Tribute to Dad

WORDS by Hsuan Boon
(Eulogy to Dad, read by May Yun)

Words. What words can we use to eulogise you, Dad? A journalist, writer, poet, historian, lawyer, son of Malaya. And above all, a dedicated husband, a doting and loving father and grandfather.

Over these past few days, your friends and relatives have given us a greater glimpse of how much you gave of your life and energies to help others. You clearly lived a life so full even before you received us into this world.

Even prison walls could not contain you. And from those dark days sprang forth life-long friendships – friends welcomed at home, whom we greeted as uncles and aunties with regularity, perhaps without fully knowing the extent of the bonds that bound all of you.

Then you went to England to secure a fresh start. And you returned as a lawyer, and a husband.

You excelled in the law, yet stepped away after a brief twenty years in practice, as all three of us were finally finding our feet. You retired from the law, but not from life. You returned to your first love – of books and writings.

Your pursuit of a new life in academia was restricted by your failing eye-sight. Undeterred, you compiled your thoughts and writings, accumulated over the years. You continued to read widely, and think deeply. And as the sun began to set, and your body began to fail you, you struggled against a second prison that was so cruelly imposed upon you – a prison not of brick and cement, but of dim vision and deadened nerves.

Yet quietly you soldiered on, convinced there was a history which had to be told. And your prodigious output has left a legacy for us all – The Comet in the Sky, Love’s Travelogue, The Chempaka Tree, Our Thoughts Are Free, The Fajar Generation. And in so doing, you taught us that our thoughts truly are free – free to take flight and scale any prison that might befall us.

In the weeks before you left us, you foresaw a change in the political climate of Singapore, and were heartened by the results of the General Election. A week later was the launch your final works – The May 13 Generation, and the translation of The Mighty Wave. We were hesitant about your proposed trip for similar launches in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, but eventually accepted that it was what you wanted to do, and had to do. You met friends old and new along the way, and were feted for showing that the pen is mightier than the sword. You returned to Singapore tired. You went to the hospital complaining of pains. Two weeks later, on June 14 you breathed your last.

We will miss you dearly. The gaping hole left in our hearts will ache beyond these few days we have spent in rowdy remembrance of you. And now what words are left for us?

Only the simplest of words from hearts that owe you an eternal debt of gratitude – Thank you Dad. We love you, and farewell.

Saturday June 18, 2011

Mandai Crematorium

A Tribute by Friends of Suaram

Tribute to Jing Quee:

No compromise of principles; No waver in the struggle

A tribute from Friends of Suaram (FOS) Working Committee Johore to Comrade Tan Jing Quee who passed on on 14 June 2011:

Today, we from Friends of Suaram (FOS) Working Committee Johor, mourn with deep grief for the passing on of Comrade Tan Jing Quee. Comrade Jing Quee was one of the leaders involved in the Student Movement in the 1950s. He was the President of the Singapore University Socialist Club and editor of its publication – Fajar. He was also the editor of the University of Singapore Students Union’s organ "Malayan Undergraduate". He took an active part in the left-wing trade union movement after his graduation from the University of Malaya in Singapore. He was the secretary of the now-defunct Singapore Business Houses Employees Union, and the deputy secretary general of SATU (Singapore Association of Trade Unions).

He contested as a Barisan Sosialis candidate in the Singapore Election held on 21 September1963, though he suffered defeat at the hands of the late S. Rajaratnam by a tiny majority. In October 1963, He was detained without trial by Lee Kuan Yew’s regime under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for 3 years.

Jing Quee studied law in the UK upon his release from detention and qualified as a barrister. It was in UK he met his wife Rose. Upon his return from UK, He soon set up a law firm in partnership with Lim Chin Joo (the younger brother of Barisan Sosialis’s leader Lim Chin Siong). He retired from legal practice about 10 years ago because of impaired eyesight. But he never ceased showing concern for the people and for the future of the country. We are deeply saddened by his passing on though it was inevitable.

Despite his declining health, bitter experience in life and harsh environment, he never wavered in his struggle. He showed great interest in writing and editing books. In 2001, he edited and published “Comet in Our Sky: Lim Chin Siong in History”. His article “Lim Chin Siong’s Political Life” found in part 1 of the book was translated into Chinese by Yang Pei Keng, a lawyer.

Many of the younger social activists and democrats in FOS Working Committee Johor got to know about you from this book. You and the late Lim Chin Siong referred to in your book always had the interests of the nation and the populace at heart. You never compromised your principles nor kowtowed to the reactionary forces. You are our role model.

