Tan Chay Wa's tombstone trial

The Tan Chay Wa's tombstone trial was a sequence of unusual events regarding an inscribed tombstone of a political dissident that sparked off a court case in Singapore, which eventually made international news in 1983.

History

Armed struggle

The Malayan National Liberation Front (MNLF), an organisation of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) was formed in 1968 for its armed struggle to overthrow the government of Singapore and Malaysia, which the communists considered as inseparable. From 1968 to 1974, it perpetuated acts of violence that included planting booby trap bombs in public places.The MNLF was also involved in collecting supplies such as medicine, explosives and assorted equipment for the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), which was the military arm of the CPM operating in the border area of northern Malaysia and southern Thailand.

Mass arrests

In 1976, after a prolonged investigation, the Internal Security Department (or ISD; formerly the Special Branch formed by the British) arrested hundreds of MNLF members together with massive haul of documents, arms and explosives in a stint operation in Singapore. 23 members were released after interrogation, 17 were detained without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and 10 turned over to the Malaysian police for suspected involvement in terrorist activities in Malaysia.

Tan Chay Wa

Tan Chay Wa (1948–1983), a political dissident and a senior official of the MNLF, managed to make a timely escape to Malaysia when the ISD officers closed in on him. Chay Wa was a bus driver and a married man living in Singapore. On 2 June 1979, Chay Wa was arrested at a vegetable farm in Johore together with a .32 Llama semi-automatic pistol and seven bullets in his possession.He was duly convicted under Malaysia's Essential Security Cases (Amendment) Regulations (ESCAR) by Johor Bahru's High Court, which provides for a mandatory death penalty. During his detention, there was an offer by the Government of Belgium to grant him political asylum should he be allowed to leave Malaysia.Despite the discrepancy between the gun he was alleged to have possessed at the time of his arrest and the number presented as evidence at his trial,he was hanged on 18 January 1983 in Kuala Lumpur's Pudu Prison.

His body was brought back to Singapore by his older brother, Tan Chu Boon, a tropical fish breeder. Chu Boon arranged for his brother's body to be buried in Choa Chu Kang Cemetery on 20 January 1983. However, Chu Boon was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Secret Society Investigation Branch at his flat on 28 May 1983 on suspicion that he designed an elaborate but subversive tombstone, which had engraved on it words glorifying the communist cause.

'Subversive' tombstone

On his November 1983 trial, Chu Boon argued in court that he was neither a communist nor did he have political leanings of any kind; he did not monitor or even read the proposed inscription on the tombstone that was handed to him on a piece of paper by his brother's widow which was given to the tombstone inscriber earlier.The inscription in Chinese, written in highly emotional language read:

Martyr Tan Chay Wa came from a poor peasant family. In the seventies, he joined the Malayan National Liberation Front, an organisation led by the Communist Party of Malaya. He contributed all the money that he had managed to save to the organisation, thus manifesting amply the noble quality of a revolutionary warrior. He carried on his work in total disregard of his own personal safety. On 2 June 1979, he was arrested. While in prison, he was cruelly beaten up and subjected to coercive threats and inducement but he remained resolute and unflinchingly dauntless. In the cause of the liberation of the motherland, he was hanged in Pudu Prison in Kuala Lumpur on 18 January 1983 and died a heroic death. At the time of his death, he was only 35. A few moments before he died, he wrote a heroic poem which read:

With heart filled with righteous indignation,
I stand at the gallows and forcefully pen this poem with blood.
I want to air my grievances for a hundred years,
unable to tell all the wrongs with blood.
When will this gallows be destroyed to bring about a new heaven?

This militant poem depicts his deep hatred against the old society and his boundless confidence in the victory of the revolution of the motherland. His glorious image will forever live in the minds of the people.

The court then heard that the CID was called into the case on 11 May 1983 and had seized the original piece of paper from the tombstone-maker's shop in Choa Chu Kang.

Defence

Chu Boon's defence lawyer was J.B. Jeyaretnam who has himself long been a consistent thorn of the Singapore's political establishment. Jeyaretnam established that the instigation for the CID investigation and arrest had come from "a government department".

In mitigation, Jeyaretnam had made the point that, apart from immediate family and friends, the public would not have known the 'subversive' tombstone (#3222, Block 8, Buddhist cemetery sector) nor its inscription in Singapore biggest cemetery.

The court threw out Chu Boon's defence plea and he was convicted on grounds that he had "under his control, the tombstone of his brother, Tan Chay Wa, on which was engraved in Chinese characters an inscription which tended to advocate acts prejudicial to the security of Singapore."As a result, he was sentenced to a year in jail but was later reduced to a month on appeal.

Unintended publicity

The court case hearing of Chu Boon had one unintended consequence; it made Chay Wa much better known to the public than he may otherwise have deserved. As a result, the story was later taken up in London by The Sunday Times a few months after the trial, making the case an internationally known issue and depicting the Singapore government in a decidedly hostile manner. Robust "don't interfere in our internal affairs" retorts soon emerged from government circles.

When the public debates were finally over, the case was not completely forgotten even in years later. In his book, The Tiger and the Trojan Horse (1986), British author Dennis Bloodworth (1919–2005) noted that "the ideograms in stone, chiselled by a sentient hand, were proof that this was the epitaph of a man, not a movement."

The tombstone today

Today, anyone trying to track down Chay Wa's grave will find it difficult to locate even with its exact location known; for it stands in a sea of tombstones that stretch almost as far as the eye can see in every direction. In 1985, it was reported in the news that the inscription of the tombstone have been whited out with plaster by members of Tan's own family who wished to obscure any glorification of Chay Wa's "martyrdom" in the communist cause.All that can be clearly seen is a photograph of Chay Wa and some lettering that gives his name and the years of his birth and death now.

See also

• Communist Party of Malaya
• Chin Peng
• Chia Thye Poh

References

• Soh, Felix (2003). Phoenix — The Story of the Home Team. Singapore: Times Editions. ISBN 981-232-646-4.
• Brazil, David (1999). Insider's Singapore. Singapore: Times Books International. ISBN 981-204-762-X.
• C. Gunn, Geoffrey (2000). New World Hegemony in the Malay World. Indonesia: The Red Sea Press. ISBN 156902135X.
• Bloodworth, Dennis (1986). The Tiger and the Trojan Horse. Singapore: Times Books International. ISBN 981-261-193-2.
• Elisabeth Gwee (9 August 2003). "Order of the phoenix — The Case Of The Subversive Tombstone". The Straits Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)