Former ISD director questions “facts” in PM Lee Hsien Loong’s condolences letter to late Lim Chye Heng

My dear Honourable PM Lee Hsien Loong,

I read with interest and not a little mystical your magnificent condolences on the late Lim Chye Heng, former director of the Internal Security Department.

I think Lim Chye Heng would be flummoxed and embarrassed, if he were alive, by some of your high praises for which he had no part nor even full knowledge.

How you obtained your so-called facts is so fictional and questionable that it befuddled the mind, and it’s not likely from the ISD.

Lim’s career in the Special Branch had been almost wholly in the section dealing with the Chinese student pro-communist activities.

He had never played any part or even had full knowledge in the suppression of the underground communists or the CUF led by Lim Chin Siong. Richard Coridon was the officer who led the government battle against the communists.

Lim was ably supported by Ahmad Khan, Bill Teoh Kah Chay, Wong Yik Wah and my humble self. Lim Chye Heng was never involved. George Bogaars was the outstanding Director of the Secret Branch, who drove the final nail into the coffin of the communists.

So, how on earth could you have concocted in your mind that Lim Chye Heng was the star officer in the battle against the underground communists and the CUF?

If you have any doubts, you can always verify them with ISD. When Lim Chye Heng took over as Director of ISD in 1975, the communist threat had already been eradicated.

You are very kind in attributing all these remarkable achievements to Lim Chye Heng, and your motive behind it is only known to your kind self.

But as a prime minister, don’t you think that it is important to be objective and sensible in your sermon to the public? Do you not think that what you have been babbling to the public and the outside world will have an important perception of your sensibility and sincerity?

I think quite a sizeable number of Singaporeans are flabbergasted by this perception, not to mention the outside world.

I am doing this not out of any ulterior motive but first to stimulate you out of your somnolence so that you do not make a fool of yourself in and out of Singapore by your concoctions.

My apology if I rattled you, but I am doing what I believe to be for the common good.

May God bless you.

A plebeian injustice survivor, Yoong Siew Wah

The above letter was sent by Mr Yoong Siew Wah to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s email address. Mr Yoong was the Director of Singapore’s Internal Security Department (ISD) from 1971 to 1974. He was Director of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) in the 1960s. He runs a blog, Singapore Recalcitrant.