In recent years, despite your ill health, you wrote and edited a collection of poems and several anthology of history. You were involved in the translation of “The Mighty Wave” a novel by He Jin. You travelled from north to south to attend political forums and book launch in Singapore and Malaysia. You maintained good relationship with human rights activists, democrats and socialists across the country. You had free and frank discussions with them, sharing your views with them, working together striving for the reform of the country and for the establishment of a democratic, equal, free and just society. Several members of our FOS Working Committee met you the first time in one Socialism Forum held in Kuala Lumpur. They were greatly impressed by the clear cut stand taken and the firm attitude shown by you towards the undercurrent and the erroneous ideas present in the socialist movement.

Comrade Jing Quee, although there was not much exchange of views between you and us, your strong will had deeply touched the feelings of every one of us. You gave no thought to any personal gains or losses, no compromise of principles, no waver in your struggle for the interests of the nation and the people, until the last day of your life. As your business partner put it, you could have advanced much further in your career, but you chose to pursue a worthy cause. It was not your personal ambition to make money throughout your life. You have set a brilliant example for the younger generation of social activists and political workers in both Malaysia and Singapore. Your soul goes marching on. You will always be remembered by us.

Comrade Jing Quee, May you rest in peace!

Friends of Suaram (FOS) Working Committee Johor

18th June 2011

Salute to our Socialist Warrior

May 13 generation shares its stories By Leong Weng Kam, Senior Writer, Straits Times, 19 June 2011

May 13 generation shares its stories
By Leong Weng Kam, Senior Writer, Straits Times, 19 June 2011

Former Singapore political detainee Tan Jing Quee, who was battling cancer, was promoting his latest book up to the last days of his life.

He had been across the Causeway last month, in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, to launch The May 13 Generation, an essay collection on the Chinese middle school student movement in Singapore in the 1950s, which he co-edited.

Mr Tan, 72, returned home ill on May 25, and was admitted to Singapore General Hospital a week later. He died just five days ago.

The retired lawyer and former Barisan Sosialis politician, detained under the Internal Security Act for alleged pro-communist activities soon after his failed bid at the 1963 General Election, was cremated at Mandai Crematorium yesterday.

Released in 1966, he went to London to study law and returned in 1970 to practise till he retired about 10 years ago.

His two co-editors – Professor Emeritus Tan Kok Chiang, 74, a former Chinese middle school student leader; and Dr Hong Lysa, 58, a historian – were also at the book launches in Malaysia.

Recalling their trip, Prof Tan who now lives in Ontario, Canada, said: ‘I could see Jing Quee feeling the pressure of long distance travel. But his spirits were very high, meeting friends and comrades whom he had not seen for a while.’

Mr Tan’s wife, Rosemary, 65, said her husband of 40 years had wanted to go on the journey very much, to meet his many old friends in Malaysia, including former politician Lim Kean Chye, as well as to launch the book which took him two years to do.

In an interview he gave to The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao following the book’s earlier launch in Singapore, also last month, he said the idea for the collection came when he was translating the Chinese novel Ju Lang (Mighty Wave), by leftist writer Lim Kim Chuan, into English two years ago.

Helping him with the translation was Dr Hong and another former political detainee and Barisan MP, Madam Loh Miao Gong, 76, who was arrested after the 1963 polls for alleged pro-communist activities.

Ju Lang, set in Singapore in the 1950s, was first published in Chinese in 2004 to mark the 50th anniversary of the mass anti-colonial movement started after Chinese middle school students had clashed with riot policemen.

On May 13, 1954, students clashed with riot policemen while on their way to hand a petition for exemption from conscription to the Governor. -- ST FILE PHOTOS

The students were on their way to hand their petition for exemption from conscription to the then Singapore Governor at the former Government House, now the Istana, on May 13, 1954.

The novel’s English translation was launched as a companion volume to The May 13 Generation, which also has a Chinese edition.

‘Halfway through our translation, we felt a novel may not appeal to younger readers and it may not be able to highlight the significance of the historical event. So we started to invite scholars and those involved in the May 13 incident to write essays and their recollections,’ Mr Tan recalled during the interview last month before his death.

He had been actively researching, writing and editing books on Singapore’s leftist history for the past 10 years.

