Saturday, 18 June 2011

Why did the riot happened? part 2

David Marshall, who was the Chief Minister during the 1950's tried to settle the dispute between the bus company and the union by setting up a Commission of Inquiry.Marshall settled in getting Lim, Fong and Mr Lee Kuan Yew as their legal representative to sit on a mediation commission with himself and the Hock Lee management. At the same time,Marshall publicly expressed his belief in the worker's right to strike but he also emphasised that it had to be done with responsibly and within the law.While these negotiations were taking place,Lim ,Fong and Lee simultaneously mounted pressure on Mr David Marshall and the Hock Lee management.by taking to the podium- a perfectly legitimate tactic that had served Mr Lee well during the 1952 postal strike.However,this time Mr Lee was not in complete control of the strikers' public relations campaign. The Starits Times reported that on May Day Lee addressed a crowd of 10000 people crammed into the Oriental Theatre (on New Bridge Road) and mocked Marshall's government for it's so called "half past six democracy", challenging the government push for full democracy and full self-government in Singapore.At the same rally, Fong gave a speech that was allegedly far more impacted than Mr Lee's speech. Fong told the crowd:"The workers must know that there is bound to be some bloodshed in the course of revolution and they must rise and unite"

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