Devan Nair
The Revolutionary Fighter Who Ran Out Of Revolutions
By Terence Chong and Darinee Alagirisamy
Chengara Veetil Devan Nair or Devan Nair is perhaps best known for having held office as Singapore’s third president. Less known are his abiding commitment to overthrowing colonialism and later, his passionate advocacy of communism as the panacea to the ills that plagued his world. These ills in fact shaped the lens through which Nair would come to see his work, his individual contribution to that work, and the importance of aligning the two. During his schooling days at Victoria School, his public rendition of Rule Britannia must have caught school administrators by surprise when he piped, “and Britain shall never, never, never rule the waves” instead of the rehearsed and conventional “and Britain shall never, never, never be slaves” (Chew 1996:100). The same unflinching, bold commitment to social justice that inspired this boyish demonstration of defiance in the face of power would remain a steadfast guiding light for Nair throughout his life. “Indeed, his best contribution is to be himself,” said Lee Kuan Yew of his old comrade in 1981, reminiscing how the latter had expressed reservations about his suitability as president of the Republic. Nair’s reservation had tellingly pertained to whether he “could continue to move freely and informally as he had always done, without the trappings of the President” (Lee 1981).
A Malayalee Indian, Nair was born on 5 August 1923, near the British Straits Settlement of Melaka on the Malay Penisula. His father was a rubber plantation clerk who hailed from Kerala in southern India. Nair read widely in his childhood and adolescence, an assorted sampling of works drawn from Indian literature and politics forming the canvas against which his ideals would take crystallise. He read British writers like H.G. Wells and Bernard Shaw although his intellectual appetite also eagerly sought writings of Indian leaders like Gandhi and Nehru.
The Japanese Occupation transformed Nair as a young man. Like many of his generation, the violence of World War Two shaped his moral principles and commitment to justice. The cruelty that he witnessed in this period of concentrated colonialism appears to have been the most important impetus that prompted him to take up the call to revolution subsequently. Having been forced to witness a Chinese labourer soaked in kerosene and immolated in front of him, Nair recounted, “It was a turning point in my life. I was reborn. I can only recapture it in the following words. “To hell with the beyond and infinite. This thing must stop. We must fight!” That was the moment I was reborn a revolutionary. A revolutionary fighter” (Chew 1996:102).
It was perhaps the faith he put in education as the key to moulding minds and hearts that prompted Nair to take up teaching as his vocation after World War II. This career move brought him to Singapore, which would determine the contours of his personal and professional life for the rest of his life. As a student teacher, Nair began to associate himself with unionists and communists. P.V. Sharma inaugurated Nair into the revolutionary world of the communists, which presented him — and indeed, many of his contemporaries with the requisite tools and worldview with which to challenge the social structures so carefully nurtured and normalised by colonialism (Lee 1998:161). In 1950, Nair joined the Anti-British League (ABL), an underground auxiliary of the Malayan Communist Party. In this first revolutionary role, he began distributing pro-communist and anti-British materials. ABL tested him by placing a box of grenades under his desk in his office at the Teachers’ Union when he was visited by a Special Branch officer (Chew 1996: 105).
Nair was arrested on 8 Jan 1952 for anti-colonial activities and detained in Changi prison under solitary confinement for 21 days. He was later transferred to St John’s Island together with P.V. Sharma, James Puthucheary, Samad Ismail, Tan Cheng Piaw, Yap Theun Hong, and Dr Low Wah Lian. It was in prison that Nair was introduced to Lee Kuan Yew by journalist Samad Ismail. Nair was released in April 1953 after 27 months and married a few months later on 17 August 1953. He could not get a teaching job after imprisonment and thus offered private tuition. Samad Ismail later introduced him to Lim Chin Siong when the former joined the Factory and Shopworkers Union. The union was looking for English-educated members and Nair became Lim Chin Siong’s advisor and English speechwriter.
