Chitchat Operation Spectrum - 29 arrests - 1987 - 30 years ago

[steffychun]

Even if he had, unlikely to be a successful Intel chief. Look at past DSID and their background. They have this habit of employing retired SAF personnel as operatives.

Most, imo, aren't streetwise enough to survive overseas. Their military training doesn't prepare them for such work.

Internally, no proper checks and balances. Complacency sets in. Traitors from within. Pity those caught overseas as a result of their colleagues' greed.

If S'pore is Israel, we would have been decimated decades ago. We can afford a 'look-good only' Intel agency simply because we don't face real threats like Israel.

some of the scholar generals as DSID were military intel chaps but yes the scholar generals can't survive.

 

[gatehousethetinkertailor]

There is something in the inherent singkies mindset that makes it truly hard to cut off all communication with their families and friends and communicate through handler only - maybe its the steady diet nutrition of cheap hawker fare.

When it dawns upon them that it really is a "you die your business" posting it is very hard to swallow and so not easy to recruit for those roles.

I am still amused that the initial "interview" has been "outsourced".

 

[gatehousethetinkertailor]

Kirsten is another person to watch closely. She started an NGO and got a naive couple to run it on a shoestring budget, they fly to Geneva, KL to make presentations, lobby etc, she then turns up and submits articles to publications she freelances but not disclosing that it's her NGO and they created the event and the story. Of course Singaporeans have no clue as they appear in foreign publications. You can sense that in the local scene as well, get involved, stir the pot and then report on it. She will probably go interview them when they get detained.

Yes - her moves are always calculated for maximum self-praise and coverage. But as you have pointed out elsewhere singkies have loose tongues and happy to blab - outward manifestations of blurfarkness. Makes great fodder for her 'intellectualism" and armchair rhetoric.

 

[scroobal]

We had the policy is recruiting from "isolated families" for want of a better term in the past.

In the 80s, we had a chap in our Washington Embassy who was so secretive and paranoid that he became a laughing stock of the staff and the Ambassador. When the new defence attache was posted there he was assigned to sort out some outstanding procurement matters. Tommy Koh was the Ambassador. As SID was also under Mindef, he naturally reached out to this chap for help in settling down in Washington and to get access to Pentagon staff or anyone in the US bureaucracy. This SID chap was like a mouse and was so scared that he would not say or do anything to help. The defence attache finally reached out to Tommy who immediately called Colin Powell to make the arrangements. The defence attache was surprised that Colin Powell actually attended the meeting and went thru the items to be resolved with his staff and our defence attache.

He wrote off this guy completely. Its appears that this chap's only mission was to hide the fact that he was from SID. But his weird behaviour made him stand out like a sore thumb.

There is something in the inherent singkies mindset that makes it truly hard to cut off all communication with their families and friends and communicate through handler only - maybe its the steady diet nutrition of cheap hawker fare.

When it dawns upon them that it really is a "you die your business" posting it is very hard to swallow and so not easy to recruit for those roles.

I am still amused that the initial "interview" has been "outsourced".

 

[GoldenDragon]

some of the scholar generals as DSID were military intel chaps but yes the scholar generals can't survive.

When compared to the real Intel bosses, ours machiam primary 1 schoolboys in a room full of professors.

 

[McDonaldsKid]

Maybe because they are more high profile but I always get the impression that ISD officers are better than their SID counterparts.

Besides MSD and Police intelligence, are there any other intelligence agencies in Singapore?

 

[scroobal]

ISD, SID and MSD are the traditional and conventional intelligence services (spy craft, signals, intercepts, counter etc). PID, Military Intelligence etc are not.

Maybe because they are more high profile but I always get the impression that ISD officers are better than their SID counterparts.

Besides MSD and Police intelligence, are there any other intelligence agencies in Singapore?

 

[GoldenDragon]

Maybe because they are more high profile but I always get the impression that ISD officers are better than their SID counterparts.

Besides MSD and Police intelligence, are there any other intelligence agencies in Singapore?

Hard to compare ISD and SID. Latter operates overseas. Playing on home ground is almost always advantageous. You can hide your errors with ease.

But when it comes to criminal Intel, Intel Div is streets ahead of Police Intel Dept. The officers in the former are more au fait with ground matters.

I believe several entities now have their own Intel divisions - ICA, MOM, CAD, Customs, MOH.

I still opine the best Intel entity is CNB.

 

[steffychun]

Maybe because they are more high profile but I always get the impression that ISD officers are better than their SID counterparts.

