The Chew Swee Kee Affair Revisited: Querying the American Involvement in Singapore

Abstract

In the run-up to the 1959 general election in Singapore, People's Action Party politicians alleged at election rallies that the incum-bent Singapore People's Alliance government had received monetary gifts from ‘Americans’. Allegations that the government was in the pay of a Western power and the subsequent revelation that Education Minister Chew Swee Kee had misappropriated the funds, critically eroded the integrity of the Singapore People's Alliance. The incessant emphasis on betrayal and corruption did much to advance the political fortunes of the main opposition party, the People's Action Party, which eventually carried the election. While the political consequences of the Chew Swee Kee affair have received much attention from historians, the veracity of the charge that the USA had funded the Singapore People's Alliance remains unexplored. Utilizing American archival documents, this article examines the extent to which the United States government was involved in the Chew Swee Kee affair.