His last effort was The May 13 Generation, comprising 15 essays which include those on the arts in the 1950s. The preface, introduction and first four chapters were written by Mr Tan, Dr Hong and researcher Khe Su Lin.

In their essays, they gave the social and political background, examined the historical framework and explained the context of the period in which the Chinese middle school student movement was inspired and later grew.

The students formed a united, open and legal movement, the Singapore Chinese Middle School Students’ Union (SCMSSU), a year after the May 13 incident but it was banned barely a year later by the colonial government for engaging in pro-communist activities.

Former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, a young Cambridge-trained lawyer then, was SCMSSU’s legal counsel.

It was through the students that Mr Lee got to know young Chinese-educated leftist trade unionists like Fong Swee Suan and rural dwellers’ association leaders such as Chan Chiaw Thor. Together with other like-minded people, including several of Mr Lee’s English-educated friends, they secured a mass base for a political party and formed the People’s Action Party (PAP) in November 1954.

It was student support that helped the PAP win the municipal and legislative elections in the 1950s, leading to its landslide election victory in 1959 when it became the ruling party.

Many scholars have said that PAP and the Singapore story would have turned out quite differently if not for the May 13 incident.

Former leftists and alternative history writers often said the role and significance of the student movement were insufficiently told in the dominant, official narrative.

‘This volume, The May 13 Generation, marks the breaking of that silence,’ said Prof Tan, who was SCMSSU’s English secretary when he was a Chung Cheng High student in the 1950s.

Prof Tan, a graduate of the former Nanyang University in 1960 who later left for his postgraduate studies overseas, is among those who have broken their silence. He wrote about his involvement in the student movement for the first time after nearly 60 years in the chapter, My Story, in the book.

Also sharing her story for the first time is Madam Loh, who was among the arrested students when the colonial government cracked down on them on Oct 10, 1956. Her chapter is entitled The Two Faces Of Men In White.

Other contributors include retired lawyer Lim Chin Joo and former Barisan MP Lim Huan Boon.

‘The telling of the story of the Chinese middle school students of the 1950s now begins,’ said Prof Tan.

The May 13 Generation and the English translation of Mighty Wave are available at Select Books for $34.25 and $28.46 each respectively. – ST

ST Article / Obituary - 16 June 2011

Former political detainee Tan Jing Quee dies of cancer

Posted by Jacob 69er ⋅ June 16, 2011 ⋅ Leave a Comment

Former detainee dies of cancer, aged 72
Leong Weng Kam, Senior Writer, Straits Times, 16 June 2011

Former political detainee and lawyer Tan Jing Quee (above) died on Tuesday after a five-year battle with cancer.

FORMER political detainee and lawyer Tan Jing Quee (above), arrested in 1963 under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for alleged pro-communist activities, died on Tuesday after a five-year battle with cancer.

Mr Tan, who contested the 1963 election as a Barisan Sosialis candidate and lost to the late S. Rajaratnam in Kampong Glam by 220 votes, was 72.

Released from detention in 1966, he left to study law in London. Returning in 1970, he set up the firm Jing Quee & Chin Joo with a fellow detainee, leftist unionist Lim Chin Joo, in 1973.

He was arrested again and detained for about three months in February 1977 under the ISA for allegedly joining a group to revive pro-communist activities here.

But Mr Tan, who researched, wrote and edited books on Singapore’s leftists in recent years, always maintained he was not involved in Communist United Front activities.

He was most recently a contributor and editor of The May 13 Generation, a book of essays on the Chinese middle school student movement in the 1950s. It was launched here last month.

His wife of 40 years, Mrs Rosemary Tan, 65, said yesterday that her husband, who had prostate cancer and was recovering from an operation to remove a tumour in his spine, was in Kuala Lumpur and Penang last month to promote the book with its two other editors, Dr Tan Kok Chiang and Dr Hong Lysa.

He was not well after returning and was admitted to Singapore General Hospital on May 31, dying a fortnight later.

Mr Tan was a leader of the University Socialist Club in the early 1960s, while a student at the University of Malaya in Singapore. He later worked as secretary of the now-defunct Singapore Business Houses Employees Union.

Mr Tan and Mr Lim – younger brother of the late PAP founding leader Lim Chin Siong, who broke away to form the Barisan Sosialis in 1961 – retired from their law firm about 10 years ago.

Mr Lim, 73, described his friend of nearly 40 years as a man ‘dedicated to the cause of improving the lot of Singaporeans, not someone who would create civil disorder and destabilise the country’.