Lee Kuan Yew invited him to join the People’s Action Party (PAP) in 1954 which would become the ruling party till today. Nair was by then well known as a unionist and speechwriter. He saw the PAP as split into two camps — Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee, S. Rajaratnam, Toh Chin Chye, Ong Pang Boon, Kenny Byrne, and Yong Nyuk Lin on one side, and himself, Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan, and Sandra Woodhull on the other. On Chin Siong — “I don’t know the exact details. But he certainly was a Communist Party member. I knew he was taking instructions from somebody” (Chew 1996:107). Nair contested the 1955 elections in Farrer Park and lost.
However by 1956, seeds of doubt over the vision of his mission were planted. Nair had grown increasingly uncomfortable with Lim Chin Siong’s emphasis on Chinese education, Chinese culture, and Chinese identity. The multicultural identity and Malayan nationalism which he stood for were not stressed enough by Lim. Nair told Lim, “I didn’t spend my years in detention for the glory of the Communist Party! We must fight for independence. Not for China! It’s a multiracial society. You’re frightening the life out of the Malays” (Chew 1996:107). According to Lee Kuan Yew, who recounted later, “I felt that he, as an Indian, would never be comfortable in a movement driven by Chinese chauvinist sentiments. But he was in a difficult position. He was already a member of the Anti-British League, and so a candidate for full membership of the MCP [Malayan Communist Party]. The MCP had only a handful of non-Chinese who were steadfast members, and Nair was one of the few English-educated Indians they trusted. His defection — possibly betrayal — would be a severe blow to them, and their reaction might be extreme. He knew this and was aware of their elimination squads” (Lee 1998:290–1).
Nair was imprisoned again when Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock closed down the Singapore Chinese Middle School Students’ Union for communist activities in October 1956. The closure sparked student protests. Students gravitated to Chung Cheng High School and Chinese High School, and on 26 October 1956, the police entered the schools with tear gas to clear the students. This led to the students destroying cars and public property. 13 people were killed and more than 100 were injured over five days. The government rounded up Nair, along with Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan, Woodhull and Puthucheary.
Nair’s second stint in prison proved to be a turning point. Upon pressure from Lee who wanted the communists within the PAP to make clear their stand on merger and communalism, the detainees declared that “socialism in Malaya must be based firmly on the institutions of political democracy provided for the constitution of the Federation of Malaya. That is why we unreservedly subscribe to Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s formulation of the PAP’s policy of working for a free, democratic, non-communist Malaya. The time has come when socialists must mean exactly what they say, and say exactly what they mean” (Fong et al. 1976:157). They also declared that “The Malayan road to socialism cannot be a communal road. It would be fatal for Malayan socialists to base themselves on the extra-national cultural bias or orientation of any single Malayan community. Many Chinese and Indians in this country continue to preserve a China-centred and an India-centred cultural consciousness. It is obvious that such an extra-national cultural consciousness will be inimical to the growth of a genuine Malaya-centred cultural and national consciousness” (Fong et al. 1976: 158).
After his release in 1959, Nair persuaded the new government to set up a Prisons Inquiry Commission. He wanted to end the demeaning treatment of convicted prisoners by the British authorities such as forcing them to kneel on the floor with head bowed on the approach of a British prison officer. Nair was appointed Chairman of the Prisons Inquiry Commission, which included two British academics from the University of Malaya in Singapore, Dr. Jean Robertson and Professor T.H. Elliott.
His open split with the communists came in 1961 when Tungku Abdul Razak became receptive to the idea of merger between Singapore and Malaysia. The British too were publicly supportive of merger which began to worry the communists within the PAP as they feared that merger would result in their demise because communism had less appeal and sympathy among the Malay majority in Malaysia. In response, the trade unionists in the PAP, led by Lim Chin Siong “issued a statement calling for “genuine full internal self-government not only in name but also in fact”, with control of internal security and the abolition of the Internal Security Council” (Lee 1998: 367). On 13 July, 13 assemblymen broke away to form the Barisan Socialis with Lim Chin Siong, Lee Siew Choh and Fong Swee Suan leading the way. Nair remained with the non-communist faction of the PAP throughout these series of internal ruptures.
