Customer Reviews

To Catch a Tartar: A Dissident in Lee Kuan Yew's Prison (Southeast Asia Studies Monograph Series)

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As a Singaporean, I heard about Francis Seow when I was younger. I remember him as a very eloquent speaker and a potential contender for Lee Kuan Yew's PAP government. I also remember how he was constantly potrayed by the local media as a 'dishonest' tax-evader, a 'collaborator' with the Americans to disrupt Singapore's political stability, a 'womaniser', etc. This book looks into the darker side of Singapore's politics from Seow's point of view. It begins with Seow's account of his early career as a government official, his clash with LKY after becoming president of the Law Society, and his 72-day detention without trial under Singapore's Internal Security Act in the late 1980s. Seow's book is a first-hand account of how a Singaporean has suffered under the PAP government's use of biased legislation and media manipulation to maintain political hegemony. Parts of LKY's speeches in the 1950s and 1960s were cleverly quoted by Seow to show the irony of LKY's government, demonstrating how LKY has become almost everything he used to be against since he came into power. Although the economic success of Singapore since independence is indubitable and has often been attributed to the great leadership and foresight of LKY, this book looks into the lesser known aspects of LKY's regime, and will no doubt, raise many questions for the reader.

My wife and I are Americans who recently honeymooned in Singapore, and we were quite impressed by how clean, orderly, and efficient it was. Yet we knew there had to be a catch, and none of the locals we met were willing to talk about it. So, upon returning home, we bought this book and also "Singapore's Authoritarian Capitalism," by Christopher Lingle, to find out. (To be fair, we bought Lee Kuan Yew's "The Singapore Story" as well, but haven't read it yet.)

After reading these books, we now understand Singapore's dark side. And it goes way beyond the prohibition on chewing gum and being caned for vandalism. Both of these books are important reads for those seeking to understand Singapore and authoritarian governments in general.

My only criticism of both books is that they are written for those who can sit down and finish the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle in 20 minutes or less. The vocabulary, diction, and syntax are unnecessarily tortured (so to speak) in both books. Granted, they're both written by scholarly gentlemen, but I have an Ivy League education, and I can't help but think that both authors' voices would be better heard if their prose was more accessible to the general public. Seow's detention was especially dramatic, but he describes his interrogation by heavy-handed, chain-smoking thugs with a Shakespearean lilt that is completely at odds with the material.

Nevertheless, they're good reads, so make a pot of coffee, grab your dictionary, and dive in.

Francis Seow is a Singapore hero. By Singapore standards, however, he was flawed in that he was compassionate as he gave legal assistance to political detainees in Singapore. By so doing, Mr. Seow became a detainee, himself.

His account of his imprisonment by the Singapore police is as harrowing as anything written by Kafka. No one so articulate as Mr. Seow has described what it is like to be a detainee in Singapore.

I am an American, but was living in Singapore at the time of Mr. Seow's detention. I was in charge of the computer department of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). Many of my colleagues at IRAS were disturbed by the million-dollar budget had been allocated to investigate Mr. Seow's tax matters. Naturally, IRAS determined that Mr. Seow had a considerable tax debt.

Mr. Seow was and is a charismatic and brilliant individual. He had become Solicitor General of Singapore, and President of the Law Society. Had he gone along with the dictates of the Singapore system, he could be living a very distinguished life in Singapore today, in high political office. He now lives in the United States, but has not been forgotten in Singapore.

His generosity, which shows so clearly in his book, was extended to my wife (a Singaporean), and myself recently with his kind review of our book on many of the same subjects, entitled "Escape from Paradise."

Francis' book is an entertaining read with vivid accounts of how and why he was imprisoned. However, considering the circumstances of his time spent in detention, one wonders how he can remember such details about specific interrogation sessions. Some creative embellishment to spice up the narration was probably afoot. Where did fact end and literary fiction begin was a question I pondered constantly. His book is as biased as those favourable on the Singapore regime. Nevertheless, a must read for one interested in understanding Singapore's security apparatus and Lee Kuan Yew.

Jeremy