13 - Politics on the Margins

Summary

FROM CENTRE TO PERIPHERY

There were many who were saddened by David's sudden resignation as chief minister. They had hoped that he might be persuaded to stay on, notwithstanding his pre-London promise to quit if he failed to secure self-government for Singapore. In the short fourteen months he was in office, he had single-handedly transformed the face of Singapore politics. David had, through the sheer force of his personality, rhetoric, and ideas, awakened the people of Singapore to politics and the meaning of nationalism and self-government.

The British, used to taking the initiative in the decolonization process, were totally unprepared for a phenomenon like David Marshall. They had hedged their bets on men like C.C. Tan, N.A. Mallal, A.P. Rajah and Tan Chin Tuan, who were cooperative, pro-establishment, and happy to work closely with the British in moving self-government forward. At first, they expected David to do the same. After all, he had studied in England, was a respectable, successful lawyer, and came from the privileged professional class. Such men were not known for their radicalism. Governor Sir John Fearns Nicoll was, despite his poor public image and aloofness, a fairly progressive governor who was anxious to devolve power as quickly as possible, but not as quickly as David wanted it.

His ideal chief minister would have been a man like Sir John Kotelawala of Ceylon — one of Nicoll's few friends — with whom he had discussed the Rendel Constitution and the future of Singapore. Kotelawala had offered Nicoll quite a fair bit of advice and told him what to expect. Nicoll came to expect all new chief ministers to be cut from the same cloth as the staunchly anti-communist and reliable Kotelawala — and measured them by that standard. Men like Kotelawala would, despite their strong anti-colonialist tendencies, still consult with their governors before taking any drastic action. They would work closely with the departing colonial masters to ensure a stable and smooth transition of power. Nicoll had been, for example, extremely hurt when David had first sought the counsel of Sir Malcolm MacDonald, Britain's High Commissioner for Southeast Asia, over the appointment of his cabinet members, instead of Nicoll.