Nair also held the distinction of being the only PAP candidate to win an election in Malaysia. Nine PAP candidates contested in Malaysia’s March 1964 general elections but made sure to stand only against Malaysian Chinese Association, with Nair being the only candidate winning in Bangsar. Nair continued to represent Bangsar in the Dewan Ra’ayat (Malaysian parliament) Separation on 9 Aug 1965, and had running battles with Syed Jaafar Albar over the latter’s use of demagoguery (Nair 1969:103–122) and with Finance Minister Tan Siew Sin (Nair 1969:168–176).
At this time the new PAP government was facing union unrest with illegal strikes and tumultuous labour relations threatening to overturn the apple cart. The PAP leadership demanded a trusted personality who could usher disparate and fractious unions into a new world. Nair was recalled to Singapore by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1969 for this purpose. According to Lee, “I needed him in Singapore to play a key role in maintaining industrial peace and persuading our workers to increase productivity and efficiency. It was an enormous advantage for me to have Devan as secretary-general of the NTUC. He coordinated and fine-tuned my policies and inculcated positive work attitudes in the unions” (Lee 2000:109).
Upon assuming the role of Secretary-General of the National Trade Union Congress in 1969, Nair led the movement away from a confrontational stance “to one oriented towards productivity and the organization of cooperatives to provide service for its members” (Hong 1999: 110). His stint as the country’s leading trade unionist was the perfect platform for his fiery and activist personality. He took joy in attacking what he saw as the hypocrisy of western critics, many of whom were quick to pass judgement on non-Western societies and norms. He observed that these western critics “naively presume to judge less fortunate societies on the basis of current Western models of achievement (and, in some cases, of failure) and standards of conduct… The mire and the muck from which the rose of modern Western civilization has arisen is all too easily forgotten” (Nair 1976b:97–98). Lee Kuan Yew also recounts an anecdote underlining Nair’s tenaciousness in his memoirs. Singapore International Airlines was negotiating for landing rights in London and was encountering resistance from the British government. Singapore’s chief negotiator, Ngiam Tong Dow, had hit a brick wall. According to Lee, “When he [Ngiam] said it was very difficult, I told him to let the NTUC Secretary-General Devan Nair know this. I had earlier agreed to Devan’s proposal that if the British negotiators were difficult, he would get the unions at the airport to apply pressure by going slow on servicing British aircraft” (Lee 2000:229). Nair’s pressure tactics worked and rights to land were granted.
As NTUC Secretary-General, he had no qualms in defending the PAP and the one-party state. At the 2nd Triennial Delegates Conference 1976, he announced that “No ruling political party in any democratic world would care to campaign for the benefit of an opposition party. The PAP is no exception, and if the PAP won all seats in Parliament, it is purely because it has earned genuine popular support, and because no opposition party has been able to establish the degree of credibility it would require among the electorate, to win even a single constituency seat. But instead of saluting the outstanding electoral performance, by any standards, of the ruling party of Singapore, we have levelled at us the frivolous charge that Singapore is a one-party state” (Nair 1976a:vii). In this sense it would seem that Nair’s views were most similar to Rajaratnam’s. “Both men robustly presented and defended the leadership’s positions and actions, shaping the scope and tone of the politics discourse in Singapore. A central theme is their claim to be the men who made Singapore’s history as its Independence leaders — the midwives of the nation-state” (Hong 1999:97).
Nair’s ascendency to the presidency came with some personal hesitation. As Lee Kuan Yew recounts, “I told him that becoming President did not mean that he had to be quiet and bland. At 58, he could not but continue to be himself… After two weeks of deliberation, he asked if he could continue to move freely and informally as he had always done, without the trappings of the President. He feared these would cut him off from his old friends and fellow workers. I assure him that there is no reason why he should always be on parade” (Lee:1981). This decision proved to be one of Lee’s biggest mistakes. Things unraveled in dramatic fashion on President Nair’s unofficial visit to Sarawak from 9 to 18 March 1985. According to government accounts, Nair was observed to be drinking heavily and behaving uninhibitedly with women, resulting in a hasty return to Singapore (Paper to Parliament 29 June 1988:1), while Nair himself later asserted that the cause of his erratic behavior was triggered by “excessive sedation” which caused “hallucination and disorientation” (Nair 1988). Diagnosed with alcoholism, he stepped down as President in 1985. His later refutations of the nature of his illness and characterization of his behavior triggered a sharp break in his relationship with the political leadership (see The Straits Times 2 July 1988).