Mrs Tan also said allegations of his involvement in Communist United Front activities were untrue: ‘He was a brave man who fought for the rights of the people and who loved his family and friends.’

The couple have three grown children. His wake is being held at his home at 3, Coronation Walk until tomorrow. His body will be cremated at Mandai Crematorium on Saturday at 1.30pm. – ST

PSM Tribute to Tan Jing Quee

PSM PAYS TRIBUTE TAN JING QUEE (1939-2011)

We have not known the younger Jing Quee. The Jing Quee who was the editor of Fajar – the University Socialist Club Organ, nor the Jing Quee, the trade unionist of SATU (Singapore Association of Trade Union), nor the Jing Quee who was a Barisan Socialist candidate or Jing Quee -the political prisoner or detainee….

We knew the older Jing Quee and even that was only made possible because it was him who reached out to us and said, “We will have to support you, because you are still fighting for socialism” We in PSM came across Jing Quee only 6 years ago– it was in 2005, September 9^th till 11^th., when PSM organized its first International Conference called Socialism 2005. It was a huge success and many people we knew and did not know came along. One such couple was Jing Quee and Rose. I spotted Jing Quee when he looked so passionate and brimming with pride when the Internationale was sung at the Conference. I thought he might be an old retired comrade .

During one of the sessions, when two of the International guest was debating on who is the more left or purist among them, Jing Quee stood up and critiqued them as hairsplitting views and said there are more important things that the left must look at. “Let’s not waste our time with your hairsplitting definitions!” He got a big applause from the rest and for putting things back on track. Jing Quee as we observed is most of the time quiet but when he is not happy, he stands up and makes his points. It was in another debate in 2008, while a foreign speaker was branding the MCP as misled Maoist did Jing Quee came to their defense. He was annoyed with people labeling names without understanding the circumstances. In the same conference, he came to the defense of the newly elected Maoist Party in Nepal. He said let’s give them a chance as we don’t seem to know what are their actual situation.

Since 2005, Jing Quee and Rose was always present in our Socialism functions. Jing Quee said he felt at home because there are still people out there talking about socialism. He called this his annual pilgrimage. It was then that we slowly got to know the man and his history. He was always humble and always prepared to discuss and listen. Unlike many people in his generations who have retired, Jing Quee kept going on, always inspiring us that PSM is doing the right things, listening as well as cautioning us.

His memory and recollections were fantastic and along with Poh Soo Kai and Kay Yew – among the people we got to know through him – they would relate us the stories of the past with such precision as if it just happened yesterday. Jing Quee was in fact the bridge linking us with his generations and their struggle. He kept telling us that the story of Singapore and Malaysia is one nation, one history and one struggle.

For PSM – a young party trying to fight it out in the post cold war era in a sea of capitalism. Jing Quee was an inspiration and he always took the trouble to meet up with us, encourage us and kept telling us that the part of socialism is the right path. Never once – did he ever surrender his ideological positions or his ideals. He always spoke about the future with hope. He and Rose together – make a formidable team. They always had this youthfulness in them and always full of energy and fire.

When we heard and learned of his prostate cancer and when I visited him with some comrades, Jing Quee still had his sense of humor but he was starting to look quite ill. Last year December, when I visited him, it struck me that Jing Quee is really ill. I left his home then with the feeling, that maybe… it will be the last time, I will see him again.

Then again, Jing Quee against all odds appeared in Chinese Assembly hall last month in May to launch the book The May 13 generation and the Mighty Wave. While being partially paralyzed and have lost his sight, Jing Quee did speak in the launch, responded to Q and A. His points were sharp and he made sense all along. It was a tremendous feat of will power and a testament on what the man is made off.

On Tuesday, I received a rare email from Rose. It read that Jing Quee has passed away. Visiting him to pay our last respect yesterday, it struck me that though we may only have known him for 6 years; it seems as if I have lost a very old comrade. It seems as if we have known him for such a long time.

Jing Quee in the short 6 years we have known him, has been a great mentor and an inspiration to people like us. Jing Quee always talked about being practical, about being ideological and the importance of doing work. There was this thing about him – his witty comments, his tough statements, his laughter and his humbleness. His willingness to share and listen and his principles which is not to be compromised. Jing Quee has left a lasting impression on us.

Rose – his partner for life and comrade in arms is a great women with a big heart. Even yesterday, she was full of life – trying to keep everyone happy and telling us on how we should preserve history and help the older comrades.

