The arrest

On the 29 July 1976, the Singapore Polytechnic Students' Union (SPSU) Union House, was raided by more than 15 plainclothes Internal Security Department agents.

The Union House was cordoned off and drawers forced open by the agents who seized files and photographs on the pretext of looking for drugs. Two student leaders were arrested. Later, 4 students were arrested from their homes.

The whole operation was carried out without the agents producing search warrants or warrants for arrest or allowing the students to contact their lawyers.

On the day of the arrests, the government statements say that in addition to the students, construction and factory workers, seamstresses and national servicemen were also arrested. All of them were taken in for their "involvement in satellite organisation of the 'Malayan Communist Party', " a political party banned in Singapore. As usual, no names were released but a sinister impression had been given that a red plot to undermine the government was rife. It was only after an intensive search by worried parents that the two "National Servicemen" were found to be recent graduates of the Polytechnic, Tan Puay Cheow and Ang Boon Hwee.

Lim Tiow Hui