When he left for Canada, Nair became one of the government’s fiercest critics. He disparaged what he saw as Lee’s “malefic hidden persona” over the prosecution of Francis Seow (Nair 1994:X). He also complained about the concentration of power in the hands of a single person. “Today, Lee no longer deals with his equals, but with his chosen appointees, who did not earn power the hard way, but had it conferred on them. They are highly qualified men, no doubt, but nobody expects them to possess the gumption to talk back to the increasingly self-righteous know-all that Lee has become” (Nair 1994: XVI). It was a running battle with the government from afar that was relegated to the periphery of Singaporeans’ consciousness given the economic growth and rising affluence enjoyed by the city-state.
Nair passed away in Hamilton, Canada, on 6 December 2005, leaving behind one daughter and three sons. People will remember him as a revolutionary forged by a specific and tumultuous time. A comrade-in-arms made distinct by his loyalty, bravery, and lust for a righteous fight. And only until recently, Nair’s political marginalization had rendered invisible his earlier contributions, first to the PAP’s struggle against the communists, and later, to the strengthening and consolidation of local unions. Nair’s place amongst Singapore’s first-generation leaders cannot be denied on evidence of his work and its significance. Much more needs to be done to understand the complex biography of this revolutionary fighter.
Terence Chong is Deputy Chief Executive Officer, ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute and Darinee Alagirisamy is Lecturer at the South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore.
References
Chew, Melanie. 1996. Leaders of Singapore. Resource Press Pte Ltd: Singapore
C.V. Devan Nair. 1988. “An Open Letter to Lee Kuan Yew” (Appendix 5) in Francis Seow. 1994. To Catch a Tartar: A Dissent in Lee Kuan Yew’s Prison. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies
C.V. Devan Nair. 1994. “Foreword” in Francis Seow .1994. To Catch a Tartar: A Dissent in Lee Kuan Yew’s Prison. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies
C.V. Devan Nair. 1976a. Tomorrow: The Peril and the Promise — Report by the Secretary General to the 2nd Triennial Delegate Conference 1976. Singapore National Trades Union Congress: Singapore
C.V. Devan Nair. 1976b. “Trade Unions in Singapore”. In Socialism That Works: The Singapore Way, edited by C.V. Devan Nair. Singapore: Federal Publications
Fong, Swee Suan; C.V. Devan Nair; J.J. Puthucheary; Chan Chiaw Thor; S. Woodhull, and Tan Boon Eng. 1976. “The Road to Socialism in an Independent Malaya”. In Socialism That Works: The Singapore Way, edited by C.V. Devan Nair. Singapore: Federal Publications
C.V. Devan Nair. 1969. “The Big Cultural Debate”. In Who Lives if Malaysia Dies?: A Selection from Speeches and Writings of DAP Leaders. Kuala Lumpur: Rajiv Printers
Hong, Lysa. 1999. “Making the history of Singapore: S Rajaratnam and CV Devan Nair”. In Lee’s Lieutenants: Singapore’s Old Guards, edited by Lam Peng Er and Kevin YL Tan. New South Wales: Allen & Unwin
Lee, Kuan Yew. 2000. From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965–2000. Singapore: Times Edition
Lee, Kuan Yew. 1998. The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore: Times Publishing
Lee, Kuan Yew. 1981. “Speech by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew moving the Motion on the Election of Mr CV Devan Nair as President of the Republic of Singapore on 23 October 1981 at Parliament”. https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/data/pdfdoc/lky19811023.pdf (accessed 20 Aug 2021)
Paper to Parliament. 29 June 1988. “C.V. Devan Nair: Circumstances Relating to Resignation as President of the Republic of Singapore”. Singapore: Singapore National Printers Ltd
The Straits Times. 2 July 1988. “Why Devan Nair had to resign”. Overseas edition