PSM pays tribute to Tan Jing Quee. His contribution will go a long way and inspire the younger generations to come. Our heartfelt condolences to his family, his friends and to our comrade Rose. The Fajar Generation has continued to give us the dawn we always needed. We will fight on …..for a better world and a better society,,,,,,

A line from Jing Quee poem - ISA Detainee (the last paragraph)

What then is the truth ?

A generation trapped in lies

Who rushed to defend, to justify

Never to listen, see or speak out.

Only when we open our hearts

Confront this barbarism

Can we truly exorcise our fears,

Finally emerge as a free people,

A liberated society.

Farewell Comrade

S.Arutchelvan,

PSM Secretary General. 18 June 2011, 1am.

A Tribute by Teo Soh Lung

I have known Tan Jing Quee since the 1970s. He was a successful, friendly and humble lawyer then. I didn’t know his past political history and imprisonment under the ISA. He and his friends used to meet up with my employer, G Raman and I was occasionally invited to have coffee with them. I enjoyed their company because their conversations were always interesting and stimulating. They never spoke of revolutions to overthrow the PAP government.

Singapore in the ‘70s was a very safe and peaceful country. There was no violence, mobs or demonstrations. As a young lawyer, I used to walk from North Canal Road to the Supreme Court and the Subordinate Courts by the Singapore River without encountering any incident along the way. Thus in 1977 when G Raman was arrested and after him, Jing Quee, R Joethy and Ong Bock Chuan (all lawyers) and several well known journalists and professionals were also arrested under the ISA, I was stunned. They were accused of being “Euro-Communists” and pages of The Straits Times were splashed with news of clandestine activities that they were alleged to be involved in. I didn’t believe the horrendous stories spun by the PAP government against them. But I could not disprove anything except that I could vouch that they were and are good people.

As a legal assistant to G Raman, I continued to attend matters in court. The entire legal profession was silent. No lawyer ever asked me about the arrests. Everyone went about their business as if nothing had happened. The Law Society did not issue any statement concerning the arrests, even though four of those imprisoned were lawyers. That was the climate then. Fear permeated the entire society. I think a certain section of the population also assumed that the government was right to carry out the arrests and it was best to leave national security to them.

Jing Quee was released several months after but not before he was severely tortured and humiliated. Thirty years later, he was able to put his painful experience in words. He wrote in his poem, ISA Detainee :

How could I ever forget those Neanderthals

Who roamed Whitley Holding Centre*,

Under cover of darkness,

Poured buckets of ice water

Over my stripped, shivering nakedness,

Slugged my struggling, painful agony

Circling , sneering, snarling

Over my freezing nudity,

More animals than men:

What induced this

Vengeful venom, violent score

To settle, not for a private grievance

But a public, democratic dissidence;

From whence sprang this barbarity?

What made men turn into beasts

In the dark, away from prying eyes,

Protected by a code of dishonour and lies

To ensure they survive and rise.

I think it was in 1986 (at a time when the Law Society had become more active in commenting on unjust legislation), that Jing Quee visited me in my office in Geylang. I remember him asking me why I had set up my law practice in Geylang instead of being in the city. He warned that I was attracting unnecessary attention and that I may get into trouble. I replied that everything that I did or had done was in the open and that my life was an open book. I brushed away his concern, telling him that since I was acting openly, no trouble would come to me. He retorted “We didn’t do anything wrong too but we were arrested”.

Jing Quee’s words puzzled me for a while. But I soon forgot about his warning. I was confident that I had done nothing wrong and that no trouble would ever come to me. I didn’t even put a thought to the ISA. I didn’t even bother to check out the Act. The Act was meant for terrorists and I was not one. So why should I bother about the ISA? Sadly, I had forgotten about the arrests of Jing Quee and his friends in 1977. The trauma suffered by them and their families had been forgotten. My memory of those harrowing days had been erased. And so it happened, the warning of Jing Quee became a reality a few months later. I was arrested under the ISA together with many of my innocent friends in May 1987.

Jing Quee has passed on to a better place. But he has recorded his sufferings in his poem. The ISD and government officers who were responsible for his sufferings have not come clean. They have not apologised to him before his passing. It is not too late that they do so now, to his widow, Rose, his children and his siblings.

*A relatively new detention center built in the 1970s located off Whitley Road, used to hold political prisoners for short and medium term, mainly for interrogation .

Also published in Temasek Review -

http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/06/18/it-is-not-too-late/