership in November 1990 promised only a change of leadership style, not of strategy." -- CHRIS LEGGETT ("Singapore's Industrial Relations in the 1990s"; Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s; edited by Garry Rodan)
2. "At the societal level, as Singapore's economic development progresses, the principal domestic concerns will shift increasingly in the direction that Halal identified, that is, towards issues related to the quality of life, such as occupational stress, a materialistic life-style, the availability of home help, the quality of childcare and of family life, problems of the educational system, elitism and social inequities in society, the myriad restrictions and regulations in society, the domination of the political process by one party, and so on." -- CHEAH HOCK BENG ("Responding to Global Challenges: The Changing Nature of Singapore's Incorporation Into the International Economy"; ibid)
3. "If every Singaporean could internalise a little of 'LKY' in his or her mind, and if Lee was sure that open elections could indefinitely return the PAP, he might even be able to tolerate a more liberal and democratic Singapore. Japan was the utopia that Singapore could strive for." -- JEAN-LOUIS MARGOLIN ("Foreign Models in Singapore's Development and the Idea of a Singaporean Model"; ibid)
4. "To simulate citizenry, therefore, is to always focus on the differences between 'true' and 'false'; between 'real' and "imaginary'. The decision on whether something is 'true' or 'false', i.e. whether one is a 'real' citizen or not, is one determined by the model--the ideology put in place by the government. That model, in Singapore, is mostly a representational one, arguing that the real and the representation of the real (the good citizen, for example) are equivalent. There is no room, therefore, for active difference, alternative visions and non-governmental strategies, despite the fact that 'the next lap' is presented as part of a developing openness in Singapore government and society. Any active (i.e. potentially 'damaging') difference is snipped in the bud by the use of the Internal Security Act and, more frequently, by arguing that proper opposition can only take place within parliament--thereby constructing all opposition in the government's own terms--as a representation of itself." -- DAVID BIRCH ("Staging Crises: Media and Citizenship"; ibid)
5. "Against this view, a recent work by a group of sociologists at the National University of Singapore contends that prevailing views grossly inflate the extent of the middle class (Quah et al. 1991). These authors caution against reading too much into supercial indicators like consumption patterns. Moreover, they reject any suggestions that 'social class distinctions have weakened and economic rewards are both high and evenly distributed' (Quah 1991a, p. 3). For Quah (1991b, p. 71), the idea of a 'middle-class society' equates with the appearance of a 'one-class society'. Yet the study concludes that there 'no evidence of a concentration of people in one homogenous "middle" interval' (Quah 1991c, p. 262). In contrast to Chen's reading of the 1980 census data, Chiew, Ko and Quah (1991, p. 78) also assert that the proportion of blue-collar or manual workers (production, agricultural and service workers and labourers) amounted to 52.7 per cent, again attempting to expose as myth the idea of Singapore as a 'middle-class society'." -- GARRY RODAN ("The Growth of Singapore's Middle Class and its Political Significance"; ibid)
6. "Lastly, political leaders and leaderships, though embedded in a given political culture, exhibit individual psychologies and preoccupations." -- JAMES COTTON ("Political Innovation in Singapore: The Presidency, The Leadershipb and the Party"; ibid)
7. "The Singaporean socioeconomic elites do not conform to the 'liberal' model of professionals who, because of their wealth, skills and predominantly private sector occupations, are economically independent of the state, and therefore politically independent. Thus the percentage of the educated elite employed by the state remains remarkably high, averaging about 40 per cent, and the combination of a stress on deference (which has been promoted as an 'Asian value') and material prosperity has produced a depoliticised culture which is not conducive to the spread of ideas of individual or group liberty rights against the state. Any middle-class pressures towards liberalism have been further weakened by the system of education, which promotes, rather than reduces, the kiasu culture (Ho 1989)." -- DAVID BROWN ("The Corporatist Management of Ethnicity in Contemporary Singapore"; ibid)
8. "The international situation is changing in unpredictable ways, and the results of the PAP's own long-term policies are now being seen all too clearly in the consumerism and materialism that pervade the society, urban congestion andf the general feeling of a well-off population that they want more and if they do not get it they will rapidly become bored. Singapore is paradoxical in many ways, not least in the fact that despite defining itself as a newly-industrialising country (NIC) it is in most respects a mature economy co-existing with a very immature society, the constant preoccupation with identity being a very good indication of this latter fact. The constant changes in economic, educational and social policy combined with the PAP's style of constant sloganeering (speak Mandarin, wash your hands, flush the toilet, cross the road only at designated places etc.) contributes to perpetuating this immaturity, which is politically functional since it keeps the population in a constant state of dependency (itself a symptom of immaturity). At the same time, Singapore is an open society in certain respects-- people travel, read and acquire information from numerous sources, despite the government-controlled media, the exclusion of a wide range of foreign publications and the banning of TV satellite dishes. People also migrate, in alarmingly large numbers, and many Singaporeans have relatives living abroad." -- JOHN CLAMMER ("Deconstructing Values: The Establishment of a National Ideology and its Implications for Singapore's Political Future"; ibid).