Besides MSD and Police intelligence, are there any other intelligence agencies in Singapore?

There's signal intel like US NSA

 

[steffychun]

We had the policy is recruiting from "isolated families" for want of a better term in the past.

In the 80s, we had a chap in our Washington Embassy who was so secretive and paranoid that he became a laughing stock of the staff and the Ambassador. When the new defence attache was posted there he was assigned to sort out some outstanding procurement matters. Tommy Koh was the Ambassador. As SID was also under Mindef, he naturally reached out to this chap for help in settling down in Washington and to get access to Pentagon staff or anyone in the US bureaucracy. This SID chap was like a mouse and was so scared that he would not say or do anything to help. The defence attache finally reached out to Tommy who immediately called Colin Powell to make the arrangements. The defence attache was surprised that Colin Powell actually attended the meeting and went thru the items to be resolved with his staff and our defence attache.

He wrote off this guy completely. Its appears that this chap's only mission was to hide the fact that he was from SID. But his weird behaviour made him stand out like a sore thumb.

Our defence attaches are a joke compared to their counterparts

 

[Victory2016]

The best Intel entity operating in Singapore is Malaysian Special Branch/Research Dept

 

[GoldenDragon]

The best Intel entity operating in Singapore is Malaysian Special Branch/Research Dept

In Intel circles, 'research' can mean real research and also, surveillance teams. For example, field research unit!!!

 

[McDonaldsKid]

I always thought of working in intel due to shows like Spooks, movies related to CIA etc but I guess it's never this exciting in real life.

I should have taken my SID psychometric test more seriously when I was younger. Damn.

 

[GoldenDragon]

I always thought of working in intel due to shows like Spooks, movies related to CIA etc but I guess it's never this exciting in real life.

I should have taken my SID psychometric test more seriously when I was younger. Damn.

For excitement, SPF n CNB.

 

[scroobal]

I am sure you will appreciate it as it challenges your mind. Most of the time it's uncharted territory. There are long periods of boredom. I met a renovation contractor who did field surveillance work. He would spend long hours in HDB areas and noticed how renovation contractors were doing their work. Eventually he resigned and became one. Someone people are a natural, can get along with anyone, access to anything, mind is focused, no need supervision, real assets.

I always thought of working in intel due to shows like Spooks, movies related to CIA etc but I guess it's never this exciting in real life.

I should have taken my SID psychometric test more seriously when I was younger. Damn.

 

[GoldenDragon]

I am sure you will appreciate it as it challenges your mind. Most of the time it's uncharted territory. There are long periods of boredom. I met a renovation contractor who did field surveillance work. He would spend long hours in HDB areas and noticed how renovation contractors were doing their work. Eventually he resigned and became one. Someone people are a natural, can get along with anyone, access to anything, mind is focused, no need supervision, real assets.

Yep. Surveillance is usually boring. Especially when waiting for your targets to appear. And when it comes to promotion, tough to promote someone in surveillance compared to an agent handling officer. Notwithstanding the fact latter has easier job to perform most of the time. That's life.

 

[creampie]

What kind of targets does SID conduct surveillance on?

 

[Hypocrite-The]

SDP’s Bryan Lim reads Singapore’s Marxist Conspiracy, urges people to ‘find out the truth’​

Former SDP vice-chairman involved 'couldn't even bear to hurt a fly'
Photo: Facebook/



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AUTHOR
Denise Teh
DATE
May 26, 2021

Singapore — Singapore Democratic Party treasurer Bryan Lim dismisses the 1987 Marxist conspiracy as fiction.

He urges people to read 1987: Singapore’s Marxist Conspiracy 30 Years On (Solidarity Edition) to “find out the truth”.



He is reading the book himself two months after it was mailed to him, he wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday (May 23).
“4 years ago, I bought the original edition from none other than the purported ‘ringleader’ of the Marxist conspirators, Mr Vincent Cheng himself,” he shared, explaining that Mr Cheng was a former vice-chairman of the SDP.

In 1987, Mr Cheng was one of the 22 Singaporeans branded as a “Marxist conspirator” and arrested under Operation Spectrum. Then 40, he was the executive secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church and worked with low-income workers and the disadvantaged segments of society.

“Those who know him would find it laughable that a man who couldn’t even bear to hurt a fly was accused of having the guts to direct & pull off a Communist ploy to overthrown the PAP government then.” Mr Lim added, referring to the 1987 incident.

