Former political detainee and assistant secretary-general of the Barisan Sosialis, Dr Poh Soo Kai. Photo: Nicholas Yong

He spent a total of 17 years in detention under the Internal Security Act, together with many of his political comrades. He almost died while in prison, due to an emergency operation that went wrong. And his long detention was to ultimately cost him his marriage.

But former political detainee Dr Poh Soo Kai, 84, said he has no regrets. And his story seems to be resonating with Singaporeans. His political memoir “Living In A Time Of Deception”, launched more than a week ago with a print run of more than 1,000, is almost sold out, said publishers Function 8.

The book, which covers much of Singapore’s history in the turbulent 1950′s and 1960′s, seeks “to explain and debunk the official Singapore historical narrative”.

Poh played a significant role in the modern history of Singapore as former assistant secretary-general of the Barisan Sosialis, the breakaway faction of the People’s Action Party. On 2 Feb, 1963, Poh was among 113 left-wing politicians and union leaders detained under Operation Coldstore.

Authorities have maintained that those arrested were communist subversives who posed a threat to Singapore. Poh, a founding member of the PAP, insists that Coldstore was a political exercise aimed at opponents of the late Lee Kuan Yew.

Feisty, articulate and with a sharp mind for details, Poh was lively throughout his conversation with Yahoo Singapore.

In your book, you write that you are “still defiant”. Why is that?

I’m defiant because you feel you have been done wrong. There was no reason for your arrest. They claimed that we were communists…which is not. We were arrested not for security, but as a political opponent. And this (book) I’ve written from the archives proves our case. It is a way of putting my case out, for people to understand.

The Director of Special Branch and his assistant told me: “Dr Poh, we will release you if you make this security statement.” Everybody coming out has to confess, say they are wrong. And the problem is, when you do say that, when you come out…some part of you is broken. You can’t hold your head straight up. You have to falsely implicate friends, so that you can’t talk to them later. And therefore you feel that you have to draw a distinction between what is right and what is wrong. And therefore you are defiant.



Was it very difficult for your family? Did they ever ask you to sign the security statement?

For my family, economically, the burden is not heavy. But the psychological pressure is there. My father says, ‘You are old enough to decide, but I just want you to graduate and become a doctor.’ As for my wife, she knows that I will never accept the condition. [Poh writes in his book that his wife was also arrested and interrogated. Their divorce was finalised in 1992: “Grace and I were both too badly hurt for our marriage to survive.”]

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Dr Poh autographs copies of his book. Photo: Nicholas Yong



Do you think that young people will be interested in events that took place half a century ago?

When they launched the book, it was a very responsive crowd. Surprisingly, I would say more than half were younger people. When I launched The Fajar Generation in December 2009, I think most were grey haired (laughs). Encouraging, very encouraging to see the younger people getting interested in their history. I think people will be interested in their history. To quote Sukarno: History is important, if not, we will be like monkeys running around in the dark.

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