The Usual Suspects: Singapore Government Spin Doctors--"Psychopaths", "Lunatics" and "Mad Cows"

Do You Know the Truth About Scientific and Technological "Madness"?

(It is a Singapore Government TOP SECRET!)

Truth, Reality and History: Errors, Fraudulences, And the Faked Identities of the Controlled Citizens

Governmental Control & Manipulation of My Family --

With the Use of Modern Surveillance Technologies

Brief Particulars of My Violated Family:

1. Grandpa's Place of Rest: Mandai Columbarium, Row 117, Niche No. 364.
2. Grandma's Name: Chong Ah Yan (1874--1971).
3. Father's Name: Chua Cheng Chin (8.8.1914--25.3.2000); NRIC No: 0241340Z; Place of Rest: Mandai Columbarium, Blk C, Row 217, Niche No. 183.
4. Mother's Name: Tan Ah Keow (14.4.1915--11.9.2002); NRIC No: 0254903D; Place of Rest: Mandai Columbarium, Blk C, Row 317, Niche No. 130.
5. Siblings from mother's second marriage (to my father--also his second marriage), which brought me into this world on 30.7.1953: Helen Chua Chwee Lian; Don Chua Tiong Seah; Derrick Chua Seng Seah.
6. Siblings from mother's first marriage: Tan Kim Kee; Tan Thian Hock; Chua Kim Lian; Tan Tian Ong.
7. Siblings from father's first marriage: Joseph Chua Thee Siah; Lilian Chua Guet Lian; Michael Chua Peng Siah.
8. Siblings from father's third marriage: Nessie Chua Chwee (Hong) Lian; Francis Chua Lam Siah; John Chua Guan Seah; Jeffrey Chua Thiam Seah; Irene Chua Lay Lian; Janet Chua Mui Lian; Cindy Chua Kwee Lian.

NOTES:

Chua Chwee Lian (Helen):

Helen, born on 21 September 1948, is my elder sister, who will soon be 60 years old in September 2008. She is a housewife with two sons--the younger one (Kelvin Set Zhi Wei, NRIC No: 8801772B) is currently serving National Service and the older one (Benny Set Chern Loong, NRIC No: 7629814I) is working in a private firm (and going to be married to a Chinese girl in September 2008). Helen likes to tour other countries and must have visited so many countries by now. (She would happily show us her photographs taken during those trips overseas upon her return.) She helps me in a big way financially every month.

Chua Kim Lian (Ah Leng):

Ah Leng, as we normally call her, is one of my elder half-sisters (from my mother's first marriage to my long-deceased step-father). She likes to play mahjong, swim every morning, and visit other countries every now and then with her friends. She was divorced from her husband, Ng Kian Hock, a long time ago and had two married daughters with him--one of whom, Patricia Ng En Bee, is presently living with her. Patricia lives with her husband, Kane Chen Kin Meng, a cinematographer, and their two children (Keby and Celestine), in a HDB apartment in Choa Chu Kang. Her elder sister, Linda Ng En Hoon, is married to Soh Eng Seng and they have three children--Kelvin, Christopher and Kristy. Ah Leng would often boil Chinese medicinal herbs for me to drink whenever we met at my brother Derrick's house--to help control my high blood pressure. She also helps me financially every month.

Chua Tiong Seah (Don):

Don (email: doncai18@yahoo.com.sg), born on 18 July 1955, is my brother, two years younger than me. He is now self-employed, baking organic bread at home almost daily and selling them to various shops, people and organisations in order to supplement his family income. He is married to Choong Mi Mi and they have three school-going children (Cai Yiming, Cai Wenrong and Cai ChengYue). Don is very concerned about his health and fitness (which is very good) and he maintains it by not only ensuring that he exercises regularly but also knowing how to control his eating habits. He helps me financially every month.

Chua Seng Seah (Derrick):

Derrick is my brother, four years younger than me. He is working as an electrician. He is married to Chan Oi Lin and has a son, Mervyn, in school now. Derrick is a very responsible family-man who gave up smoking and heavy betting on lottery so that he could have enough money to help with the household expenses. But he still drives a van even though it is costly to do so--chiefly, because of the convenience of having one's own private means of transport and secondly, because he really enjoys driving. He had given his expensive hi-fi stereo sound system to me many years ago, when I moved out of his house to live on my own in a purchased flat. He helps me financially every month.