As for an aura of fear at Pulau Senang, Marshall might have found sullen detainees because the week before, several warders had been assaulted and the detainees involved had been punished. The Minister said he had visited the island several times and found no aura of fear. As for the dependants of the detainees, they could always apply for aid to the Social Welfare Department.
Marshall explained that he was not criticising the concept of Pulau Senang: he thought the experiment a good one. What he criticised was the use of the detainees as slave labour. He had been impressed by the very considerable assets in buildings, vegetable gardens, irrigation works and the provision for water, which were constructed by the detainees. His submission was that if a man is made to work, he should be paid full wages, deducting there from the cost of his enforced lodging and the cost of his board. They did not even have a canteen. They could not order a cup of coffee. “Gangster or no gangster, Sir, if you are trying to attract them to a human way of life, I would suggest a proper approach, and from the point of view of socialists and persons who believe in the trade union movement, I resent the suggestion of using persons detained by executive act, as slave labour.”
The Home Minister told the House that canteen facilities were available: they could purchase cigarettes and tobacco, toilet articles, confectionery and groceries. Arrangements for meals and drinks were being made. He denied Marshall’s charge that the detainees had no alternative but to volunteer for work: he insisted that the work was of a voluntary nature, regarded and accepted as part of their training and rehabilitation process. “In their case work has a therapeutic meaning, and wages are a secondary matter.” He agreed that detainees had been told that if they want to secure their early release they must go to Pulau Senang. That was accepted. Only through work at Pulau Senang, his general behaviour there, could it be known if the gangster had reformed.
Dr Goh Keng Swee, then Minister for Finance, poured ridicule on Marshall’s suggestion that detainees should be paid the rate for the job. He accused Marshall of trying to make political capital out of Pulau Senang. His suggestion that the government was employing slave labour in Pulau Senang, the Minister described as ‘completely sanctimonious humbug’. Pulau Senang was a scheme to rehabilitate secret society gangsters. “It is not a matter of the wicked government catching innocent people and putting them to do some slave work for the benefit of the party or the government.”
Were the government ‘so absurd, so ridiculous’ as to accept Marshall’s proposal that the detainees should be paid the rate for the job, this surely would be an invitation to the public to join secret societies and thereby get a remunerative career in Pulau Senang, with food and everything thrown in. The Minister insisted that the main thing was to impress upon the detainees that work is creative and is of value to society, and to inculcate in these unfortunate young men pride in work, and a sense of social responsibility.
Marshall was stung to reply. “Who can speak of pride in work, being paid $0.30 a day whilst your family starves on social welfare pittance,” he thundered, “… whilst their families starve, they sweat at hard labour in the sun with pick and shovel and get paid by this beneficent government $0.30 a day. Mr Speaker, what kind of self-respect do you think you can build in a human being like that? What kind of attitude do you think you can build in a human being like that towards a society which treats him in that fashion?” Not one of these men, he reminded the House, had been convicted by an impartial judge.
The Prime Minister intervened to recall that he had spent a ‘rather exciting evening’ at the Aftercare Association, when the Superintendent of Pulau Senang had provided a concert consisting of ex-detainee performers. He urged Marshall to lend his patronage to this very deserving Aftercare Association. The Home Minister made two further points: all detainees were paid $0.30 a day, which was higher than the rate paid to convicted prisoners. In about three years, nearly 400 detainees had been successfully rehabilitated at Pulau Senang. Up to the end of 1962, the total cost of the upkeep of Pulau Senang was $1,110,495. Some $30,677 had been paid to the detainees for work done.
Destruction
On the morning of 12 July 1963, the tragic day of the Pulau Senang uprising, Major Peter L. James, a retired regular British army officer, then Director of Singapore Prisons, got to his office in (Upper Pickering Street about 12:30 PM. He had spent the morning on inspection in Changi Jail. He was told that Dutton wanted him urgently on the radio. Pulau Senang was linked to the main island by radio telephone. James rang Dutton at 12:40 PM. Dutton told him that ‘there is a rumour here that there is going to be trouble, that they are out to get me.’
James asked Dutton what action he had taken. Dutton said he had arrested the ring-leaders and was trying to contact the Marine Police. James told Dutton he would get in touch with the police in Singapore right away. Dutton protested that this was not necessary. As Dutton continued to argue, James broke the connection. Then he telephoned the police. James got through to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Cheah Teng Check, and Cheah said he would send a troop from the reserve unit there without delay. James then telephoned Dutton to tell him to expect the police at about 2:00 PM. Button’s reaction was to grumble ‘there is no need for that’. At the trial of the ringleaders, James gave evidence that he told Dutton to carry out Standing Instructions. This meant that if there was trouble, Dutton and his staff should get off the island. Dutton replied: “Good God! There’s no need for that. There are always plenty of them who will stand by me.” James told Dutton that he would ring again at 2:00 PM.
On the island, the situation worsened rapidly. Dutton realised, too late, that he needed help, urgently. His frantic and belated call for help was received by the Marine Police at 1:12 PM. They recognised Dutton’s voice. Dutton kept saying: “Situation very bad. Please inform Coastguard.” The message was repeated three times. A police boat was instructed to proceed to Pulau Senang from Tanjong China. All marine officers at sea were informed. Lance-Corporal Abdul Aziz bin Saji was patrolling off Pulau Sebarok. He received a message at 1:14 PM. that there was rioting at Pulau Senang. He was ordered to proceed there immediately. He went in as close to the island as was possible with the low tide. Through binoculars he saw a lot of people on the beach. Five minutes later, he saw a prison boat heading towards Indonesian waters. The police boat set off in pursuit. He indicated for it to stop, but the boat continued on its course. The corporal fired two warning shots. He then fired at the engine, but missed. At 2:00 PM a Customs boat joined in the chase, overtook the police boat and rammed the escaping boat which sank. The seven occupants were picked up by the police boat. Just before the collision, Marlow, a mechanic, who had been kidnapped, jumped into the sea. He, too, was rescued. His real name was Chan Seng Onn. At Pulau Senang, where he was known as Marlow, he was in charge of outboard motors and their servicing. A group of gangsters had surrounded him and ordered him into the boat.
James knew nothing of this dramatic development. Just before 2:00 PM, he again rang Pulau Senang, but could make no contact. Almost at once the Master Attendant telephoned with the news that there was trouble on the island; fire was burning.
At once Major James made arrangements to get over to Pulau Senang. He arrived at about a 3:45 PM. The island was aflame as he approached. The police were already there and had rounded up the rioters. James was told that Button and two others were dead, and 75 per cent of the buildings were destroyed. Total damage was estimated, in financial terms, at about half a million dollars.