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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

This case showed PAP's true colours:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singap...ates_relations



"Hendrickson affair

The investigations into the Marxist conspirators led to an unexpected discovery. A US diplomat stationed here, Hank Hendrickson, had been interfering in Singapore politics ... Such foreign clandestine operations are part and parcel of “the Great Game” between countries, even friendly ones ... These episodes taught us that it was just as important to monitor our friends as we do our enemies.
Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore, in a 2008 speech to the Internal Security Department on the occasion of their 60th anniversary dinner.[4]

E. Mason "Hank" Hendrickson (born 1945), an American diplomat married to fellow Foreign Service officer Anne E. Derse, was serving as the First Secretary of the United States Embassy when he was expelled by the Singaporean government in May 1988.[5][6][7] Prior to his expulsion, he arranged for Francis Seow and Patrick Seong to travel to Washington, D.C. to meet with American officials at Hendrickson's arrangement.[8] After their return, Singapore detained them under the Internal Security Act.[9] Based on Seow and Seong's statements while in custody, the Singaporean government alleged that Hendrickson attempted to interfere in Singapore's internal affairs by cultivating opposition figures in a "Marxist conspiracy".[8] Then-First Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong claimed that Hendrickson's alleged conspiracy could have resulted in the election of 20 or 30 opposition politicians to Parliament, which in his words could lead to "horrendous" effects, possibly even the paralysis and fall of the Singaporean government.[9]

In the aftermath of Hendrickson's expulsion, the U.S. State Department praised his performance in Singapore and denied any impropriety in his actions.[5] The State Department also expelled Robert Chua, a senior-level Singaporean diplomat equal in rank to Mason, from Washington, D.C. in response.[10][11] The State Department's refusal to reprimand Hendrickson, along with their expulsion of the Singaporean diplomat, sparked a protest in Singapore by the National Trades Union Congress; they drove buses around the U.S. embassy, held a rally attended by four thousand workers, and issued a statement deriding the U.S. as "sneaky, arrogant, and untrustworthy".[12]

A Heritage Foundation paper speculated that Singapore's angry public reaction to the Hendrickson affair may have been a response to the January 1988 termination of Singapore's eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences, which provided tariff exemptions on Singaporean exports to the United States.[10]

***

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Si...03efb363e0a8a4

SINGAPORE (AP) _ Singapore's second deputy prime minister said American political leaders often do not know what their ''sneaky, arrogant, confused and untrustworthy'' bureaucracy is doing.

''We are not anti-American,'' Ong Teng Cheong also told 2,000 trade union members at a rally protesting alleged U.S. interference in local affairs.

''But we do not welcome any anti-Singapore foreign elements to meddle in our domestic politics. Singapore politics is for Singaporeans only. Similarly, American politics is for Americans only,'' said Ong, third in the political line to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

E. Mason ''Hank'' Hendrickson, first secretary of the U.S. Embassy's political section, left Singapore on Tuesday at the government's request. He was accused of seeking out disaffected Singaporeans and encouraging them by criticizing the government in their presence.

The government also asked that Hendrickson be reprimanded along with two senior State Department officials, identified only as Mr. X and Mr. Y, who it said sanctioned his activities.

The Reagan administration retaliated by asking Singapore on Tuesday to withdraw Robert Chua Hian Kong, first secretary of the Singaporean Embassy's political section in Washington.

In a statement Wednesday, Singapore said it agreed to Chua's withdrawal with ''deep regret. The Singapore government wants to get this issue over with ... for it shares with the U.S. government the desire to put this unfortunate matter behind us.''

Ong, also secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress, called the gathering at congress headquarters a union rally, not a political demonstration. However, busloads of union members chanted anti-American slogans as they were driven past the U.S. Embassy after the rally. They carried signs saying ''USA Stop Meddling'' and ''Singapore Politics For Singapore.''

''The Hendrickson affair confirms our assessment of U.S. bureaucracy - sneaky, arrogant, confused and untrustworthy,'' Ong said.

''The political leaders in the U.S. often do not know what the bureaucracy is doing. Sometimes one arm of the bureaucracy does not know what the other arm is doing. They think they are always right. They do not admit mistakes. They seldom apologize. They prefer denials and sometimes resort to lies.''

U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Gong said he had not read Ong's speech and declined comment. Gong denied the Singaporean government's allegations against Hendrickson, saying:

''Mr. Hendrickson was doing what American diplomats are expected to do in any country, namely to keep in touch with a broad spectrum of individuals in order to report accurately developments in the country in question.''

A Home Affairs Ministry statement on May 7 said Hendrickson urged Patrick Seong ''and other lawyers to contest the elections against the government, and had involved himself in Singapore's domestic politics.''

The governing People's Action Party is heavily favored to retain control of this island republic of 2.6 million people in elections that must be held by December 1989. The party holds all but one of 79 seats in Parliament and there is no viable opposition capable of dislodging it.

Hendrickson ''was trying to manipulate and instigate Singaporeans, in order to bring about a particular political outcome,'' the government alleged.

His ouster was a surprising jolt to normally warm U.S.-Singapore relations. The diplomatic row is the latest in a complex chain of events that began with the May-June 1987 arrests of 22 Singaporeans accused of belonging to a ''clandestine communist network.'' They were seized under the Internal Security Act which allows indefinate detention without trial.

All but one were freed by last Dec. 26, most of them with restrictions on their movements.

Seong was arrested April 19 with eight of the 22 former detainees. That was less than 24 hours after the eight proclaimed their innocence and said they had been abused and coerced into making incriminating statements.

On April 28, the Home Affairs Ministry said the eight had sworn new declarations withdrawing their allegations and reconfirming their original guilt. They are still behind bars and officials said a probe continues.

Besides Seong, 34, Hendrickson was linked by the government to lawyer Francis Seow, 59. Seow was arrested on Friday, just hours after he appeared in court seeking the release of two of the eight who were rearrested.

Seow, one of Singapore's more prominent attorneys, is a former solicitor- general and ex-president of the Law Society. He is being held without charge under the Internal Security Act ''for purposes of investigation into foreign interferences in Singapore's internal affairs.''

***

So much for Ong Teng Cheong claimed to be the "people's President"


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