“If Vincent & the rest of the wrongfully detained are Marxist conspirators, then I am the King of Spain. Such fiction is only fit for the library shelves where you find Little Red Riding Hood & Cinderella,” he added.

“If you want to find out the truth from these honourable men & women, please support them by purchasing the book,” he wrote.



Denise Teh is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISGFollow us on Social Media

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Alleged 1987 Marxist Conspiracy: Yes, let’s have a Truth Commission​

Photo: Courtesy of Harvard Law

Sense And Nonsense by Tan Bah Bah

January 9, 2022
By Tan Bah Bah


“God is on the side of the big battalions.” – This quote has been attributed to a number of people, from George Bernard Shaw to Voltaire and even (wrongly, as it turned out), Napoleon Bonaparte. It means: Whoever wins gets to determine the truth. The loser can say what he likes, he is forever an also-ran, to whom few people would pay much attention, life goes on, who cares what he has to say.
Would this be the common fate of the so-called 1987 Marxist Conspirators as well as democracy as we generally know it, that is, a system which allows free competition of ideas and policies and free elections to choose a new government every number of years? If you are wondering what I am talking about, I am referring to two interesting comments made by Prof Tommy Koh and Straits Times Associate Editor Chua Mui Hoong.


Prof Koh wrote in his Facebook on “Operation Spectrum” in 1987 which resulted in the detention of 22 individuals who were allegedly part of a Marxist plan to topple the government: “I congratulate my friend, Dr Shashi Jayakumar, on the publication of his monumental book on the history of the PAP, from 1985 to 2021. It took Dr Jayakumar 10 years to write the book because of his meticulous research and scholarship…According to Shashi the government found evidence of the connection between the 22 detainees and the Communist Party of Malaya. However, we are not shown this evidence.”
Prof Koh actually commented on three different topics. Apart from the Marxist Conspiracy issue, he touched on the policy of linking votes and the priority of HDB upgrading, which he described as a mistake made by Goh Chok Tong, and on his disagreement with Lee Kuan Yew on linking ministerial salaries to top private sector earners. There were some pretty articulate and inside baseball reactions to all his remarks, including from ex-ST editor editor Leslie Fong who said (on the HDB upgrading): “I recall that the linking of votes to upgrading was inflicted on Potong Pasir first. The idea came from Mr Lee. I published a column saying that was not right. I paid a price for that.”

But, somehow, it appeared to me that the reactions to a major blot in the history of post-independent Singapore were rather muted. This despite Prof Koh admirably resuscitating it as a matter of principle as public conscience and saying unambiguously that Singaporeans have not been shown any evidence of a connection between the 22 detainees and the Communist Party of Malaya, as alleged. Hence, I support ex-TODAY editor PN Balji’s suggestion in Prof Koh’s Facebook that a Truth Commission be set up. We need to settle the issue of why the lives of so many promising young Singaporeans had to be so cruelly disrupted.
Chua Mui Hoong’s column (“The ongoing battle over democracy”, ST Jan 7) is a superb distillation of the main arguments in a current world-wide debate over what democracy is, at a time when even autocrats and authoritarian regimes can claim to be “democratic”. She asks: Is Singapore a democracy?
I am glad she says (about China): “On the basis of China’s political system – no electoral mandate and based on supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party which brooks no competition – makes it unlikely that its self-interested rhetoric will have much traction beyond is own borders.”
That’s a way of saying Singapore (generally regarded as a country with an authoritarian government) is much better than China.
Chua thinks “Singapore is a functioning democratic state and is a continuing work in progress”.
She chooses her words quite carefully:
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(a) “functioning democratic state”, meaning, not necessarily the full-blown Western-style democracy but with enough of the mandatory electoral participation features
(b) “continuing work in progress”, meaning, we are not perfect, but we will do better as we move along.
Now I come to my point.
Are we happy with ourselves? Are we satisfied with whatever the powers that be tell us?
If we are, then there is no need to question the Marxist Conspiracy arrests anymore. There is also no need to question the way our sovereign funds are run.
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That is, if God is always on the side of the big battalions.

Tan Bah Bah, consulting editor of TheIndependent.Sg, is a former senior leader with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a local magazine publishing company.

 

[JohnTan]

According to Shashi the government found evidence of the connection between the 22 detainees and the Communist Party of Malaya. However, we are not shown this evidence.”

The evidence is sensitive, even up till today. So it should not be declassified.